“Logo Text [This story contains MAJOR spoilers from theSquid Gameseason three finale, “Humans are …”] LEE BYUNG-Hun’s Masked Antagonist, Known As The Front Man, Has Stalked The Edges of Squid Game Since ITS DEBUT-The Coolly Enigmatic Figure Overs. Detachment. But in seasons two”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
[ThisStoryContainsMajoorSpolersfromthe[ThisstorycontainsMAJORspoilersfromthe Squid Game Season Three Finale, “Humans Are…”]
Lee Byung-Hun’s Masked Antagonist, Known As The Front Man, Has Stalked The Edges of Squid Game Since ITS DEBUT – The Coolly Enigmatic Figure Who Oversees the Show’s Merciles Contest with A Disturbing Sense of Detachment. But in Seasons Two and Three, and Especialyly in the Series Finale Released Last Friday, The Character Steps Ever Further Into The SpotLight, Revening New Dimensions of Sorrow, Cynic Moral Conflict.
Played with MasterFul Resstraint by Lee, One of Korea’s MOST CELEBRED MOVIE STARS OF THE LAST TWO DWO DECADES, The FRONT MAN IC enigma person personified, a, a hollowed, hollowed, wholly, hollowed jinge, ame ha horedy Devotion to ProCedure – and Perhaps the Occasional Whisky Sipped in Solitude. But The Game Grows IncreASERAPRAASING PERSONAL FOR HIM After Gi-Hun, Aka Player 456 (Lee Jung-Jae), Re-ENTers The Contest on A Mission to Challenge ITHENGERLYLYLYLYLYLYLYLYLYLYLy Grace or Respect. In Face of Gi-Hun’s Sacrifice and Unwavering Commitment to Basic Human Dignity, Does A Crack Ultimately Emerge in The Front Man’s Fatalism, Or Will Heli Always Remain.
IN A Wide-Ranging Sit-Down with The Hollywood ReporterLee Oped Up About His Character’s Evolution and The Layered Meaning Beyind Several of the Finale’s Most Debated Moments-Including the Front Man’s Cryptic Encounter with with the recruiter Played by Cate Blanchett on the Streets of Los Angeles.
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Of Course, Squid Game is a show that explores the Darkest Aspects of Our Social and Political Sity, While ALSO DIAGNOSING an A abscess of humanity. So to see a story that that resonate with people all around the World? I was happy the show we had worked so hard on was successful. But Another Part of ME, I have to admit, felt quitter about the fact that these Issues resonated with so many people in such an URGent Way. Later, Thought, I Had Another Thought: The Show Ultimately Says that We Need to Wake up and Look at What We’re Doing To Each Other. So, The fact that people all all all the around the world connecting with this show and stopping to engage with and Think About themes – the our collective loss of humanity – this Humanity – that colliel. That’s the Hopeful Way of Looking at the Whole Phenomenon.
(L to R) Lee Jung-Jae as Seong Gi-Hun, Lee Byung-Hun As Frontman in Season Three. No ju-can/netflix
You get a broef backstory of him in the series. HE HAD A PREVIUS Life As A Police Detective. HE WAS A VERY ORDINARY GUY WITH An Ordinary Family. But Due to Some Really Extreme and Unfortunate Circumstans, He Lost HIS WIFE AND CHILD, AND HE Experienced Intense Betrayal and Despert Squid Game. Once Inside the Game, He wit with the even More brutality and extreme cruelty Right in Front of Him, and All of this Makes Him Into An Extremely pessimatic The World or Humanity. And so, as he watches gi-hun, he think that gi-hun is too naive-and that he will end up just like hamself, and only Time Will Tell.
About that Last Point, There Were Some Key Moments Where I Was Really Curious What The Front Man Was Actual Thinking and Hoping for. One is WHEN HE GIVES GI-HUN THE KNIFE, AND WATCHES GI-HUN CONTEMPLATING KILLING The Other Players in their Sleep. The Front Man Is Watching Him Very Inteently, and the Audence Is Given A Flashback to A Time Whos The Front Man Was Put in the Same Sity and Killed Everione Mercilessly. So, in that moment, is the Front Man Hoping Gi-Hun Will Kill Everyone Just As He Did-or Something Else?
I’m glad you asked, because that uncertainty is exactly what i wanted viewers to feel WHEN they watsched that scene. I Played that Scene Thinking There Are Both Sides to Him. I BELIVE The FRONT MAN WANTED GI-HUN to LIVE, Because Gi-Hun Is Someone He Feels Differently About Compared to the Other Players, Because of the Time Spent Together Inside. SO if gi-hun had kildyone just just as the Front Man Did, The Front Man Wound Have Felt a Sense of Victory, Because Hew Been Been Proven Right in his Cere Belief. He Could Say, “See? You’ve Ended Up Just Like Me.”
On the Other Hand, if Gi-Hun Doesn’t Go Through With It-WHICH is What Happens-The Front Man Will Feel A Sense of Defeat. HEWD ALSO Feel A Form of Self-Reproach, or Even Envy, in Seeing Gi-Hun Protect His Values in Precisely The Way that HE Failed to do. However, I Think Deep Inside Him, Part of Him Was Almost Rooting for Gi-Hun. The Deepest Part of Him Wanted to See Gi-Hun Not Give in and Continue to Hold Onto Hope for the World and for Humanity. So i played that Scene Thinking That HE WAS FEELING ALL OF THESE THINGS, BUT IN THE DEEPEST SENE, The Latter.
