Watch: Stephen Park breaks down his Far­go character

Kore­an-Amer­i­can actor Stephen Park made his film debut in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing in 1989, play­ing a gro­cery store own­er who gets caught in the cross­fire as racial ten­sions spill over on the siz­zling streets of Brook­lyn. Park has since worked with such acclaimed direc­tors as Bong Joon-ho and Wes Ander­son, most recent­ly appear­ing in The French Dis­patch for the lat­ter – but you prob­a­bly know him best for his small but deci­sive role in the Coen broth­ers’ home­spun crime-dra­ma from 1996, Fargo.

The Coens have mas­tered the art of craft­ing mem­o­rable scenes around minor char­ac­ters, who may only appear on screen for a few min­utes but still play a cru­cial role in estab­lish­ing a key theme or help­ing to unpick the film’s mys­ter­ies. Think of the ill-fat­ed gas sta­tion atten­dant in No Coun­try for Old Men, Adam Driver’s wannabe coun­try singer in Inside Llweyn Davis, or the jib­ber­ing lawyer who defends Frances McDor­mand in The Man Who Wasn’t There.

But per­haps the most unfor­get­table of them all is Mike Yanagi­ta, the lovelorn ex-class­mate of Fargo’s hero­ine, Marge Gun­der­son. Park’s brief but bril­liant cameo is one of the most cringe-induc­ing moments in the Coens entire fil­mog­ra­phy, as Mike clum­si­ly con­fess­es his true feel­ings to the ​“super lady” he’s invit­ed for lunch. Twen­ty-five years on, the scene has lost none of its abil­i­ty to make us laugh (and squirm).

To mark the film’s anniver­sary, video essay­ist and reg­u­lar LWLies con­trib­u­tor Leigh Singer sat down with Park to get the inside sto­ry of the scene. They dis­cuss the real mean­ing of Mike and Marge’s reunion, how Park pre­pared him­self emo­tion­al­ly for the scene, and how the char­ac­ter was received in the Asian-Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ty. Watch the full video below and stay tuned for more – next time, Park breaks down his A Seri­ous Man character.