![\"Author,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026.047_Eddie-Huangs-Table-Reading-of-Tuna-Melt-at-Baohaus_F0373.jpg\")
Eddie Huang by Daniel Paik.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tEddie Huang by Daniel Paik.<\/p>\n
Six years ago, Eddie Huang was on top of a mountain in Taiwan feeling lost. He\u2019d made the leap from downtown New York blogger to bona fide chef and media personality, opening dumpling dive BaoHaus in 2009 and hosting a Bourdain-style food and travel show on Vice\u2019s TV channel. He\u2019d directed a movie and published a best-selling memoir, Fresh Off the Boat. But like so many who manage to reach the top, the view turned out to be less than stellar without anyone to share it with.<\/p>\n
So Huang did what he\u2019s always done: write. It was on that Taiwanese mountain top that he started to draft his latest screenplay, Tuna Melt. In some ways, the story is classic Huang, a \u201ctoxic rom-com\u201d about a scummy Los Angeles hitman nursing a wound from childhood. The world of Tuna Melt is specific; the characters, distinctly 2026. Huang knew he would need just the right voices to bring it to life. So last Thursday, a crowd huddled inside BaoHaus for an intimate table reading of Tuna Melt with Evan Mock, Chloe Cherry, Joey Bada$$, Chet Hanks, Colm Dillane, Kiersey Clemons, and more.<\/p>\n
Huang\u2019s firebrand persona isn\u2019t a schtick. He may have traded Blogspot for Substack and a podcast, but he\u2019s still got opinions and he\u2019s not afraid who knows them. Yet he\u2019s also interested in vulnerability and what it takes for men to access it. This was the engine that drove Huang\u2019s last book, Come Undone, released last month. (The plot? A traveling food show host has to get over his personal hangups in order to accept love into his life.) And while a few writers are tackle masculinity outside of manosphere whining\u2014Richard Gadd comes to mind\u2014there\u2019s still a dire shortage of men like Huang who are willing to write about sex and relationships honestly and openly. Amidst all of\u00a0Tuna Melt\u2018s scammers, stoner-food restaurants, and streetwear moguls trying to make scumbum chic (or at least profitable), Huang\u2019s screenplay offers a satirical but full-hearted send up of men terrified of intimacy\u2014and a guide to getting over your own bullshit.<\/p>\n
After the last page was read and the last bao bun chomped, CULTURED caught up with Huang as his team pushed the chairs back into place and reset the tables. After all, he still had a restaurant to run.<\/p>\n
![\"Author,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026.047_Eddie-Huangs-Table-Reading-of-Tuna-Melt-at-Baohaus_F0773.jpg\")
Cast of Tuna Melt by Daniel Paik.<\/p>\n
How\u2019s the scene over there?<\/p>\n
Pretty crazy. We went from a table read to a restaurant within 20 minutes, but it was a lot of fun. People are not super buttoned up. We expect chaos and everybody buys in.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how New York City restaurant life is, huh? You have to burn and turn.<\/p>\n
Yeah. I definitely work with actors who are still whole humans. Everyone in our cast is incredible and understood what was going on. I\u2019m in a restaurant. Of course you\u2019re gonna set up. <\/p>\n
Is this going to be the final cast for the film?\u00a0<\/p>\n
My preference would be that this is the cast. Everyone did an incredible job. Those are the leads that I want. Chloe Cherry was the first person we ever went out to for Veronica. We\u2019ve always had her in mind, and she crushed it. It has to be Chloe and Kiersey [Clemons] as Mary. I\u2019ve been trying to get in touch with Kiersey for years.<\/p>\n
How would you pitch this movie\u2014to an audience member, not a studio suit?<\/p>\n
I write toxic rom-coms. Whether it\u2019s Tuna Melt, or it\u2019s my novel, Come Undone, they\u2019re toxic rom-coms from the perspective of a man who\u2019s embarrassed and ashamed. In Come Undone, it\u2019s Hubie who\u2019s embarrassed of the family he comes from. In Tuna Melt, it\u2019s Malcolm who\u2019s embarrassed about this sexual assault he was a victim of. Eventually he has to overcome this embarrassment and identity, and separate himself from it, and realize that he is a whole person outside of this. I tend to write very strong female characters\u2014in my opinion\u2014and the female characters that are the love interests usually have no patience for this shit.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s usually my work: The male character who\u2019s been harboring this embarrassment forever meets a woman who\u2019s like, Look, I\u2019m glad you\u2019re interested. Get it the fuck together.<\/p>\n
How did this one start?\u00a0<\/p>\n
I had quit [the travel TV show] Huang\u2019s World when the pandemic happened, and I ended up on a mountain in Taiwan. I had just finished writing and directing Boogie, and I thought that it would be fulfilling, but I felt really empty and alone. Even though I\u2019d made all these things and been financially successful, I didn\u2019t have a partner. I started to write from this place where you can have all these things\u2014you can have money, power, respect\u2014but nothing at all.<\/p>\n
How did that translate into the movie?<\/p>\n
I started to write Tuna Melt. I incessantly watched Pulp Fiction, and I really liked how it was not chronological; everything was out of place. Pulp Fiction is also a very existential film about what life means\u2014what is this thing in the briefcase? I was a bit more literal than Tarantino was, though. I wrote from this place of loneliness and desperation, wanting to know what life was about on this mountain.<\/p>\n
![\"Chef,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026.047_Eddie-Huangs-Table-Reading-of-Tuna-Melt-at-Baohaus_F0991.jpg\")
Kiersey Clemons and Eddie Huang. Photo by Daniel Paik.<\/p>\n
Was this the first time you heard it read out loud?<\/p>\n
Yes, and it was jarring for me. I was like, Oh my God, I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m saying this, but it was really cool that the crowd was into it. The response was fantastic and, man, it felt very full circle, very fulfilling.<\/p>\n
Did people respond at the parts that you wanted them to?<\/p>\n
