'Beef' showrunner and stars Steven Yeun and Ali Wong say that David Choe has 'put in the work' after a 'fabricated' rape story he told in 2014 resurfaced

• Steven Yeun, Ali Wong, and "Beef" showrunner Lee Sung Jin issued a statement on the controversy around David Choe.
• A 2014 clip of Choe, in which he recalled what he later said was an untrue rape story, resurfaced.

"Beef" creator Lee Sung Jin and executive producers and stars Steven Yeun and Ali Wong have now spoken out about the controversy surrounding David Choe regarding recently resurfaced comments he made about sexual assault on a 2014 podcast.

In a joint statement to Variety on Friday, Yeun, Wong, and Lee said that they had seen the actor and visual artist grow since the original incident.

"The story David Choe fabricated nine years ago is undeniably hurtful and extremely disturbing," the statement reads. "We do not condone this story in any way, and we understand why this has been so upsetting and triggering."

"We're aware David has apologized in the past for making up this horrific story, and we've seen him put in the work to get the mental health support he needed over the last decade to better himself and learn from his mistakes," the statement continued.

Choe stars as Isaac on the Netflix show, the cousin of Yeun's character Danny Cho, and his art was also used for most of the show's title cards. As Insider previously reported, Choe came under fire in the weeks following the April 6 premiere of "Beef" after comments that he made on his now-discontinued podcast "DVDASA" in 2014 resurfaced.

Gawker reported on the episode in 2014, and published a selected transcript of his comments in the episode. In it, Choe recounts a story about being on an "erection quest" and going to a massage parlor, while he began to masturbate before eventually guiding the massage therapist's hand to his penis. Choe said during the episode, which was also viewed by Insider, that he forced the massage therapist to fellate him, describing his actions as "rapey behavior."

Choe later said in a statement posted to the podcast's now-defunct website that he was "not a rapist" and the story was an instance of "bad storytelling in the style of douche," BuzzFeed News reported in 2014. He then apologized in the statement to anyone who "believed that the stories were fact," saying that they were not.

Choe apologized again for the comments in a 2017 Instagram post, reiterating that he "did not commit those actions" and saying that he had sought mental health treatment in the years since.