For Actors, Every Life Experience You Go Through, Every Emotion That You Feel in Life – It All Becomes An Asset. And I Think that kinder or not I was aware of it have and was reading the script, all of my personal experiences affirmed the Way I Approached the Character. SO, yeah, there was definitely Moments in my life who and wondired about the loss or absent of humanity – and it deeply UPSET me. It’s Hard to Pinpoint Particular Experiences or Events, But I’ve Been Through Some of Those International Struggles. But The Entire Experience of Just Living Life is What Monst Affected The Way I Played this Character.
How did you interpret the Scene in the Finale Between the Front Man and Gi-Hun’s Daughter? Is he stirming the pot to try gi-hun’s daughter curious about the games? Or is this encounter a sign of his somewhat reststored humanity – that he wanted to give her Closure, and Personally Deliver The Money Her Father Won?
I Asked that Exact Question to The Director Who We Were Filming – and He Responded by Asking Me The Same Question. SO We Ended Up Talking A Lot About This Scene – What Is He Feeling at That Point, And What Should My HeadSpace Be While I’M TRYING TO BRING The SCENE TO Life? At the end of the day, I would have to say it’s closer to the Latter. He’s Had A Little Bit of Humanity Restored and He’s Offering What Gi-Hun Left Behind with A Little Sliver of the Goodness That’s Left in His Heart.
But at Same Time, His Strongest Feeling Is Simple to Make Sure that Everything is Done Fairly and by the Rules of the Game. However, It’s Also Perfectly Natural for the Audence to Consider A Lot of Possibilities, As You Just Have. Is there Another motive behind this? Is he signning the beginning of a new game? Is he Sowing the Seed so that game can be Continued? All of that is Ultimately Open for Interpretation. We Knew this Scene Wulde spark A Lot of SPECULATION, SO we put a Lot of Thought Into It – Even Down to the Detail of Wather the Green Tracksuit Should Be Bloody.
Similarly, I Was Wondering WHY The FRONT Man Gave His Brother The Baby and The Baby’s Money. Could this be One More Test of Humanity Versus Greed – To See What His Altrutic Brother Will Do With All of That Cash? Or does he simply Think that his brother is a relable person and this is the right thing to do?
After everything is been by Through, I Think The Front Man Is A Little Sick of Testing People or Putting Them Through Trials at this Point. I Think that Impulse May have left after the game ended-Especially after every waying he went through his confrontation with gi-Hun, and after wit. SO I THINK HE LEFT The BABY WITH His BROTHER MAINLY BECAUSE HE DOESN’T HAVE A LOT OF OPTIONS. MOST OF ALL, LIKE ALWAYS, HE WANTS TO Follow the Rules. The Baby Won the Game, So The Money Should Go to the Baby. His brother is family and he Knows Very Deeply that his brother is a relable and trustworthhy person, and that he will protect the baby and make Sure no one takes. The Rules Say The Money Goes to the Child, and His Brother Can Help Enseure That.
The Front Man Looks Out the Window at the Recruiter Played by Cate Blanchett in Los Angeles.
The Director and I Talked A Lot About this Scene as Well. What’s Interesting is that some and first read the script, I have a figrent Impression. I Thought the Front Man Had Already Known Thatre Was Another Game – Exactly the Same – Unfolding in Another Country. But I Asked the Director, Just in Case, and He Told Me, “Please Play The Scene by Imaging that You Didn’T Know She Was There.” This was Really Confusion for Me, Because I Got A VERY DIFFERENT IMPRESSION FROM The Script and We Were Quite Close to Filming at that Point. SO we discussed it quite a lot, and here’s the tone I didted to go for in that moment: As the Series Started subconsciously. But Through his journey with gi-hun, he was able to nurture that sliver of hope, and by the end, the as his gar game came to a close, he’s trying to look at. maybe there’s Something Still there. ”
And He’s Trying to Reach this Sense of Closure, and the potential for a new beginning – and then he ses this Other Recruiter, Pulling New Players Into the Game. And now he realizes that this Never Ends. IT’s All Going to Just Keep Going. SO, that Sense of Bitterness is the main felling he’s experience in that moment. I ACTUALLY WONDERED WHAT HAT I WAS TRYING TO COMMUNICATE Wuld Be Delivered To Viewers, So Thank You For The Question.
Well, Depending on the Culture and Local Circumstans, I Suppos The Ambence and the Arena and the Specials of the Games Could Be a Little Different. There could be some US Elements in there. But Still, as We’ve Been Discussing, I Believe The Reason The Series Received So Much Love Across The World Is Because People EveryWhere Can Relate to Overarching Theme of Les. I Think that aspect is essential, so the US Players would have to go through a Lot of Hardship and Face Impossible choices. The essence of the game would be the same.
Director Hwang and I Have Been Joking About A Front Man Spin-Off Since the Beginning. We botth thorough that front man or the recruiter could be interesting for more story, Because we haveen’t Really Explored Test Characters in their Entirety Yet. Their Backstory is still vague, and their Character is still a Little Murky. To look at the front man with a full Character Study would be a very fun thing to do. So, as for your quest – of course i’d be willing to start in it. The Character Has Already Been Built and Designed, and i’m Very Compelled by Him. Just as the fans are curious to Know More about HIM, I AM TOO. That’s a story i’d be very willing to teell.
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The Final Season of Squid Gameis now streaming on netflix. Read Thr‘s take the Finale Cameo and How It Could Set Up A Spinoff and Our Two-Part Interview With Creator Hwang Dong-Hyuk on the Final Season and Final Scene.