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Squid Game creator apologizes for casting a cis actor play a trans character in the Netflix hit: "In the case of East Asian culture... it's really difficult to do that kind of authentic casting"
The character of Cho Hyun-ju, who enters Netflix's titular Squid Game for the money to complete gender-affirming care, is not played by a trans actor - a fact which has previously gotten backlash from audiences
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As a piece of prescient cultural criticism, Netflix's Squid Game scores some pretty high points. Its depiction of late-stage capitalism and the desensitization of rampant social media has gotten a lot of praise from viewers, but there is one aspect of the show that's come under fire. That's the character of Cho Hyun-ju, a trans woman in the story who is played by a cis man in real life. Ahead of Squid Game season 3, creator Hwang Dong-hyuk shared his thoughts on the concerns viewers have with this casting.
Hwang's sentiments came from an interview with Entertainment Weekly published on June 20, just a week before Squid Game's third (and final) season comes to its streaming home. Hwang begins his comments by pointing out that most of the criticisms regarding the casting of Park Sung-hoon as Hyun-ju don't come from the country where Squid Game is made, but from the west, where it's found legions of fans.
"I do understand that there has been some concerns from the Western world," the creator says, "From the U.S., but in the case of Korea, we didn't have as many concerns because of the Eastern or Asian culture [...] In Korea, there are really not many transgender [people] who have come out and are actors, and there's just a couple of gay [actors] who have come out publicly [...] So it was physically difficult to find a transgender actor who could really play the role. It was, realistically speaking, nearly impossible."
Still, despite his explanation, creator Dong-hyuk wants fans to know that he is taking these concerns seriously. Particularly, the creator cites an unnamed transgender YouTuber whose comments on the casting moved him and inspired him to take a more sensitive approach to trans characters in the projects he works on in the future.
"Going forward," Dong-hyuk says, "I will try my best to do authentic casting for not just transgender [people], but other sexual minorities as well [...] And I really hope that we could move toward that kind of society. But in the case of East Asian culture, like Japan or China or Korea, it's really difficult to do that kind of authentic casting. I really hope that going forward we have a more open and inclusive and embracing society that enables that"
Squid Game season 3 premieres on Netflix June 27.
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