‘Squid Game’ Player 001 Reveals How Netflix Mega-Hit Changed His Life Overnight

The massive success of “Squid Game”, which is now officially Netflix’s most-watched series, has had a big impact on its cast.

That’s especially true for Oh Young Soo, the 77-year-old actor who plays Player 001 in the game.

Soo made an appearance on South Korean TV show “How Do I Play?”, where he revealed how much his life has changed in the weeks since the show began streaming.

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“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 said, via Soompi.

“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,” added the actor, who revealed he’s already turned down offers to star in TV commercials.

“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,’” he explained.

Reflecting on the show’s premise, he shared his own personal philosophy about competition.

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“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,” he said.

“I don’t have any grand ambitions,” Soo added. “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.”