Park Young-sick interview: ‘Squid Game’ stunt coordinator

“Thankfully, filming ended without many injuries,” reveals stunt coordinator Park Young-sick about getting through the Netflix blockbuster “Squid Game” relatively unscathed. “The actors were very active in participating in all the action scenes,” he explains for our recent webchat, adding that they “had to be mixed all together to play all these games and the actors were wearing the wires themselves and were part of the action scenes themselves, so they were very active and they actually enjoyed the experience as well.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.

“Squid Game” was conceived by showrunner Hwang Dong-hyuk, who not only created and produced “Squid Game” but also wrote and directed all nine episodes, expanding the story from its original feature film format. The series stars Lee Jung-jae as central hero Gi-hun, Jung Ho-yeon as the destitute North Korean refugee Sae-byeok, Park Hae-soo as the calculating Sang-woo, Wi Ha-jun as undercover cop Jun-ho, Heo Sung-tae as the villainous Deok-su, recent Golden Globe winner O Yeong-su as old man Il-nam, Lee Yoo-mi as the stoic Ji-yeong, Anupam Tripathi as child-like migrant Ali and Kim Joo-ryoung as the delightfully unhinged Mi-nyeo. The series centers on the story of down-on-their-luck people in dire need of money, who each receive mysterious invitations to join a dangerous life-or-death version of their childhood games in order to win a cash prize of 45.6 billion won (equivalent to about 38 million US dollars).

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Every game is a traditional Korean children’s game, like Red Light Green Light, but in this sinister “amusement park,” the consequence of losing each game is a painful death. Who will be the winner, and what is the purpose behind this game? Of the 456 participants from all walks of life who are locked into a secret location to play Game 1, only a handful are left to play Game 6. Netflix premiered all nine episodes of the dystopian South Korean thriller on September 17 of last year, after which it became a word-of-mouth sensation and the streaming giant’s most popular series launch ever, topping Netflix charts in over 80 countries.

After all of its commercial success, “Squid Game” may dominate at the Emmys this year, following its three surprise wins at the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards, where Lee won Best Drama Actor, Jung won Best Drama Actress and the Park proudly shared in the stunt ensemble prize. “I am extremely happy and I didn’t expect that at all,” he admits. “The overseas audience and the Korean audience actually sent a lot of love towards our show and I just feel grateful for that,” he says humbly, adding, “I will just continue working really hard on my job.”