‘Squid Game’ actor Oh Youngsoo admits he doesn’t have ‘any grand ambitions’ in life
Oh Youngsoo’s popularity might have skyrocketed after portraying the mysterious Oh Ilnam (Player 001) in Squid Game, but the actor remains conscious of his newfound fame.
Despite skyrocketing into superstardom, Youngsoo revealed in an interview with the show How Do You Play that he turned down all commercial offers he has received thus far.
“I feel like I’m floating on air. It makes me think, ‘I need to calm down, organize my thoughts, and hold myself back right now.’ Things have changed quite a bit. Even when I go out to a cafe or somewhere like that, I now have to be aware. It’s made me think, ‘Being famous is tough too,’” he explained.
Youngsoo also shared his daughter has been helping him respond to messages since he doesn’t have a manager.
“So many people have been contacting me and because I don’t have a manager to help me, it’s hard for me to handle the volume of calls and messages I’ve been receiving,” he said.
Even if Youngsoo is considered a global star, he admitted that he doesn’t have “any grand ambitions” on how to live the rest of his life.
“Big or small, I’ve received a lot of things in my life. Now, I want to leave those behind. Let’s say you go to a mountain and see a flower. When we’re young, we pick the flower and take it for ourselves. But by the time you reach my age, you leave it exactly as it is, and go back to see it again later on. It’s the same with life. Leaving things exactly the way they are,” he explained.
The veteran actor also opened up about his thoughts on Squid Game, sharing his thoughts on how life should be lived.
“Our society often only acknowledges first place, as if everyone else doesn’t matter. As if only first place exists, and second place is meaningless. But even though second place lost to first place, the second place also beat the third place. So, everyone is actually a winner,” he said.
He also added: “That’s why I think a true winner is someone who is working hard at the things they want to do and attempting to reach a certain state on the inside. I feel like that kind of person is a winner.”
Before he was cast as Oh Ilnam in the trending dystopian series, Youngsoo appeared as a monk in K-dramas The Great Queen Seondeok and Moon River.