Actor Lee Jung-jae made history when he won outstanding lead actor in a drama series for “Squid Game” at the 74th Emmy Awards held on Sept. 12 in Los Angeles.
His triumph made him the first Korean to win the award with “Squid Game” taking home six Emmys out of 14 nominations.
In addition, Hwang Dong-hyuk won outstanding directing for a drama series for the first episode of “Squid Game” titled “Red Light, Green Light.”
“Squid Game” is Netflix’s biggest show with 1.65 billion hours viewed in the first 28 days on the video streaming site.
Backstage, Lee Jung-jae and Hwang Dong-hyuk talked about their win with the director revealing details about “Squid Game 2.”
About his acceptance speech, Lee Jung-jae said he did practice.
“I wish I could say not at all but in fact, I actually did a little bit of practice because I wanted to make sure to thank the director,” the 49-year-old actor told the Television Academy in an interview.
Hwang Dong-hyuk said attending the Emmy Awards was a great honor but winning made it special.
“I mean, yeah, this is just great honor just to be here but we won something. So it’s even greater honor,” he said.
Hwang Dong-hyuk revealed details about season 2 of “Squid Game.” He said he just finished writing episode six of the second season.
“Yeah I just finished writing about episode six. So it’s like a half–kind of halfway done. And the biggest difference is his character . He’s a different guy than season one,” he said.
He added, “So I mean–he’s going for the revenge. That’s the big difference.”
Lee Jung-jae thanked fans around the world for loving “Squid Game.”
“To all the global fans who watched and showed so much love for ‘Squid Game,’ I thank you truly from the bottom of my heart,” he said.
At the 2022 Creative Arts Emmy Awards held last Sept. 4, actress Lee Yoo-mi, who played Ji-yeong in “Squid Game,” won the Emmy for outstanding guest actress in a drama series. “Squid Game” also bagged the outstanding special visual effects in a single episode, outstanding stunt performance and outstanding production design for a narrative contemporary program (one hour or more).
"Squid Game" tells the story of 456 debt-ridden people who are recruited to join deadly children's games to win a prize of 45.6 billion won ($32.7 million).