The “May December” and “Riverdale” star talks to “The Awardist” about his work on season 2 of the Netflix series.

Charles Melton on seeing his character ‘unravel’ on Beef — and why the series felt like ‘coming home’

The "May December" and "Riverdale" star talks to "The Awardist" about his work on season 2 of the Netflix series.

By Gerrad Hall

Gerrad Hall

Gerrad Hall is an editorial director at **, overseeing movie, awards, and music coverage. He is also host of The Awardist podcast, and has cohosted EW’s live Oscars, Emmys, SAG, and Grammys red carpet shows. He has appeared on Good Morning America, The Talk, Access Hollywood, Extra!, and other talk shows, delivering the latest news on pop culture and entertainment.

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June 13, 2026 2:28 p.m. ET

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'Beef' star Charles Melton. Credit:

- Charles Melton stars in season 2 of *Beef* as Austin, who works at a luxury country club.

- Melton tells *The Awardist* about how series creator Lee "Sunny" Sung Jin pitched him the role.

- The *Riverdale* alum explains his character's complicated predicament, which leads to his unraveling.

Charles Melton was basking in the afterglow of the critical acclaim and various award nominations — including a Golden Globe and Spirit Awards — he received for *May December*, when *Beef* creator Lee "Sunny" Sung Jin approached Melton at a dinner being hosted in the actor's honor (Sung Jin requested he sit next to him) to make him a pitch.

"I didn't know he was gonna pitch me all of season 2...on the spot. It was amazing. It's like a pinch-me moment," Melton recalls on *The Awardist* podcast. "He sits next to me — and he makes a joke that I didn't say yes until the second appetizer — but I just knew after watching the first season and just what Lee Sung Jin represents for me personally and as an artist, [how] his art is not limited to identity but it touches on identity and all these intrinsic human complexities."

More surprising was what Sung Jin showed the *Riverdale* alum on his phone.

"He showed me a picture of myself... He was like, 'This is in our writers' room.' I was like, 'Oh, is the character inspired...Why? He was like, 'We're writing it for you,'" Melton recalls. "That was the genesis of over hundreds of hours of conversations with him, of these existential conversations and experiences and talking about the shadow self and past relationships and really sharing our souls and exposing our hearts in a very beautiful, creative, soupy way."

Charles Melton says 'Riverdale' was his acting school

Charles Melton got a matching tattoo with all of his 'May December' kids

A year later, production finally got underway with Melton playing Austin, who's trying to become a personal trainer, Cailee Spaeny as his fiancée Ashley, and Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan as married couple Joshua and Lindsay Martín. Austin and Ashley both work at the local country club, where Joshua is the general manager. They become embroiled in a power struggle and battle of the generations when the Gen Z couple witnesses the Millennials in a heated argument, as Lindsay destroys some of Joshua's prized possessions and, it appears, he is trying to hit her with a golf club (in actuality, he's trying to wrestle it away from her so she stops breaking things). Austin and Ashley also got it all on camera, fearing for Lindsay's life. To ensure they delete the video, Joshua gives Ashley a promotion at the country club, from beverage cart attendant to managerial assistant. In her new job, she now has face time with the club's billionaire owner, Chairwoman Park (Youn Yuh-jung), who she lies to about Austin's qualifications as a physical therapist to help get him a better job.

Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton on 'Beef'.

Courtesy of Netflix

"We meet Austin and Ashley as they're experiencing for the first time the disintegration of the honeymoon phase. And while that is happening, Austin is also experiencing his Korean identity and his Koreanness by being around Koreans," Melton explains. "And then he's coming to the realization throughout the season that the conviction and his identity is maybe a mask, and while also it's so vast, while also always trying to do the right thing, putting everyone before him, which I think is such a universal concept and thing that exists in all of us....you kind of see Austin unravel."

If the character arc wasn't enough to keep Melton on his toes, the actor and his costars had a little extra challenge, given they "did not get the scripts on time," he recalls, laughing — but Melton says their trust in Sung Jin guided them the entire shoot.

It also helps that Melton had seven seasons of *Riverdale* under his belt; he says he "used everything" he learned on that show for *Beef*, his first series since the CW show ended in 2023.

"Someone brought this up, I was quoted — it sounds so funny to say that out loud: 'I was quoted' — '*Riverdale* was my Juilliard.' And they asked me 'What was *Beef*?'" he recalls. "*Beef *was me coming home. I went back to Korea — I lived in Korea for six years [when I was young], so I couldn't come back home until I went to Juilliard."

Charles Melton and Seoyeon Jang on 'Beef'.

Courtesy of Netflix

***Check out more from EW's *****The Awardist*****, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best in TV, movies, and more.***

Listen to Melton's full interview on *The Awardist*, below.

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