{"id":7940034,"date":"2026-01-28T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/?p=7940034"},"modified":"2026-01-28T07:42:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T15:42:22","slug":"bedford-park-stephanie-ahn-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/creative-content\/movies\/bedford-park-stephanie-ahn-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Stephanie Ahn, Director of Sundance Gem ‘Bedford Park,’ First Wanted a White Actor for Her Korean Love Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Every Sundance<\/a>, at least one filmmaker emerges from seemingly nowhere who presents a stunning, fully-articulated piece of work. There\u2019s a good argument that this year that filmmaker is Stephanie Ahn with her first feature, \u201cBedford Park,\u201d playing in competition to packed houses and rapturous reviews.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A quiet story of a two Korean-Americans who start out as antagonists and gradually, tentatively and with great hesitation became friends, \u201cBedford Park\u201d is a quintessentially indie experience that packs huge emotional power in its subtle, deliberate pace. Audrey, played by the well-known Korean actress Moon Choi and Eli, played by Korean superstar Son Sukku, are two broken people who each wrestle with trying to assert their independence while navigating complicated family relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAhn\u2026 takes the wrestlings of the soul, the unexpressed longings, the turmoil we feel between love and obligation, and crafts them into great art,\u201d wrote TheWrap\u2019s critic Zachary Lee.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Ahn, a diminutive Korean-American who showed up to TheWrap\u2019s studio in jeans and a baseball cap, has not read that review or any other. She\u2019s refused to expose herself to anything other than the screenings. Luckily, she was willing to be interviewed about the eight-year journey to make this very personal film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before setting out to make \u201cBedford Park,\u201d Ahn said, she was working as an editor after having waited tables while trying to get a film made on the side.\u00a0But she finally decided that if she was ever to get a film made, she\u2019d have to set aside her work as an editor and write a deeply personal story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It couldn\u2019t be good, she knew. It had to be great. And it had to be rooted in her real life experience as a Korean-American who came to the United States as a two-year-old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI dug deep into the areas of my own experience that I just didn’t see being represented in films,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are Asian American stories out there that I’ve thought were cliche and didn’t tap into the details of the experience, and just none of them resonated with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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She continued: \u201cI wanted to tell a story about a woman who had to deal with the cognitive dissonance of having to balance two cultures and what that meant for her in terms of her own relationship with herself, her relationship with others and how to deal with trauma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd so my first drafts were very autobiographical, and I knew from being an editor and having worked in development and having written many other scripts, in order for the film to really resonate, you had to be willing to expand it beyond just your own story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the film, the two characters meet over a car accident, but instead of fighting, they begin to develop a slow friendship. While Audrey is over at Eli\u2019s place trying to settle for the damages, she has a miscarriage. Eli drives her to the hospital, and as a gesture of thanks, Audrey offers to drive Eli to his community college classes. The slow pace of the friendship-turned-romance, as each reveals their private trauma in bits and pieces, is much of the pleasure of the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a film about two people looking to be held, jagged edges and all, without cutting the people who are doing the embracing,\u201d wrote Lee in his review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahn had never heard of either actor when she set out to cast the film. After searching Korean-American actors, she turned to Korea where six years ago she found Choi, a well known local actress, and they began rehearsing via Zoom over months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted a killer actress,\u201d said Ahn. \u201cShe absolutely embodied certain characteristics of me\u2026 a fighter spirit, a rawness inside that’s not always apparent on the outside.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But she couldn\u2019t find her Eli, who had been written as a Caucasian character. In fact, Ahn was insistent Eli had to be white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted it to be an American film, and that was a big part of it. Like, we need a lead who is a white actor who could help bring us money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the money wasn\u2019t coming. And it was Choi, who was friends with Sukku, who convinced Ahn to consider auditioning him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn’t want to do it,\u201d said Ahn, who agreed to meet Sukku as a courtesy. \u201cI’ll admit I went in with a closed mind. I was like, \u2018Okay, I’ll do it, just meet him on Zoom.\u2019 I knew he was a big star, but I wasn’t interested.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"stephanie-ahn\"
Stephanie Ahn at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival (Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But from the moment she met Sukku, she changed her mind. \u201cHe just exuded the thing that I knew I needed in Eli\u2026 a man who was a loner and was somewhat lost, and I saw facets of past pains and guardedness, protectiveness, self protection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is two stunning performances from actors who will likely be completely unknown to U.S. audiences and all the more affecting for it. Ironically, casting Sukku led to the first financing that came into the film from Hyundai, after traditional U.S. sources would not commit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahn has poured eight years of her life into “Bedford Park,” which is up for acquisition. But for the moment, she is satisfied, knowing she made the indelible film she set out to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI always wanted to make a film that made people feel something,\u201d she said. \u201cI so miss those movies that make me feel something and move me to tears and make me feel humanity. I don’t think you can set out to do that, because I think that’s dangerous. I think you\u2019ve got to just focus on great characters and a great story and hope that will be the result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo if that’s what came out of this, then – amazing. But that wasn’t the focus. I just wanted to tell a great story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catch up on all of our Sundance coverage here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\t'Bedford Park' Review: A Devastating and Deeply Korean Story About Lost Souls Finding Healing<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sundance 2026: \u201cI dug deep into the areas of my own experience that I just didn’t see being represented in film,” she tells TheWrap<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":7940040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-full-width-with-ads","format":"standard","meta":{"byline":{"profiles":[{"type":"byline_id","atts":{"term_id":504342,"post_id":7302570}}]},"_links_to":"","_links_to_type":0,"nb_breaking_email_type":"2a971a52-e04f-4b95-a3d6-fbe9ccd072b0","nb_breaking_template":"pro-single-story.html","nb_breaking_from_name":"WrapPRO","nb_breaking_subject":"","nb_breaking_preview":"","nb_breaking_list":[],"nb_breaking_header_img":7555419,"nb_breaking_should_send":false,"nb_breaking_content":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Discover why entertainment executives and professionals rely on the WrapPRO platform daily for exclusive coverage, analysis, deeper reporting, and access to VIP events & screenings throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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