The Walking Deadfan favorite Steven Yeun is reportedly campaigning for a Best Actor nomination at the Oscars for his role inMinari. Additionally, co-star Yeri Han will campaign for Best Actress with co-stars Alan S. Kim, Will Patton, and Yuh-Jung Youn hoping to be considered for supporting categories. Word of the talent gearing up for Oscar nominations comes from A24, the studio behind the acclaimed movie.
Steven Yeuncould become the first Asian-American ever to be recognized for Best Actor if he manges to get a nomination forMinari. Russian-American actor Yul Brynner, who was part Mongolian, won a Best Actor Oscar for his lead role in the 1956 movieThe King and I. Years later, half-Indian English actor Ben Kingsley managed to get the win for starring in 1982’sGandhi, which also won Best Picture; Kingsley received an additional Best Actor nomination for 2003’sHouse of Sand and Fog.
If anyMinariactors are nominated at theOscars, it would also mark the first time anyone of Korean descent has been recognized in the acting categories. South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho won big last year forParasite, taking home major Oscar wins including Best Director and Best Picture, but none of the actors were nominated. Yeun had previously worked with Joon-ho on the 2017 action movieOkja, which is also critically-acclaimed and competed for thePalme d’Orat the Canne Film Festival.
Yeun is perhaps best known for starring asGlenn Rheefor over six seasons onThe Walking Dead, and can still be considered one of the most popular characters the zombie drama ever featured. When he was killed off at the start of Season 7, millions of viewers stopped watching immediately, bringing about a large drop in viewers by the next week. Since then, ratings have only continued to drop, culminating inThe Walking Deadgetting its lowest-ever ratings near the end of Season 10. It would appear that AMC underestimated just how valuable to the series Yeun really was.
For his part, Yeun hasn’t looked back since leavingThe Walking Dead, not even coming back for a special appearance. Although that could change withTales of the Walking Deadrevisiting characters from the past, Yeun has kept himself rather busy with other projects. Along with movies likeMinariandOkja, he also starred in the Joe Lynch horror movieMayhemand can be seen in the upcoming movieThe Humans. He also has recurring voice roles on the animated programsTuca & BertieandFinal Spaceand starred in an episode of Jordan Peele’s reboot ofThe Twilight Zone.
InMinari, Yeun plays Jacob Yi, a Korean man that moves his family to a small farm in Arkansas topursue the American Dream in 1980s America. After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this year, the movie has garnered tremendous critical acclaim, scoring a rare 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.Minariis written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, who grew up on a small Arkansas farm with his South Korean family before becoming a filmmaker.
Best of luck to Yeun and the cast ofMinariwith their potential nominations at the Oscars. This news comes to us fromVariety.
