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Squid Game actor who portrayed trans woman Cho Hyun-ju had "concerns" about the role in season 2 of the Netflix hit
The male actor hopes that his portrayal of Hyun-ju will help encourage trans actors in Korea to come out and seek more roles.
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Representation matters in fiction, particularly when it has a platform the size of Netflix’s hit Squid Game. While season two featured plenty of new characters entering the games, one stands out as a potentially difficult role, both from an acting and from a public perception point of view. When Park Sung-hoon, a cis male actor, was cast as the trans woman Cho Hyun-ju, it came with a huge amount of pressure, something the actor knew going in.
“I was quite amazed at the opportunity – I felt like as an actor it was going to be quite the challenge,” Park said in an interview. “I did have concerns about portraying a transwoman because I am a cisgender man, so I really wanted to approach it as cautiously and thoughtfully as possible.”
The reason that Squid Game cast a non-trans person in the role of Hyun-ju has to do with the lack of openly trans actors in Korea. Series creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk has said that he wanted to have more authentic casting for the part but finding an actor proved to be “impossible” which is something that Park hopes his portrayal will alleviate.
“I really hope that Hyun-ju will play a part in getting rid of some of those biases," he explained. "I hope that people who belong in those communities will no longer feel discriminated against or experience disadvantages within society. I hope that everyone can be true to who they really are and feel confident in doing so.”
Squid Game season two is currently streaming on Netflix, with the third and final season coming later in 2025.
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