“Look at Lee Jung-Jae’s silhouette, can you see the winner’s?
The real winner is....”
An interview with kkanbu grandpa in the “Squid Game” - actor Oh Young-Soo
Translated by Law-Win
Actor Oh Young-Soo (77-year-old), wearing a hat, glasses, and mask, walking to the interview spot at the playground in front of his home in Wirye New Town, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, appeared just like an ordinary neighborhood grandfather. However, as soon as he took off his mask, residents who were passing by gathered and began to snoop. Some people took out their cell phones from afar and zoomed in on and said, "That's right, that's right." Short white hair, a slightly grown beard, and a flushed face remained the same as the Oh Il-Nam of the Squid Game.
"Aw, everyone in the neighborhood is watching!" The old actor sitting on the slide for a photo shoot smiled brightly. "Oh well, a few days ago, I went to a nearby coffee shop, and when I took off my mask for a while to drink coffee, young people outside recognized me saying “its kkanbu grandpa” and asking for my signature. This is the first time in my 54 years as an actor. I still don't know what is happening", it was a loud voice that sounded 20 years younger than in the drama. His voice is very different from when he usually acts, he said he lost 2kg because he suddenly has a lot to care about these days.
Four weeks ago, Oh Young-soo, an unfamiliar face to the entertainment world even in Korea, suddenly became a ‘world star’. In the moviethe'Squid Game', which was released on the 17thlast month and became the highest-profit film in Netflix history, he played the role of 'Oh Il-Nam', the first participant in the game. Saying about the 6th episode, which left a long-lasting impression when he left with the famous line, 'We are kkanbu (a slang word meaning partners who share tickets and beads)', Forbes magazine said 'It's the best TV episode I've seen this year' and YouTubers from all over the world competed for a reaction video in which they burst into tears when they saw this scene. There was even a saying that ‘the K-new wave shook the world’.
Speaking of which, it is now impossible to write an article about his interview without spoiling anything and this article is no exception.
At the end of the drama, when his identity as a 'game designer' was revealed, viewers around the world were astonished. There are praises poured out “Who is that grandfather?” “A thrilling performance” “He looks like a real Oh Il-Man, not an actor” “The number one contributor to the drama's success”. Since he was not an actor whose face was widely well-known, there was also a reaction in Korea saying, “I thought it was a role that would die soon, but it turned out that it was the key to the drama”. If someone like Lee Soon-Jae or Shin-goo took the role, the audiences would have suspected, ‘There’s something about that grandfather’ but they were fooled. Perhaps because his existence itself is a huge spoiler for 'Squid Game', Netflix said that they had asked OhYoung-Soo to refrain from interviewing the media for the first four weeks.
In fact, Oh Young-Soo is one of the representative elder actors in the Korean theater industry, who has been active on 200 stage plays for over half a century. Among the older actors in the theater world, the actors who are still on stage are Lee Soon-Jae (87 years old), Shin-Goo (85 years old), Kwon Seong-Deok (80 years old), Lee Ho-Jae (80 years old), Jeon Moo-Song (80 years old), and Park Jeong-Ja (79 years old). Director Son Jin-Chaek, who worked with Oh Young-Soo in 'March Snow' (2018), said "He has the same attitude toward his work for a long time."
- I didn’t think it was acting
Q: When did you get an offer to appear in ‘Squid Game’?
A: "It was November 2019 when I was on the stage of 'The visit of Old Lady' at the Arco Arts Theater (written by Friedrich Duren Mart, directed by Son Jung-woo). Director Hwang Dong-hyuk once asked me to appear in the movie ‘Namhansanseong’ (2017). However, the schedule didn't match. Long ago, I remembered appearing as an old monk in director Kim Ki-Deok's film called ‘Spring Summer Autumn Winter and Spring’ (2003). With the intention of meeting me, the director came to Daehak-ro and see my play.
