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10th Jan 2022

Squid Game star O Yeong-su wins first Golden Globe aged 77

Charlie Herbert

He’s the first Korean ever to win the award

Squid Game star O Yeong-su has picked up the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in Television at this year’s private award ceremony.

The 77-year-old actor, who has never won a Golden Globe before, won the award for his portrayal of Oh Il-nam (a.k.a Player 001) in the smash-hit Netflix series.

By winning the gong, Yeung-su becomes the first Korean actor to win an award in Golden Globes history.

He finished ahead of Billy Crudup (The Morning Show), Kieran Culkin (Succession), Mark Duplass (The Morning Show), and Brett Goldstein (Ted Lasso) to win Best supporting actor in a series, limited series, or TV movie.

There was no grand acceptance speech for Yeung-Su though, with this year’s event taking place at a private ceremony in LA as the live broadcast was cancelled due to backlash following a lack of diversity in nominations.

Last October, O Yeong-su revealed just how much his life has changed since Squid Game’s release.

“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”, he told MBC’s How Do You Play? according to Soompi.

He continued: “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.

“So my daughter has been helping me.

“Things have changed quite a bit. Even when I go out to a cafe or somewhere like that, I now have to be aware of [how I appear to others]. It’s made me think, ‘Being famous is tough, too.'”

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But Yeong-su had quite a philosophical view on competition in general, saying: “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, second place also beat third place. So everyone is actually a winner.

“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.”

It sounds like he’s pretty happy with his lot, saying: “Big or small, I’ve received a lot of things while living my life. Now, I want to leave behind those things that I’ve received.

“To put it simply, 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 there exactly as it is, and you go back to see it again later on.

“It’s the same with life. Leaving things exactly the way they are. It isn’t easy.”