Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae is proclaiming he would love to do an acting gig for Hollywood one day, even as he is making his directorial debut on the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival with the spy thriller Hunt.
Lee both stars in and directs the Korean spy-thriller set in the 1980s, with Hunt even garnering some respectable early critical reviews, too, despite some pointing out the film about rival intelligent agents uncovering a plot to assassinate the president is a bit convoluted at times.
Lee explained during an interview at Cannes (via Associated Press) that he was aiming for Hunt to have a global audience appeal, something he definitely pulled off with his involvement in Squid Game, which is one of Netflix’s most successful shows in about 90 countries.
But Lee said, via a translator during the interview, that he would be pretty jazzed about accepting a role in Tinsel Town at some point in the future, too.
“Working in Hollywood would definitely be a good experience for me […] If there was a good fit for me, a good character, I’d definitely like to join. But right now, I feel like global audiences are wanting more Korean content and Korea-made TV shows and films. So I would work in Korea as well very diligently. I might seem a little greedy, but if there was a role for me in Hollywood, I’d definitely like to do that, too.”
Even if Lee hasn’t officially starred in a Hollywood-produced film — yet — he’s already made significant waves in La La Land, as evidenced by the fact that he became the first Asian actor to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor for Squid Game.
Before making an impression in the west, Lee had already been a top star in Korean films for nearly three decades, including roles in movies such as An Affair, New World, and The Housemaid.
