Beef actor David Choe spent time with indigenous tribe and it saved him from depression

Beef star David Choe is a lot more open-minded and enlightened than his character Isaac.

Part of that is down to the time he spent living with a hunter-gatherer tribe in Tanzania, which he believes changed his life and might have even cured his depression.

In Beef, David's character Isaac immediately turns to violence when he finds himself in a tight spot, but in real life, the actor has a very different approach: he runs away to Africa.

This coping method means David has seen quite a lot of the continent by now - but one trip that changed his life forever was his visit to Tanzania.

There, he met the Hadza people, an indigenous hunter-gatherer group who taught him how to live more mindfully.

Setting the scene during a recent interview with Joe Rogan, David explained: "My life is falling apart, I'm mentally ill, I'm bipolar, I'm manic depressive, I'm addicted to f**king everything, my disease is a disease of more... I just need to run away."

Facebook/David Choe

When he first met the Hadza people, David didn't exactly live like them and slept in a tent eating branded food while they slept in caves and foraged and hunted their food.

At the end of the first week, when he realised he wasn't truly 'living' with the Hadza people, he decided to go all in.

So he moved into the cave, renounced pretty much all of his belongings, and lived alongside them.

At first, the transition wasn't so easy.

"That first week is withdrawal. I'm like, 'f**k where's my phone?'" he recalled.

"And then, all of it goes away. I'm not thinking about any of my addictions, I feel peace, I'm not miserable, my depression goes away."

Talking through a day in the life of the Hadza people, David said fondly: "Morning til night, you wake up, you hunt for food, you get home, celebration, everyone's happy that the men brought the food back and the women, you know, gathered the berries.

"We have a big dinner celebration because every meal, you've got to be grateful for.

The Joe Rogan Experience

"Dance party by the fire, a couple of fart jokes and you're out. Repeat the next day.

"There's no time to be bored and sad and upset and worried about some bulls**t."

Sounds like a pretty great existence, if you ask me.

David was so moved by his time there that he decided to use his platform to help raise awareness about and funds for the Hadza people, who are nearly extinct.

Topics: Celebrity, Netflix, World News

Ali Condon

Ali is a journalist for LADbible Group, writing on all things film, music, and entertainment across Tyla, LADbible and UNILAD. You can contact Ali at [email protected].

@alicondon