Netflix's original drama "Squid Game" is about people in desperate situations of debts participating in a survival game with 45.6 billion won in prize money on a deserted island. The game events include ‘Mugunghwa Flower Blooming’‘Dalgona shape cutting’ ‘Marble game’ and ‘Tug-of-war’, which are Korean children's games, and all those who fail are killed by the organizers.
Q: How did you feel after reading the script?
A: "Well, it was not really absurd. Because it was read as a kind of fable that symbolized a desperate competitive society through children's play. The message was strong and the words were alive in the new format."
Q: What kind of character do you think Oh Il-Nam is?
A: "He has power and money, but at the same time, he also has a human aspect of not forgetting his old memories. He is also a person who complies with his own principles in the scene of actually giving the prize amount to the winner according to his own rules, organs trading, and punishing staff who violate the "fairness" of the game. At first glance, I could see the universal appearance of human beings in that both good and evil were contained, and I felt like it was my alter ego."
Oh Il-Nam, who appears in green sportswear with the number "001" engraved in the drama, shakes his arms in a bent posture, enjoys the game with an innocent look like a child, or looks in the air with an unknown look, but in a decisive scene, he instantly shoots and freezes the opponent.
Q: Being praised as “The actor is not acting, he seems to be experiencing real situations”. Do you have any tips?
A: "I was greedy and conscious that I should act well. I just thought "How would I act if I were a brain tumor patient with slight dementia as set in the movie?" and entered into character with a comfortable mind. I'm in the same age group as Oh Il-Nam, so it's a shame but maybe 10 years ago, such acting wouldn’t have come out. The experience required for this role may not be ripe enough yet. Skills are formed by experience and time."
Q: Even 10 years ago when you were 67 years old and appeared a lot as an old monk, but your skills were not ripe?
A:“The senior I respect the most is actor Jang Min-ho (1924~2012). When I was proud of my acting after my 60th birthday, at a drinking party, he said, ‘Oh Young-soo! Your acting is fake, you still have a long way to go.” That’s when I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s a long way to go.’”
Anyone who can't remember the appearance of the legendary actor Jang Min-ho can think of Won Bin's labor character in the movie "Flying the Taegeukgi". Behind Seoul Station, there is the "Baek Sung-hee Jang Min-ho Theater" named after him and another famous actor Baek Sung-hee (1925-2016), and Oh Young-soo said, "I want to contribute to creating the "Jangminho Award" before I die."
- I've been on the stage for 54 years.
His hometown is in Paju, Gyeonggi-do. Before Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule, he was born and lived in Gaepung-gun, Gyeonggi-do, beyond the Imjin River, where his grandfather, who was given a village medal, had quite a lot of land. However, he defected to South Korea as the 38thparallel was drawn and became North Korea land. At least he settled in Paju, which is next to the home land Gaepung. Still, it was a decent family environment, but during the Korean War, his father was murdered by communist forces on June 25th and his brother was kidnapped to North Korea, his family strength began to decline.
Since then, it has been said that he has lived rough young days in the dirt spoons family. "I took the qualification exam and worked hard. I think I just went back and forth". He said the certificate of the Graduate School of Arts at Chung-Ang University that he received at the age of 50s was the final academic background.
Q: In 1967, you entered the theater and started your acting career. What was the situation?
A: "After being discharged from the military, I realized (some said it wasn't true that he was a Vietnam War veteran) that I don’t have any academic background. I went to the theater with my friend because I couldn’t get a job, but then, my appearance was good when I was young. When I got on the stage of the play, I saw a whole new world that I really, really didn't know".
Q: What kind of world was it?
A: "The young me, who had no presence, spit out meaningful and connoted language on stage. A lot of the audience who saw it reacted to it and laughed and cried, right? In a word, I was amazed. About 10 years have passed since then, and the world has become a world where most people can't even say what they want to say. Still, the theater has always been a field where I could shout and cry out before the times."
