Lee Byung-hun in a promo photograph for “Squid Sport” season 2. Picture: Netflix Korea
A family title in Korea with a profession spanning 34 years, Lee Byung-hun returns to the display because the enigmatic villain in season two of Netflix’s world hit “Squid Sport.” Having made a tantalizing cameo within the present’s inaugural season, Lee now instructions middle stage because the complicated mastermind often called Frontman.
The acclaimed actor — whose filmography boasts iconic hits comparable to “Inside Males” and “Mr. Sunshine” — tackles the intricate layers of Frontman, a personality whose chilling authority conceals a convoluted previous.
Season one left viewers speculating about his id, however the second installment peels again the curtain to disclose the person behind the masks: Hwang In-ho, a former champion of the lethal video games himself.
For Lee, embodying Frontman was a psychological marathon. Past his duties because the malevolent architect, within the new season, Frontman assumes the alias Younger-il to infiltrate the competitors alongside Ki-hun (performed by Lee Jung-jae), who returns decided to cease the video games.
In a latest interview, Lee revealed that the best problem in portraying Frontman was navigating the complexity of the character’s three identities: Younger-il, Hwang In-ho, and Frontman.
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“Viewers learn about Frontman, however they don’t learn about Hwang In-ho,” Lee shared throughout a bunch interview in Samcheong-dong, Seoul, Wednesday.
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“On high of that, I needed to conceal my id and act as Younger-il in entrance of the brand new recreation members. I felt that each one three of those characters needed to coexist inside me. It was a steady means of shifting between these personas in every scene,” mentioned Lee.
When requested about probably the most grueling second in portraying the Frontman, Lee pointed to the scene involving the mingle recreation, the place members needed to kind teams primarily based on a randomly assigned quantity and race to a room earlier than time expired.
“Essentially the most tough scene was in the course of the (mingle) recreation, the place I killed a participant proper in entrance of Jung-bae. In that scene, I felt that Entrance Man, Hwang In-ho, and Oh Younger-il needed to shift backwards and forwards inside a break up second. Expressing these delicate variations was the toughest half,” he mentioned.
In dissecting Frontman’s overarching technique, Lee famous that his character assumes a indifferent omnipresence, a determine pulling strings from the shadows.
“Frontman is somebody who seems down from above. Within the recreation, he watched Ki-hun carefully from proper beside him with that very perspective. He anticipated what Ki-hun would suppose and the way he would act, even driving him into determined conditions whereas taking part in alongside him,” he mentioned.
Lee’s masterful portrayal of a layered character follows his worldwide profession. A pioneer amongst Korean actors making their mark in Hollywood, Lee debuted on the worldwide stage with the 2009 blockbuster “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.” Since then, he’s shared display time with cinematic heavyweights in “G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” “Terminator Genisys,” “Misconduct” and “The Magnificent Seven.”
His trajectory appeared destined for Hollywood stardom, but an sudden twist has emerged, positioning Lee on the middle of a wholly totally different wave of recognition.
Regardless of his notable Hollywood credentials, Lee confessed that it’s by his position within the cultural phenomenon “Squid Sport” that his worldwide fame has skyrocketed.
“I’ve skilled Hollywood blockbusters just a few occasions, however being welcomed abroad for performing in Korean whereas appearing alongside Korean colleagues feels utterly totally different,” he mentioned. “It’s ironic but deeply shifting that I’m receiving extra recognition for Korean works than for Hollywood movies,” he added.
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“As an actor, I all the time thought the best life can be to be considerably identified wherever I’m. After filming ‘G.I. Joe,’ I believed, ‘Any longer, I’m removed from having a reasonably well-known life; I’ll develop into very well-known.’ I believed that just a few occasions after, however after I went abroad, nobody acknowledged me,” Lee laughed.
“However this time, it feels actual. I really feel like I’ll reside as a well known individual in the meanwhile,” he mentioned.