Okay so, where was Netflix’s road rage series Beef actually filmed?
🚨 Amy’s house is real 🚨
Busy suburban junctions, sprawling countryside expanses, pottery studios and multi-million dollar mansions— there’s really nowhere Netflix’s new road rage drama, (with a 100 per cent score on Rotten Tomatoes), Beef, doesn’t go. And as the series’ protagonists Amy Lau and Danny Cho chase each other around their city seeking revenge for what started off as a simple car park cussing out scenario, everyone has been Googling the same thing: where is Beef filmed?
The answer is: Southern California. But, when creating Beef, the series creator Lee Sung Jin had a seriously specific vision of how he wanted the show’s SoCal setting to look. The task of translating this vision to screen came down to Beef’s location manager Michael Percival who combined real life spaces with soundstage interiors to create the perfect hazy rage-fuelled city.
“The entire show was shot on location, mostly in the San Fernando Valley and [LA’s] Koreatown,” Michael told Netflix Tudum. “It was a very California thing that we were looking for.” So, in case you’re also hoping to inhabit the sun-drenched serenity of Amy’s house (minus the shooting and urinating, obv), here’s everything you need to know about Beef’s carefully sourced locations:
So, where was Netflix’s Beef actually filmed?
Amy’s house – West Valley
All of the locations in Beef are super important to the show because they serve as an extension of each character’s personality. For Amy’s home, the show’s creator Lee handed his location team photos of the exact type of home he wanted and they set off to scour Los Angeles for the perfect chic and sleek property.
Most Read
Location manager Michael and his team found the perfect house in the city’s West Valley but the owner wasn’t willing to have the series filmed in their home. So, instead the team booked the house two doors down on the same road to film exterior shots and built the interiors on a soundstage. “We looked for a house that had all the elements we [needed], but we couldn’t find that all-in-one location,” Michael told Tudum.
The interiors of Amy’s house were built by production designer Grace Yun, who said: “[Amy has a certain vision for her life. It had to feel curated…I was trying to accomplish a few things: It felt like an open-plan space, but it was enclosed upon itself in a way that could feel like a prison in some way…So this feeling of, ‘Yeah, it’s a nice open-plan, but you’re also feeling a bit trapped.’ You can go in circles in there, if you think about it.”
Jordan’s house – Brandeis-Bardin Campus
As ostentatious as Miles’ mansion in Glass Onion, billionaire Jordan’s home is intended to demonstrate her eccentric and powerful character. Michael and his team opted to create her home inside the 2,700-acre Brandeis-Bardin campus of American Jewish University in Brandeis, which was designed by Brutalist architect Sidney Eisenshtat in 1973.
“Once we walked into it, it was just sort of instant,” said Michael of visiting the location. “[It] offers so many unique looks to it, and the structure, with its round rooms and the very high ceilings and curves, added a lot of [drama] just by the architecture.” And, as the series reaches its conclusion, it’s Jordan’s huge home that’s responsible for the fate of numerous characters.
Danny’s apartment – San Fernando Valley
Beef’s entire plot revolves around the personality similarities and class differences between Amy and Danny. So, when looking for a location for Danny’s apartment, Michael was keen to demonstrate the stark contrast between the protagonist’s lives: “Amy’s world is very slick and clean and aspirational,” he told Tudum, adding, Danny’s is “much grittier.”
The series’ location found Danny’s apartment in an apartment complex in San Fernando Valley, which they jammed full with belongings to show how Danny was “trapped”, like Amy but in a “more cluttered and enclosed way”.
Danny’s parents’ land – Malibu
Danny’s dream to buy his parents a lot of land is central to the entire plot of Beef. And Michael’s team found the perfect piece of land in Malibu. “[The] land had to have the sort of ocean view and aspirational feel that Danny wanted for his parents,” he told Tudum, explaining they found the perfect spot in the Malibu hillside, which had been charred by the 2018 Woolsey fire, allowing for scenes they needed to film later in the series.
Beef is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. Featured image credit via Netflix.