It has been more than 50 years since he has been involved in theater, taking charge of all kinds of chores from cleaning to posting posters and cleaning up after the plays. As it is now, plays were generally not something that could solve the necessities so he managed to make a living with the help of his mother did business in the market. In other words, Sung Ki-Hoon (Lee Jung-Jae) of Ssangmun-dong, the main character of the "Squid Game," is reflected in his youth.
His representative works were Shakespearean plays, such as 'Richard III', 'The Merchant of Venice' and 'King Lear' and works that shined in Korean theater history, such as 'The Bald Singer' and 'Feast of Taraji'. He won the Dong-A Theater Award (1980) for the role of Angelo in 'The Desire of Baekyang Island' and the Baeksang Arts Awards Acting Award (1994) for the role of Gukjeon in 'Defendant and Defendant'. In 54 years, he has appeared in over 200 plays.
Q: You got the lead role fairly early. The role of Stanley in 'A Streetcar Named Desire', which came out at the age of 28, was played by Marlon Brando in the movie.
A: "I'm not sure. Maybe because I looked like the main character, haha.”
In the ninth episode of "Squid Game," Ki Hoon, the main character, Ki-Hoon, finds out about Il-Nam's identity and asked "How easy is it to make money to do this?" Then Il-Nam asked "You know because you made money. Is that easy?"
Q: Was acting easy?
A: "It wasn’t. When I was 34 years old, I played the main character in ‘Faust’, and it was so successful that the audience lined up from Myeongdong Arts Theater to the front of Midopa Department Store. But I was so nervous that I lost consciousness for 20 seconds in the monologue scene. Should I say that I went out of my body? In the play, 20 seconds was a very long time, but time just passed without lines. Thinking of that still makes me sweat. But at the time, the audience probably didn't notice that it was an accident. It was a role that should have not been played at that age. But if it's now... It's a role that I really want to play again."
I was an actor of the National Theater, a "representative theater company of the country" for 24 years from 1987.
"I've been in a relationship with my now wife who worked at bank and 13 years younger than me for two years, who often came to see the play, but she strongly opposed my job because it was a low-income job. Then, when I joined the National Theater Company, I could get a salary and got her acceptance for a marriage. Hang on. I was 43 years old at that time. Probably."
Then, the late-born only daughter is now acting as his informal manager and he does not have an agency.
If you go to YouTube these days, you can see a lot of rare videos of Oh Young-Soo appearing in TV dramas when he was young, uploaded by broadcasters and fans of 'Squid Game'. 'The First Republic' (1981), which appeared as a military prosecutor for just 1 minute and 30 seconds, 'Shampoo Fairy' (1988), where he appeared as a military-turned-advertising director, appeared as a quick-tempered gangster boss and pounded on a punching bag 'Detective Kim Detective Kang' (1990), who was fiddling with the 'brick phone'. However, Oh Young-soo, who saw the video that the interviewer showed, widened his eyes and said, “Huh? But... when did I appear in a drama like that?” he wondered.
He also made a one-off appearance in TV dramas such as "Legend of the Patriots" and "Country Diary," which had changed stories in each episode, but while he was a member of the National Theater Company, he had the pride of "not taking any role". However, the role became fixed, and it was the monk.
In the films Dongseung (2002), Spring Summer Autumn Winter and Spring (2003), and the dramas Return Iljimae, Queen Seondeok (2009), and Musin (2012), he all played monk roles. The role in "Musin" was a handwritten ambassador who oversaw the Tripitaka Koreana. It was the same in the play but in "Two Heroes" (2016), he showed acting with decomposition, dignity, and humor as a mission line. In front of Tokugawa Ieyasu, a powerful person, the missionary dispatched to Japan delivered the same message, saying "If you want to clear up the past, you must first reflect on yourself" in the form of a pre-question and answer. As a result, some people mistook him for a real monk.
