“Squid Game” star Lee Byung-hun said it’s difficult for his 10-year-old son to grapple with his dad’s role in the Netflix series.
During a June 17 appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” Lee talked about his young son’s reaction to his character in “Squid Game,” which released Season 3 on Netflix on June 27.
“You have two kids. They must be very proud of Dad,” host Jimmy Fallon said to Lee. “They can’t have seen ‘Squid Game?'”
“They’re not supposed to watch it, but …” Lee trailed off. He then shared that his son was 10 years old, while his daughter was 18 months old.
Fallon joked that his baby daughter must have seen the show at this point, which made Lee burst out into laughter. But the actor did have something to add about what his son thought.
“I think my son heard from his friend at school, and one day he was so sad and asked me, ‘Why are you so mean?’” Lee shared, referring to his character, Front Man, who oversees the games and pink soldiers in the show.
“And I said, ‘Why?’ And he said, ‘You killed a lot of people,’” Lee recalled.
His son, who Lee said is fond of South Korean rapper T.O.P and his show character, Thanos, asked him one simple question: “Why did you hit him so bad?”
While Lee tried explaining to his son how acting works, the actor said his son didn’t seem convinced.
“I think he doesn’t understand 100%,” he said.
This isn’t the first time Lee’s son has been introduced to his acting career.
Lee shared that he showed a clip of himself as his character, Storm Shadow, in the 2009 live-action film “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” to his son when he was three years old, to which he was taken by complete shock.
“And then he was like, ‘Are you really?'” Lee recalled of his son’s shock while thinking he was actually Storm Shadow.
The actor’s response? “Shhh! No one knows. Even your mom doesn’t know.”
Reflecting back on the premiere season of “Squid Game,” Lee shared that he was instructed by Netflix not to reveal his part, as his true identity is revealed at the end of Season 1. The actor refrained from telling his close friends — and even his mom.
“My mom called me and she yelled at me, ‘How could you not tell me that?’ So I said, ‘It was a secret,” Lee recalled to Fallon as the crowd laughed.
“And then she said, ‘I was so embarrassed when I got calls from my friends!'” Lee added.
Though Lee may be an adult, it seems that he learned a valuable lesson to always keep his mom in the loop on his projects.
“Sorry, Mom,” Lee said to the camera.
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