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| ▲ This photo, provided by Netflix, shows Lee Jung-jae from "Squid Game." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ This photo, provided by Netlix, shows Lee Jung-jae. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
SEOUL, Sep. 29 (Yonhap) -- "Although I don't do social media, as I do check them, I can feel it. I have received lots of congratulations and am enjoying parody videos as well."
Actor Lee Jung-jae who took the role of "Squid Game," Netflix's original series that has taken the world by storm shyly answered as above when asked whether he could feel the popularity.
Although Lee is a veteran actor with 30 years of career, such peculiar work like "Squid Game" would have been a nervous challenge to him. Lee put down his trade mark, heavy voice and cool image, to act the lower class's poor image.
"Rather than feeling scared of transfiguring into a new character, I laughed for quite long saying 'Did I act like that.' Because I felt like I have taken off so many things. The series contain expressions, breaths and movements that I usually don't make. I remember doing that kind of acting in the past but not recently," said Lee on an online interview Wednesday.
"Actually acting the daily lives is the hardest as I have to be more natural and look a but more like ordinary people. But as it is not a documentary, I practiced a lot mixing up with acting in possible extreme situations. I thought 'Ey, do I really have to lick this much' when shooting the dolgona game. But when I thought about it, as the participants are doing the game for their lives, they may do it that much so I tried my best. I had to do both natural and extreme actings. As I got older, I usually get quested for bad guys' or strong roles. I felt more welcome when I met this ordinary man character. I really became a squid. But I never thought that I should ruin myself. I only thought of acting Gi-hun well."
"I tried to 100% accept and well follow the producers' ideas rather than coming up with my own ideas. There were scenes that I wasn't confident of but director Hwang Dong-hyuk told me, 'Think like you have all the skills but just using a little bit more of them,' so I tried my best to follow that," added the actor.
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| ▲ This photo, provided by Netflix, shows Lee Jung-jae. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
Reviews saying that the watchers love Gi-hun's humane sides are pouring out from the foreign fans.
"I am not sure how much the foreign watchers can understand Gi-hun's helping the others even in those extreme situations. But I think those emotions are quite Korean style so I didn't feel any awkwardness from the scenario."
"I think it carries a message, the courage of not losing that kind of warm heart when we need it," added Lee.
Gi-hun, who always looked the same, changed his hair red and decided to participate the next game predicting season 2.
"Red hair is never the color a man in Gi-hub's age would do. It would have been his will to show his actions that he would never take," said Lee.
"I like the open ending that gives the feeling that an exciting story will begin. I liked the ending as it felt like Gi-hun who doesn't have any power or strength jumping into the dangerous world saying 'This isn't right'," said the actor.
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| ▲ This photo, provided by Netflix, shows Lee Jung-jae from "Squid Game." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
"I felt that the producers have been preparing for this for a very long time," said Lee about the series' remarkable scale.
"The basic storyline, adults playing games from the childhood, was grotesque and scary. Also, I think as the hardships of the game's participants were well explained, emotions could well explode at every character's ending. Those points made the series different from other survival works. And the scale was unbelievable where 456 people could run in a large ground with a giant doll playing red light green light," said Lee.
He also introduced the series the whole world is crazy for as 'a unique concept and complex scenario.'
"The series' story can be well empathized by those living this era. A production should be produced at the right time but this work seems to have met the right audiences as well."
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