There were not many overseas fans who recognized him at that time. In 2005, when the National Theater Company performed the play "The Bandit" at the Manheim Schiller Festival in Germany, a German gentleman in his 50s came from Berlin "I'm impressed by 'Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring' and came to meet actor Oh Young-soo." At this time, people will soon flock to when he leaves the country and takes off his mask at the airport.
Q: How did you become a monk specialist?
A: "As I have been paying a lot of attention to Buddhist thought, I think that’s why my appearance gradually resembles a monk."
Q: What aspects of Buddhism are you interested in?
A: "It's the idea of ‘emptying yourself and not owning things yourself'. I've read it somewhere, and when a traveler sees a pretty flower while walking along the mountain road,a young man picks it up and brings it home, a middle-aged man digs it up and plant it in his garden, and when he get ever older, he only wants to see it on the spot and leaves. I have a heart to come back. Now that I'm over 70, I want to leave it all behind. As a result, I stopped being too greedy for acting.”
The traveler and flower story is interpreted by adding age to the story of Erich Fromm's "To have or to be?".
- Brought out the language of silence
In an interview with a reporter when Oh Young-Soo appeared in Shakespeare's play 'The Tempest' (directed by Kim Dong-Hyun) in 2014, he said, 'I've been doing parallel bar exercises dozens of times every day since elementary school.' I was in doubt whether it was true, but two years later, I came out as a thief in the play 'Jangpan' and witnessed it performed on stage. "Wow-!" As if they couldn't believe it even after seeing it, the young audience burst out in laughter. This theater stage was unusually two-story, so it was a position to look up to from the audience, and the male audience in their 20s at that time had the loudest voice. It is said that director Lee Woo-Cheon heard about it at a drinking party by chance before the performance and changed the scene where he was doing gymnastics in the original script.
Just like the past 5 years, now I still wake up at 6:20 AM every day and walk for 20 minutes, and exercise with parallel bars 50 times under Namhansanseong Fortress near my house. "Actually, that's a historic place." Not to mention the Namhansanseong Fortress Battlefield, it was where the Army Prison and the Army Sports Unit were..." He overcame his death from acute pneumonia three years ago, but he was able to get healthy again, which means that the parallel bar exercise was a great help. Recently, he is almost stuck at home and has never taken off his mask in case anyone recognizes him when he goes out, but he is said to be relieved that there are only morning workout mates near the parallel bars.
Q: Then, in "Squid Game," wasn’t it an acting everything is looked so old as you heard that "it's hard to even stand".
A: "Haha, I'd appreciate it if you'd think that way."
Q: Did you have any difficulties during the shoot?
"Now that I think about it, I actually had fun filming as if I were playing like Oh Il-Nam. Director Hwang Dong-Hyuk wasn't the type to stir-fry the actors and make actors suffer. If he had done that in this plot, I would have been in big trouble, haha. There was only one trouble, in episode 4, while the participants were having a brawl, they climbed to the top of the stacked beds and said, ‘If you do this, you will all die! It was a scene in which he screamed, 'I'm scared'. I have a phobia of heights, but I thought it would be fine. But somehow, when I went up, it was really scary. The production team put a safety device around the waist, so I wrapped it around and filmed.”
In other words, the scene where Oh Il- Nam screamed as if he were really terrified was not 100% acting.
Reporter: The vocalization is said to be very unique. Even in urgent situations, the lines are slow, but there is a strange rhyme. Some people say, "It's a theatrical line" and "It seems to be reciting."
Oh Young-Soo: "After being on stage for a long time, I learned that acting is done with energy and breathing. As if reciting poetry, breathing is what brings out the language of silence between words and words. It's also the power of experience. When you speak your lines, thinking first and then speaking naturally creates breathing and silence."
He steps by step explained the "acting using breathing." In the sixth episode of "Squid Game," Oh Il-Nam, who thought he was suffering from dementia, suddenly speaks clearly to Ki-hoon, and the audience is surprised. Then, it means that '/' is breathing here. 'Does it make sense to/ take/ me? '/' is breathing. In this scene, he is said to have driven the energy of his whole body to one place in his face and acted intensely with a stern look in an instant.
