‘The Walking Dead’ Alum Steven Yeun Admits to Drug Use During Time on Series

Steven Yeun has relegated his wild days to the past. In his recent conversation with WSJ. Magazine, the 39-year-old actor of The Walking Dead fame opened up about how he stumbled upon drugs after becoming a celebrated star in Hollywood.

“I was late to the game,” Yeun reminisced, referring to his rise in popularity from playing Glenn Rhee on The Walking Dead from 2010-2016. He went on further stating that due to this he had an urge “to make up for lost time” and thus invested himself heavily into it.

He revealed to the magazine that drugs “tempered” his mind and kept him from overanalyzing things which he stated was both “really beneficial as well as necessary.”

“It’s the way I’ve been since I was 4, when I got dropped here and my brain went into a hyperdrive of self-defense,” explained Yeun. “I can obsess over something. I can be taken down by thoughts.”

How The Walking Dead‘s Steven Yeun Went from Zombie Slayer to Oscar Contender in Minari

After the arrival of his son Jude Malcolm and daughter in 2019, he revealed that his primary focus has moved away from accomplishments or successes.

“My entire life is Peppa Pig and Pokémon,” he quipped.

That said, Yeun is still slightly curious about psychedelics, telling WSJ.: “It’s becoming standard to do DMT [dimethyltryptamine, a hallucinogenic that naturally occurs in many plants] or lick a toad. I haven’t done that, but I’d like to, at some point.”

After Christina Hall of HGTV and boxing star Mike Tyson confessed to experimenting with Bufo toad venom, Yeun is now considering joining the club. Nonetheless, he made it clear that his decisions are not swayed by others’ opinions and he has moved past “explaining” himself.

“When I was growing up, I was more messed up by the thoughts of others,” he explained. “‘What does that person think I am?’ Then the tension becomes, ‘I need to show people I’m not that,’ but then you’re working against an ideal you created yourself — it’s not a fun place to exist.”

“I was pretty clear about who I was, to myself, from a really early age, and so life had been me mostly trying to explain myself” he added. “I was trying to make it so that I could stop explaining myself [in interviews].”

Upcoming on Netflix is Yeun’s highly anticipated series, Beef. Co-starring alongside Ali Wong, this darkly comedic show follows two characters whose lives are changed forever due to an explosive road rage incident. Be prepared for a wild ride that will leave you laughing and gasping in equal measure!

Yeun enthusiastically expressed his desire for viewers to be able to see and appreciate the details in this upcoming project, both from how they view him as a South Korean-American actor, but also how it impacts their own perception of themselves and those around them.

“Culture is great, it’s beautiful, but that’s not the depth of who we are,” he said. In Beef, he hopes people watching will be “able to see it and say, ‘Oh, that’s me. I’m not part of that culture, but that’s me.'”

Since what happens on the road doesn’t stay there, Yeun is drawn to projects that can astonish him and keep his curiosity alive.

“I love that feeling of, ‘Oh, I had no idea it was this until I got there,'” he shared. “I’d hate to do a project where I have a road map for where it’s supposed to go. That doesn’t sound like fun.”

Get ready to experience Beef – premiering April 6 exclusively on Netflix!