Summary

Steven Yeun plays a pilot in Bong Joon Ho’s upcoming sci-fi film Mickey 17, with Robert Pattinson as the lead.

In this interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Yeun discusses how he found playing with the film’s tone fun and enjoyed the immersive experience of working on practical sets.

He also discusses reuniting with the filmmaker after Okja and how his experience on the director’s sets has changed.

With humble comedy origins and a massive breakout success with his iconic role as Glenn Rhee on The Walking Dead, Steven Yeun finds himself cast in daring roles across a wide variety of genres and projects. From the Korean-produced Burning and his Academy Award-nominated turn in Minari to his scene-stealing, cowboy hat-wearing M.C. in Jordan Peele’s Nope, Yeun continues to find captivating projects to join. Now, he’s reuniting with the Academy Award-winning director of Parasite, Bong Joon Ho, in the upcoming Mickey 17.
The film follows Robert Pattinson’s “expendable” Mickey, a disposable clone worker in a human colony on a far-off ice planet. There, he performs arduous tasks without the expectation of living. Each time he dies, a new body regenerates, and Mickey continues with his next dangerous task. Soon, the natural order is disrupted when more than one Mickey appears and sets off an existential chain of events exposing the brutal government and social structure within the colony. Yeun plays Timo, a pilot, and Mickey’s best friend. The film co-stars Mark Ruffalo as the twisted leader Kenneth Marshall, Toni Collette (Hereditary) as his wife Ylfa, and Naomi Ackie (Blink Twice) as Nasha.
Collider’s Steve Weintraub had the pleasure of sitting down with Yeun to talk about his experience on Mickey 17. In this interview, Yean discusses how immersive the practical sets were, the actor’s joy of playing with tone, and honoring director Bong’s vision for a beautiful, unique frame. Check out the full conversation in the video above, or you can read the transcript below.
Steven Yeun Says Reunting With Bong Joon Ho Was “Collaborative and Easy”

“It was really fun because it was working with a friend.”

COLLIDER: I thought this movie was fantastic. Director Bong is beyond talented. You worked with him previously on Okja, and he has such a unique style. Was it easier to make this knowing what he was looking for when you were going to be on set?
STEVEN YEUN: Yes. The difficulty wasn’t his process this time around. It was more my eagerness to do a good job the first time around. The first time around, I kind of had an understanding of what I thought the experience might be—I wasn’t entirely correct. It was more like I knew how he makes beautiful frames, and I just wanted to complete his vision. It’s really fun when you see this perfectly designed frame in this way, and you know that your character’s moving from here to here, and you want to honor that. You want to make it funny. You want to make it special.
In the first go-round with him, I was just happy to be there, and really wanting to please him and do all the things that I needed to do. This time around, it was really fun because it was working with a friend, and collaborative and easy, and a deeper understanding. This time it was really fun. Like that one scene where Timo’s crawling down from the little crate onto the ladder. You’re trying to play with that just to make it more fun.

Related

‘Okja’ Review: You’ll Fall for a CGI Super Pig in Bong Joon-ho’s Cinematic Marvel

A young Korean girl travels to New York to rescue Okja, a super-pig part of Mirando corporation has nefarious plans to create a new GMO food source.

On the shoot, which shot or sequence ended up being the one that was a huge pain in the ass or one that you’re going to remember forever because it was so much fun?
YEUN: It’s just fun to play with the tone of things. I liked all the times Timo got electrocuted. That was fun. [Laughs] The crevasse was really fascinating. The scale of which he executed what to build was insane, and getting to play in that thing was amazing. I was amazed at a vision being realized, and watching that, and being part of that.
The ‘Mickey 17’ Sets Were Built to Be an “Immersive Experience”

“It felt like you were dropping into the world.”

Image via Warner Bros.

When you’re making a film like this where there is going to be a lot of VFX added, especially all the creatures, etc., what was it like for you to watch the finished film for the first time versus what you expected going in?
YEUN: Honestly, actually, the finished film didn’t really skirt the expectations that I had in that the experience of making it didn’t feel detached from the final product. Sure, there was a lot of VFX, and so maybe the creepers weren’t available to be seen in those ways, but, largely, these sets were produced and designed meticulously. It felt like you were dropping into the world when we were making it, so it was a very immersive experience already.
Mickey 17 arrives in theaters on Friday, March 7, 2025.

Mickey 17

Release Date

February 28, 2025

Runtime

137 minutes

Producers

Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Marianne Jenkins, Dooho Choi, Jesse Ehrman