Squid Game star Jung Ho-yeon talks about her surprising reaction to shooting her dramatic death scene. Netflix’s Korean drama series about a group of desperate characters fighting for their lives in a secret underground game was the surprise hit of 2021. Now the show is a surprising Emmy contender after snagging four SAG Awards including one for Best Ensemble in a Drama.
At the top of that stunning Squid Game Emmy contenders list is Ho-yeon, the SAG Winner for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series. Indeed Ho-yeon captured a lot of admirers for her performance as Kang Sae-byeok aka Player 067, a North Korean defector living in the south as a pickpocket before landing in the game. Despite her hard-edged demeanor, fans developed a soft spot for the plucky Player 067, who sought the game’s massive jackpot in order to get her brother out of an orphanage and reunite her family. Kang Sae-byeok would indeed survive deep into the life-or-death tournament only to die when, already bleeding out after being wounded by a wayward shard during the infamous Glass Bridge game, she was stabbed to death by the shady Cho Sang-woo just before the contest’s final leg.
Indeed the death of Kang Sae-byeok was a tough blow for Squid Game fans who had come to love the character for her tough personality and noble motivations. But as it turns out, filming the character’s death scene was not all that hard for Ho-yeon. In fact, during Variety’s Actors on Actors series, Ho-yeon told Sandra Oh she was actually happy to shoot the scene as it allowed her to finally let go of her tragic character. She said (via EW):
"Maybe it's weird to say it, but while I'm shooting my death scene, I was so happy. It was the most comfortable scene I ever had. … It's because I've been living with my character over a few months, and then there is a time that I have to let her go, and I kind of feel like I can happily let her go, because I can understand. Maybe not fully, but I'm the one who can understand her most in this world, so I know her stress, and I know how her life was [such a] struggle and hard. So it wasn't that bad or sad."
Of course Kang Sae-byeok did in a sense triumph when Squid Game winner Seong Gi-hun fulfilled his promise to get her brother out of the orphanage, placing the boy in the care of Cho Sang-woo’s mother. But unfortunately the death of Kang Sae-byeok still means Ho-yeon won’t get to return for Squid Game season 2 - unless creator Hwang Dong-Hyuk pulls a very soap opera twist by giving her character a twin sister. But Seong Gi-hun will be back for more games as Netflix tries to capitalize on the surprising success of Squid Game season 1.
It is on the one hand strange to hear Ho-yeon say she was actually happy to perform as gruesome and shocking a moment as Kang Sae-byeok’s protracted and bloody death. But it’s also understandable that, after playing such an intense character for the length of time it took to produce an entire season of TV, Ho-yeon would have been more-than-ready to finally let go of all those emotions. Squid Game fans on the other hand have not yet let go of Kang Sae-byeok, a character whose grim determination in the face of a truly sad and horrible situation made an undeniably strong impression.