Squid Sport actor Park Sung-hoon has spoken about his trepidation taking part in a transgender character in season two of the present, provided that the actor is a cisgender man.
Within the hit season, the actor performs the distinguished character Cho Hyun-ju, a transgender girl with a army background getting into the lethal sport to fund her gender-affirming surgical procedure. There was some controversy on the casting, though Park was conscious of the dangers from the beginning
In an interview with Selection, he mentioned: “I used to be fairly amazed on the alternative — I felt like as an actor it was going to be fairly the problem. I did have considerations about portraying a trans girl as a result of I’m a cisgender man, so I actually wished to method it as cautiously and thoughtfully as doable”.
In December, present director Hwang Dong-hyuk gave an explaination as to why the character was being performed by a cisgender man, telling US Journal: “To start with, we had been doing our analysis, and I used to be pondering of doing an genuine casting of a trans actor”.
He continued by saying there have been “near no actors which can be overtly trans” and that “Sadly, within the Korean society at present, the LGBTQ neighborhood is somewhat nonetheless marginalised and extra uncared for, which is heartbreaking”.
The position ultimately went to Park, who shared that he would love the character to problem perceptions of transgender folks. “I actually hope that Hyun-ju will play a component in perhaps eliminating a few of these biases” he mentioned. “I hope that individuals who belong in these communities will not really feel discriminated in opposition to or expertise disadvantages inside society”.
Regardless of the controversy, the actor has revealed that he has acquired constructive suggestions from the transgender neighborhood. “Truthfully, a lot that I can’t learn each single one in every of them” Park says of the suggestions. “I liked feedback saying that that they had by no means seen a trans character like this earlier than and the way it was empowering for them. So, studying these feedback, a part of me feels reduction and lots of delight”.
Season two of Squid Sport has been an enormous scores hit for Netflix, with Hwang Dong-hyuk promising the arrival of a 3rd season “before you’d anticipate”. He additionally in contrast the themes of the present to Korea’s present political turmoil.