Oh Young-Soo's unique vocalizations were not necessarily seen only favorably in the theater industry. From the audience's point of view, it sounded a bit gloomy. One director confessed, "It was a bit difficult for me because it was a way of dealing with lines that didn't fit my direction". One of the judges of the Lee Hae-Rang Theater Award, the most prestigious theater award in Korea, said, "Actually, I have not given an award until now because of her vocalizations... I don't know if I should think differently now."
Reporter: There are many viewers who say that not only the lines but also every gesture is an act.
Oh Young-Soo: "If my fingertips aren't good, I can't act well." So, a beginner in acting doesn't know where to put his hand and stands foolishly. You have to put in energy so that your hands can move alive to smoke. Only then can the audience be seen on the stage after it succeeds. At first, I couldn't see my mother even if she was in the front seat of the auditorium, but only later, I could see clearly all the seats."
Considering the acting philosophy of 'naturally permeates into the character', it seems that he uses his head in a surprisingly well-planned way, but it is said his game of go lever is amatuer 6.
Reporter: The acting of the scene where you revealed yourself in episode 9 also impressed me. Considering that the first game was held in 1988 and more than 400 people were sacrificed every year, Oh Il-Nam certainly becomes a criminal who slaughtered more than 10,000 people. Nevertheless, in the last scene, it was rather creepy to see him preaching his beliefs quietly in a voice that seemed to run out of breath.
Oh Young-Soo: "There's a reason why it looked like that. Before filming the last scene, I told the director, "I will act after shaving my hair and beard," and he gladly told me to. It's just that I cut my hair and come out. It’s fine for me, haha. "Since I played the role of a monk a lot, I felt like when Oh Il-Nam passed away, he would throw away everything that was bothering him like hair or beard."
Q: Why did Oh Il-Nam call Ki Hoon the moment he left the world?
A:"Because I had a connection with Ki Hoon. He confesses "It was fun being with you". The reason why Oh Il-Nam advised Ki-Hoon, who had a good heart and won first place in the game, "The world is not as good as you believe," was because he thought the world was never a just and reliable place in the order he created. He wanted to let Ki Hoon know about this. That's why the line "Do you still believe in people?" came out."
Q: Is that all?
A:"At the same time, I felt like I was asking for forgiveness to some extent by expressing regret over the path I had lived". That's how I interpreted it and acted. With the feeling of contemplating life at the last minute. "It's the first time that my face has been zoomed in so big on the screen, but it was a little creepy when I saw my face."
Q: Then, you haven't seen the homeless man being rescued right before midnight?
A: "Yes, I died so. I didn't see it."
Reporter: The scene of such a huge rich man dying lonely without his family at the last minute made me feel ironic.
Oh Young-Soo: "he has been pursuing money, power, and fun for himself all his life, but in the end, all those who were close left and there was no one to be with him at the last minute."
Q: Why on earth did Oh Il-Nam jump into a dangerous game where he could die? “The flower of Mugunghwa has bloomed” can lead to a gunshot wound if you accidentally move, and “Dalgona shape cutting” can be fatal in a single mistake. 'Tug of War' could have fallen to death with other people. Many people wonder why they agreed to pause the game in the beginning.
A:“Haha, there are a lot of things that can’t be explained if the drama is too logical. However, we need to understand that Oh Il-Nam is a person who is obsessed with ‘Let’s have fun playing the game’ from beginning to end. All of his actions should be seen as part of the big ‘Oh Il-Nam Game’. Pressing the ‘×’ in the vote whether to continue the game must have been in the spirit of ‘Everyone who wants to play will come back anyway, so let’s have more fun’. Ki-hoon, who had been paying attention, went directly to the neighborhood and persuaded him to break up ramen and eat it.”
Q: What was the true meaning of Oh Il-Nam standing on the bed and screaming 'Stop it'?