Oh, yeah. There were a lot of laughs. A lot of people were very engaged.<\/p>\n
I write a lot of humor as a defense mechanism. So I always feel like I need a joke. But it was really nice to finally be in public, hearing the work, and realizing that people really like the hushed, intimate moments.<\/p>\n
Were there any other films that were touch points for you when you were writing it?<\/p>\n
John Cusack and Woody Allen films that are very \u201cmale rom-coms.\u201d There aren\u2019t many people writing male rom-coms, especially with an internal monologue. I would say High Fidelity, Annie Hall, Manhattan. Those are the films I go back to a lot. When Harry Met Sally. Big fan of that one.<\/p>\n
In When Harry Met Sally, [screenwriter] Nora Ephron grilled Billy Crystal and Rob Reiner extensively for the character of Harry. That\u2019s how it gets so specific and funny with the men\u2019s perspectives.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a collective conversation about our struggles with intimacy. That\u2019s what I love about those films.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s so many female writers out there that make sex and relationships and dating their beat, but you rarely find men who are willing to be vulnerable and honest and put their name to it. It feels like this big vacuum right now.<\/p>\n
A lot of men want to try to write about intimacy without looking at their privilege, their wrongdoing, and without crucifying themselves. I think it\u2019s impossible because, my man, we are in a patriarchal society. If you wanna talk about intimacy, you kinda just need to hang yourself first.<\/p>\n
Do you see Tuna Melt and Come Undone as a pair?<\/p>\n
What\u2019s really interesting is Tuna Melt comes from an era before I wrote Come Undone. It\u2019s definitely slightly more immature. The male character, Malcolm, is still really fighting his demons, really fighting the acknowledgement of his toxicity. I think Hubie in Come Undone is a lot more ready to shed his skin, so to speak. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve met someone, man or woman, where it\u2019s just, If you were just ready to shed your skin, you would be cool. Malcolm is not really ready to shed his skin, but the women in his life force it.<\/p>\n
One of the things that you said is that the writer\u2019s job is to challenge people. Is there anything in this script that you think might piss people off?<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a lot of stuff that I think will piss people off because they\u2019re not ready to look at themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a parody of Ronnie Fieg and [his lifestyle brand] Kith\u2014I think Ronnie Fieg and Kith will be upset. But, you are scaling a subculture. I think Kith and Ronnie, when you are participating in a subculture, you should be a bit more careful about how you scale it. So there\u2019s commentary about that.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a lot of commentary about how people look at past heinous acts. There\u2019s a magazine girl in the film that is down to do a profile of a hit man because she thinks he\u2019s cute, and he\u2019s hot, and she\u2019s horny. Like, dude, you can\u2019t profile a hit man. You can\u2019t put a hit man in the hot singles list.<\/p>\n
There is a lot of commentary about Internet influencer culture. A lot of people are playing Mad Libs. They\u2019re just like, Yo, I know this\u2019ll go viral. I know if I put this and this together, the Reel is gonna go crazy, and I\u2019m gonna make money. And very few people are taking a moment to ask, Should I? This film constantly asks not, Could you do it? or Would you make money doing it? but Should you do it?<\/p>\n
![\"Actors](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/gallagherwalks_RPC_tunamelt_10_5E_7588-scaled.jpg\")
Chloe Cherry and Chet Hanks. Photo by James Gallagher.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a question maybe people are not asking themselves enough these days. Because you mentioned subculture, how do you think about putting that on screen and not losing the authenticity?<\/p>\n
We tried to get this film made for many years. People, financiers, studios, agents, managers were recommending like, Hey, get this actor. They\u2019re financeable. This actor\u2019s big. They\u2019re just coming off this thing. And they kept recommending actors that had no kinship with the world and the culture that I write about in the film.<\/p>\n
My stuff is very downtown New York. It\u2019s very LA creative culture. I insisted on actors who are part of our world and move with us because otherwise, it\u2019s kinda weird. I was like, Why don\u2019t we get someone who\u2019s from the world and then teach them how to act? That\u2019s my approach to subculture: Don\u2019t represent it if you\u2019re not actually part of it.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s like trying to imagine someone making Kids with trained actors, or Penelope Spheeris trying to make movies about punk but not casting people off the street.<\/p>\n
Kids is a fantastic example. It couldn\u2019t have been anyone else besides Harold Hunter and Leo Fitzpatrick and Chlo\u00eb Sevigny. The thing that\u2019s beautiful about those films and those actors is like they never switched up. I bought a painting from Leo [who became an art dealer] that\u2019s still in my restaurant. He and his wife come to the restaurant. We see Chlo\u00eb walking down the street. These people have never left downtown New York.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next here?\u00a0<\/p>\n
I feel like I have my cast. There was a lot of energy around the read. It went fantastic. People feel amazing. I\u2019m going out to dinner with my team tonight. So I think we\u2019ll go to the market in the next couple weeks.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
More of our favorite stories from CULTURED<\/p>\n
How Ina Garten, Everyone\u2019s Favorite TV Chef, Learned to Trust Her Appetite<\/a> How \u2018The Odyssey\u2019 Opening Weekend Birthed Its Own Ticket Resale Black Market<\/a> What Do Basketball Stars Talk About in the Locker Room? Fine Art, According to Kevin Love<\/a> We Asked 18 Food Insiders Where (and What) to Eat in New York This Summer<\/a>
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