Who's David Choe, actor slammed for 'bragging' about 'rapey behavior'
Ali Wong-Steven Yeun's comedy-drama series Beef premiered on April 6 on Netflix and immediately became fans' favorite miniseries. Following the buzzy release, one of its stars, David Choe, drew controversy for an incident he discussed on a podcast in 2014. Audio clips from the now-defunct podcast—DVDASA—were widely circulated on the internet since Beef debuted. Here's a breakdown of events.
Post the incident, Choe shielded himself under copyright laws
After the clips from the podcast went viral, Choe found a way to put an end to all this by shielding himself under copyright laws, to have Twitter take down the snippets. Some users shared screengrabs of the notice from Twitter informing them that they had "removed the media for infringing on their copyrighted works." Notably, the Twitter complaint e-mail was signed by Choe.
What was the incident that he labeled as 'rapey behavior'?
In 2014, Choe produced a podcast named DVDASA, with co-host Asa Akira. In one of the episodes, Choe shared an instance where he forced a masseuse into performing oral sex on the actor. The actor was heard saying, "She's not into it but she's not stopping it either." To which Akira replied, "Basically telling us that you're a rapist," to which Choe responded, "Yeah."
'I admit that's rapey behavior, but I'm not a rapist…'
Netizens took to Twitter to specifically point out the clip where Choe admits that it was "rapey behavior" but claims he wasn't a rapist. Notably, back in 2014, the actor addressed the backlash and stated that the story wasn't real. He said, "I never thought I would wake up one late afternoon and hear myself called a rapist. Especially because I am not one."
When Choe clarified what the podcast was all about
From self-publishing a graphic novel titled Slow Jams, to working as a journalist, Choe is a multi-hyphenate personality. When his retelling of the sexual assault story was slammed in 2014, he issued a clarification saying, "We create stories. It's not a news show. It's not a representation of my reality. It's not the place to come for reliable information about me or my life."