A: “There must have been both. It must have been a warning that the game would not progress properly if too many people died, but also a real human confession that the scene of genocide would be terrifying.”
Reporter: In episode 7, Oh Il-Nam, who does not show his face, tells the frontman (Lee Byung-Hun) that he will not meet foreign VIPs. We could have met enough because we had already been eliminated from the marbles game.
Oh Young-soo: “It should be seen as an excursion that the director did not want to reveal his identity to viewers, rather than trying to show him off to VIPs.”
Reporter: There is also an interpretation that Oh Il-Nam and Sung Ki-hoon in the play actually had a father-son relationship.
Oh Young-soo: “I’ve seen it too, but hey, that doesn’t make sense.”
Q: Did you actually play the games in the drama as a child?
A: “I played a lot of ttakjichigi, tug-of-war, and marbles. However, in fact, I have never played ‘Mugunghwa Flower’, ‘Dalgona shape cutting’ or ‘Squid Game’. I think it was a game played by my next generation.”
Reporter: I didn't know that Lee Jung-Jae, who played the main character, was so good at acting. Even in the scene where he was talking with Oh Il-Nam, he was never pushed aside by delicately controlling the level of emotion in the colorful expressions.
Oh Young-soo: “This is my first time working with Lee Jung-Jae, and he was a very human and sincere actor. Breathing was also very good. Park Hae-Soo, who plays Sang-Woo, is a junior I already knew well in the theater industry. And, by the way, I didn't know that Lee Byung-Hoon was going to appear in that drama because he didn't tell me who he was and who the director was. But in the end, when I was filming the scene where Oh Il-Nam died, someone gently closed my eyes with a hand. After hearing something, I opened my eyes and saw a handsome man standing there and it was Lee Byung-hoon, whom I had only seen on TV, so I was like, 'Ugh? No, you… Why are you here?’ I was surprised.”
In fact, many of Oh Young-Soo's juniors actors appear in 'Squid Game'. Including Park Hae-Soo as Sang-Woo, Yoo Seong-Joo as a doctor who is involved in organ trading, Kang Mal-Geum as the ex-wife of the main character Ki-Hoon, Hong Woo-Jin (as a participant who gets shot in the first game and clings to Ki-Hoon), Kim Dong-Hyun (the person who gives a pin cup to Oh Il-Nam during a Tug-of-war). They play the part of a participant who gives a pin cup saying that it doesn't seem to exist) and Lee Ji-Ha (the wife of a participant who committed suicide by hanging) and others. Everyone is the main character in the play. Oh Young-Soo said, "They made the drama more solid with their acting skills they developed on stage than I did."
Q: How was it working with director Hwang Dong-hyuk?
A: “He was a man with a strong sense of history, an eye for society, expressiveness, and passion, and was even diligent. The ability to find out the talents of the actors and bring them out smoothly is also a great director.”
- Where there is only one winner in life
Q: Why do you think "Squid Game" has become a global success?
A:"I never expected it to be this successful. I think the reason for the success is that not only Korean but also everyone on the planet, whether they are in a capitalist system or not, saw and felt absurd reality through games in the drama. The reason why the audience did not think it was unrealistic even though it was dealing with a game story that could not have a drama is because it was based on reality. There is a wrong world in which a person who holds wealth and power can wield the weak at his will."
Q: In the end, what does the game in the drama mean?
A: “Oh Il-Nam is a person with the prejudice that if there is only one winner, everyone is a loser. By the way, isn't 2nd place a person who beats 3rd place, 4th place beats 5th place, and 5th place beats 6th place? Many of those lower ranks also have meaning to exist, and the misconception and absurdity of a modern society that ignores that fact is in his game.”
Q: Was that the theme of the drama?
A: "In my opinion, a true winner is a person who has reached a certain level with experience by achieving what he or she wants to do. Think about the empty background of the main character, who won the first place at the end of the Squid Game, when he left the bed where Oh Il-Nam lay down. Where did you see that as the winner? I think the drama contains the theme that 'winner' is not a winner and 'loser' is not a loser either."
