Squid Game stud Wi Ha-joon on his breakout role and the challenges of brotherly love

NEW YORK – Four years ago, Wi Ha-joon was feeling desperate.

At the time, the South Korean actor was struggling to land a breakout role and yearning for a change.

But one day, he heard about Squid Game, a dystopian drama in which hopeless people compete for survival by playing Korean children’s games: Red Light, Green Light, Dalgona and tug-of-war.

After chatting with the show’s creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk, Wi decided to try out for a role. On the day of his audition, he had a rash on his face and wore a hat to conceal it. He got the part anyway.

“I’m the type of guy who would be over the moon for the first five seconds, and then I start worrying,” the 33-year-old said through an interpreter from his home in Seoul. “I was quite worried about how I would pull off this role and how I should portray this guy.”

Fans of Squid Game, whose second season is available on Netflix, know Wi as Jun-ho, the silent, daring police detective with a chiselled jawline.

As he infiltrates the games in search of his brother, he uncovers shocking details about an organ-harvesting operation and surprising information about the identity of his brother. In-ho (Lee Byung-hun) turns out to be a criminal mastermind behind the operation known as the Front Man.

A climactic face-off in Season 1 between the two brothers ends with Jun-ho being shot in the shoulder and lurching off a cliff.

As Squid Game became an international phenomenon, so did Wi. He earned brand sponsorships, received casting invitations for other shows and gained millions of followers on Instagram.

“I never expected that it was going to be this huge,” he said. “So, I was surprised every single day with the news coming out, and I couldn’t believe that a Korean piece of content could be such a huge global sensation.”

Fame also came with new pressure to perform.

“I felt like I was really living my dream, but I also thought, ‘Is this really what’s happening?’” he said. “My family and friends were quite worried about me because I didn’t enjoy the process. I felt a lot of stress too.”

Season 2 picks up with Jun-ho about three years after his encounter with his brother. Now working as a traffic cop, he spends his free time hunting for the whereabouts of the games until his search leads him to Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), the only participant to make it out alive from the previous contest.

The two team up to try to take down the Squid Game organisation, but it quickly becomes clear that they are outgunned and outwitted – mere players in a larger, deadly game.

In a recent video interview, Wi spoke about Jun-ho’s motivations, how he prepared for the role and how he would spend the Squid Game prize money of 45.6 billion won (S$42.4 million).

When you first received the script for Season 1, what drew you to Jun-ho’s character?

I think he has a good moral compass. He likes to do what is right. He has a sense of justice. And because he is a detective, he also feels this sense of duty, which I thought was really cool.

I have a big brother in real life, and so I could feel that relationship he has to his brother. And Jun-ho infiltrates this criminal group and puts his life on the line to make sure that people are no longer sacrificed. I would want to do the same if I were in his shoes.

How did you prepare for this role?

Jun-ho is not a very expressive guy, and he has to stay calm and cool-headed under whatever circumstances that come his way. I thought it was important to make sure that the portrayal is detailed and nuanced, so there is that little bit of change that you can feel in him.

I thought it was really important that I immersed myself into the character’s state of mind and the emotions that he feels. I also got a tan and worked out more to make him look stronger. But, most importantly, my area of focus was what he feels inside.

In Season 2, what are the emotions Jun-ho is experiencing?

After being shot by his brother, he must have been very lonely and devastated in those two or three years because all these appalling things have happened, and he has seen them with his own eyes.

He saw people die, and knows that the leader of the criminal group is his brother. I think it was torture for him to process all of that.

And in Season 2, he has no evidence, so he is alone in tracking down these people and his brother. He is on this journey, all alone, devastated, lonely, hurt and hardened. I tried to lose some weight before Season 2 to make sure that he has that devastated and lonely look. I also shaved less.

Why does Jun-ho hide the identity of his brother from the police and from his mother?

I think that’s the biggest dilemma that he has. In-ho is his big brother, but he is really a bad criminal too. He is his family, but he is a cop at the same time, so he is torn between the two roles. I think that dilemma really tortured him until the very end.

Now that you have had this breakout role, where do you go from here?

I have done many dark and strong characters. For my next project, I would love to try a romantic comedy. Also, if I get an opportunity, I would love to venture into Hollywood and do some action movies.

If you won Squid Game and the prize money, how would you spend it?

I would donate half, and with the other half, I would like to build a cutting-edge fitness centre where I can do weight training and train my mixed martial arts skills. NYTIMES