Actress Jo Yu-ri, who plays Kim Jun-hee or Player 222, confesses she was a huge fan of the Squid Game when the first season was released in September 2021.

“I remember watching S1 with my family and thinking to myself, ‘I really, really want to be part of a show like this’,” recalls the 23-year-old to StarLifestyle in this exclusive Zoom interview to talk about the series’ third season.

“What felt so fresh to me was the concept of turning innocent childhood games into something deadly. It was something I had never seen before – shocking, yet incredibly original," she adds.

Hence, when she got the chance to audition for S2, she jumped at it. However, Jo says that she had no idea what was in store for her character who turns up at the game, very much pregnant.

“The audition script I received was a dialogue between Jun-hee and Myung-gi (Player 333 portrayed by Im Si-wan).

Im Si-wan (left) and Jo Yu-ri play former lovers in the show. Photo: AP

“I knew the role would be challenging, but I didn’t expect it to be this difficult,” she shares, smiling at the memory.

The level of difficulty she faced is especially impressive considering Jo made her acting debut in 2022’s Mimicus and had appeared in just one episode of another K-drama, Work Later, Drink Now 2 (2023), ahead of Squid Game.

Prior to acting, she was best known as a member of the South Korean-Japanese girl group Iz*One.

While she says there were many challenges as Jun-hee, her biggest concern was playing a pregnant woman convincingly.

“I kept wondering – what if real mothers feel my performance isn’t believable, that it lacks authenticity?

“That thought weighed heavily on me.

"But thanks to support from my co-star Kang Ae-Shim (who plays Jang Geum-Ja or Player 149), as well as friends and mothers I spoke with, I was able to overcome those fears and carry the part successfully.”

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