Q: It became a hot topic with the news that you refused to do an advertisement for "Kkanbu Chicken."
A: "There, the concept of 'kkanbu' symbolizes trust and betrayal between humans and is also closely connected to the theme of the drama. I refused because it didn't seem to fit that meaning, but as some reported I said "I won't shoot a commercial to keep my position as an actor” which I haven’t said. There was a time when I shot a commercial. If I give such a statement, I could be criticized in the theater industry."
Q: You're going to be criticized?
A: "Oh, imagine that I really said that when I refused. What would happen to Lee Soon-Jae senior and Shin Goo senior (already appearing in various advertisements)?”
The advertisement that he had filmed before was a mobile communication CF in 2015 and was filmed on a boat with singer Seolhyun. This time it was also a monk role. Seolhyun's line at the time was, "Monk, did you change your mind?", and the monk reminded me that "it is important to cherish old encounters and relationships rather than pursuing new ones."
Q: What do you think a good actor is?
A: "For actors, the stage is the purpose and meaning of life. But the stage is a space that reflects reality. I think they are people who play a role in solving and telling what human values and purposes are in a story that has transformed the world. Then, plays and movies not only contain events, but also have to have life in them like Shakespeare's, and we regret that such works are rare."
Q: Are there any differences between stage acting and screen acting?
A: “I used to think they are different. Now I know that if breathing and internal air work properly, they end up being the same in terms of good acting.”
Q: Have you received any new work offers?
A: "A few offers for plays and commercials are coming in. But I'm still thinking about what choice to make. I haven't adapted to this unexpected situation yet. In some cases, commercials say, "You can make money but why you don’t do it" But if it's because of money, that's all greed. Even so, If I can feel rewarded or it is related to the public interest I will shoot an advertisement. At first, my wife said, "Isn't that too much?" but these days, she understands what I mean."
Reporter: Director Hwang Dong-hyuk revealed his plans for Season 2 of 'Squid Game' and said that it would include an explanation of the past of the frontman who was the winner of the game in 2015 and became the on-site manager of the game. If we go back to the past, Oh Il-Nam would have no choice but to appear.
Oh Young-Soo: “I haven’t received any offers yet, but if that happens, I’ll have to appear again. But it will probably come out with a completely different face from season 1. It’s like the scene in episode 9 talking to the frontman wearing a suit and appearing with a lively look, haha.”
Q: Do you still trust people?
A: "Of course, I trust”. I have received things from many people, big or small. I think it's time for me to offer things to others."
Contrary to the saying, ‘Oh Il-Nam could be my alter ego’ the more we talked, the real Oh Young-Soo seemed to be ‘Anti-Oh Il-Nam’.
Q: What kind of actor do you want to be remembered as in the future?
A: "Well, I hope I can be remembered as an actor who showed the portrait of Koreans who lived in this era, the depth of life, and through breathing and experience." I always want to act until I am 88 years old while maintaining my stamina with parallel bars, but I don't know if it will go my way. I really like the word "beautiful" in Korean, and I also want to show you my beautiful back. In the last part of Shakespeare's play ‘Tempest’, the main character Prospero says, "Now release the shackles." When I took that role, I thought that part was like an older actor leaving the stage. I hope I can leave like that."
Reporter: Like Yoon Yeo-Jung, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the movie "Minari," she became a world-famous actor at a late age.
Oh Young-Soo: “Well, even if that were the case, I don’t think it came like luck by chance. If I hadn't done all what I had done, I wouldn't have met director Hwang Dong-hyuk, and I wouldn't have been able to appear in 'Squid Game', right? Aren't all those who have done their part in their own way so silently are number one in their lives.”
He left these words in a Kakao Talk conversation with a reporter after the interview. ‘I have to go on like this. Ha ha'
Reference: Reporter: Yoo Seok-Jae from Chosun Media.
