Charles Melton has spent the past year arriving somewhere new. Photographed by Charlie Denis and styled by Gadir Rajab for i-D’s latest digital cover, the actor appears in a series of images that run from oiled-up bodybuilder theatrics to a leather-pant, cummerbund, and beret combination with real menace in it. The physicality suits the moment.
Charles Melton for i-D
Melton, now 35, welcomed his first child in January and wrapped filming on season two of Lee Sung Jin’s Beef, where he plays Austin, a gym-obsessed Korean American caught in the fallout of someone else’s marriage.
Filming in South Korea marked a first for Melton, who grew up in Alaska to a Korean mother and an American father. “I’ve never felt so connected to my Koreaness,” he told i-D’s Nicolaia Rips. That connection extended to the set itself, where his mother made a cameo. “She was asking me about her SAG card,” Melton said. “I was like, Mom, you need to chill!”
The role sits at the center of a turning point that started with May December in 2019 and has only accelerated. Melton describes his preparation in athletic terms, treating each performance as a training cycle. “A professional athlete doesn’t just show up to the event,” he said. “They train, they work.”
Lee Sung Jin pitched Beef to Melton through The Sopranos, explaining that the audience would sit inside Austin’s deceptions the way HBO’s viewers once sat inside Tony’s. For Melton, the comparison landed. “If Riverdale was my Juilliard, Beef is me coming home,” he said.
Season two of Beef premieres April 16 on Netflix, and if the digital cover is any indication, the homecoming fits.
