Lee Byung-hun and Park Sung-hoon are the two most outstanding actors in Season 2 of Netflix‘s ‘Squid Game’, a ‘representative K-content’ that has been creating incredible box office records since its release.

Lee Byung-hun, who briefly but strongly showed his presence in Season 1 as the frontman commanding a killing game with a prize of 45.6 billion won, plays the ‘master’ in this season who directly participates in the game while hiding his identity and controls the game, while Park Sung-hoon plays the transgender Hyun-joo, a former special forces soldier who enters the game to pay for gender reassignment surgery, and shows off his presence. They met at a cafe in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 7th and expressed their gratitude for the enthusiastic support for Season 2 and asked for anticipation for Season 3, which is scheduled to be released in June.

○“The most important thing is not to trivialize transgender characters”

Park Sung-hoon said that although he was cautious about playing a transgender character in a global blockbuster, playing a sexual minority character is not that unfamiliar to him. When he was active on the Daehangno theater stage, he often played homosexual and other sexual minority characters.

“However, the most important thing I thought about while playing the character of Hyun-joo in this production was that Hyun-joo must absolutely not be trivialized. Hyun-joo is a selfless, righteous, and brave character before she is transgender.”

Some people say, ‘She’s not a transgender, but just a man with short hair,’ because Hyun-joo doesn‘t have the typical transgender characteristics, such as her voice or behavior.’

“I thought I shouldn’t force Hyun-joo‘s femininity. Hyun-joo is a character before she underwent perfect gender confirmation surgery, and they say that her voice doesn’t change much during the actual (gender transition) process.”

Before the release of ‘Squid Game’, he was still called by his stage name ‘Jeon Jae-joon’, rather than his real name, due to his intense villain acting in his biggest hit ‘The Glory’. He said, “I don‘t think of the name Jeon Jae-joon as a label.”

“I actually thought that maybe they were making fun of me by calling me Jeon Jae-joon even though the entire country knows my name. Many people said that my appearance suits the name Jeon Jae-joon well. I’ve also heard people say that I should just change my stage name to ‘Jeon Jae-joon.’ However, I would like you to call me Hyun-joo for now.”
○“AV photo upload controversy, a mistake even I can‘t understand”

Park Sung-hoon cautiously apologized, even shedding tears, regarding the recent SNS controversy, saying, “I’m so sorry that I caused you all trouble because of my big mistake.”

The controversy started on the 30th of last month when a parody AV (pornographic video) photo of ‘Squid Game’ containing a naked woman‘s body was uploaded to Park Sung-hoon’s SNS, then deleted. The agency explained, “It was a post that I accidentally clicked on while checking DMs (direct messages) sent by an unspecified number of people,” but the controversy is not dying down.

“It was the first week of the drama’s release, so I was exchanging various responses with the person in charge, and I was so shocked when I saw that picture while checking the DMs. There was a mistake in the process of conveying to the person in charge that the picture was clearly problematic. I feel so much guilt and regret for making such an incomprehensible mistake, and I still do. Of course, I didn’t even watch that video. Some people are saying that I was going to upload it on a secondary SNS account and accidentally uploaded it, but I absolutely do not have a secondary account. This incident made me realize once again my influence as a well-known person. I will try to be more careful with my words and actions in the future.”


Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com