The Old Gganbu, Oh Young-soo, "I Received Plenty in This Life. Now I Want to Live the Rest of My Life Giving"

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On October 13, the Kyunghyang Shinmun met with the actor, Oh Young-soo, who played Oh Il-nam, contestant number one in a life-or-death survival game in Squid Game, a Netflix original drama which has become an international sensation. Oh is a veteran actor, who has remained on stage for 54 years, since his debut in 1968 with the Gwangjang Theater Company. He left a strong impression with his innocent smile and his portrayal of a wide range of emotions and inner monologue in Squid Game. Bak Min-gyu, Senior Reporter

The actor, Oh Young-soo (77), appeared wearing an orange jacket over a dark-green plaid shirt and black pants. When he approached, a faint scent of perfume passed by in the wind. He was a dandy.

Oh is enjoying an explosive amount of fame these days thanks to Squid Game, an original Netflix series that has taken the world by storm. In the drama, he plays Oh Il-nam, contestant number one in a life-or-death survival game. Oh has captivated the viewers with some irreplaceable mature acting. Even in moments of silence, he tells a story. Fans created and distributed memes with the scenes he appeared in. Once, people thought a social media account opened by his fan was his official account and it instantly drew 60,000 followers.

He may not have been well known among the public, but in the theater, he is a living legend. Oh has been actively performing as an actor for 54 years nearly nonstop since he debuted in the Gwangjang Theater Company in 1968. His appearances in the film, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring and the TV drama Queen Seondeok left a strong impression.

The interview was held on October 13 at Wirye New Town in Gyeonggi-do, where his residence is located. He was happy for the global success of Squid Game and said, “I was able to promote our country and I think that was very meaningful.”

A scene from Squid Game. Director Hwang Dong-hyuk who wrote the script and directed the drama, said he was deeply moved by Oh’s performance of the old Buddhist monk in Kim Ki-duk’s film, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring, which was released in 2003. He had Oh Young-soo in mind for the role of Oh Il-nam early on while preparing for Squid Game. Courtesy of Netflix

Q. I suppose a lot of people recognize you now.

A. That’s why I lost two kgs. Being famous is exhausting, you know. Hahaha...”

Q. When were you offered a role on Squid Game?

A. It was around November 2019. The assistant director called one day and asked if I could appear in a work that would be distributed on Netflix. So I said, ‘Let me take a look at the script.’”

Q. What was your first thought when you read the script?

A. I thought the language of the work was alive, that the message it wanted to convey was strong, and that the format was fresh. It uses games from our childhood memories as symbols to criticize reality. So when the assistant director called again, I said, ‘I’m thinking about it, so let the director come pay me a visit when he has the time.’”

Hwang Dong-hyuk, the director who also wrote the script for Squid Game, had chosen Oh Young-soo for the role of Oh Il-nam early on. Earlier, when he watched Kim Ki-duk’s film, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003), he was deeply impressed by Oh’s portrayal of the old Buddhist monk. He had tried to cast Oh when shooting the 2017 film, The Fortress, but things didn’t work out due to Oh’s situation. Hwang still had Oh on his mind and went to see him in Daehangno, Seoul when preparing Squid Game. At the time, Hwang saw Oh performing in the play, The Visit, and reaffirmed that Oh was the right person.

A scene from Kim Ki-duk’s Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring. Oh Young-soo plays the role of the old monk. Kyunghyang Shinmun Archives

Q. How did you interpret Oh Il-nam?

A. I thought he symbolized the possessive rulers and the people who put the vulnerable in their grasp and controlled them. But he isn’t all evil. He has his own rules and order of things. The scene where he executes the agent who undermined the fairness of the game to sell human organs shows this well.

Q. Do you think Oh Il-nam really played the games with his life on the line, too? After all, he could’ve died in the group games, like the tug-of-war...

A. If you watch dramas with such logical eyes, you’ll find more than a couple of holes. It’s a drama, so let’s watch it as a symbol. Let it pass. That’s how you should see it (laughs).

Q. Your colorful acting is amazing. Your crouched back, the way you swing your arms, not to mention the changes in your facial expression and your eyes, every one of them tells a story.

A. Actors obtain a certain level of skill as they age and accumulate experience. At first, they may exaggerate and seem unnatural, but when you get to certain level, the acting comes naturally. There were many times when I acted by putting Oh Il-nam inside me, but there were also many times when it clicked with Oh Il-nam when I just acted according to my stream of consciousness. It’s the same with life. You possess things and want more, but when you turn seventy or eighty, you want to let it all go. You lose the desire to own things and you are left with the natural “self.” If I were in my sixties, I couldn’t have played Oh Il-nam as I am doing now.

He continued explaining by adding age to the story in the philosopher Erich Fromm’s To Have or To Be. When a traveler walking through the mountains comes across a flower, the young traveler picks the flower with the desire to possess it. In his forties or fifties, unable to let go of the desire to possess it, the traveler digs the flower with its roots and all and plants it in his garden or yard. When he is in his seventies or eighties, the traveler is satisfied with enjoying the flower where it is planted. Oh said, “I think life is like that,” and added, “Whether it be big or small, I received plenty in this life. I would like to live what little (time) I have remaining by giving whenever possible.”

Q. It was a hot topic recently, when news got out that you refused to star in a Kkanbu Chicken commercial.

A. Gganbu (Korean slang for one’s mate or team when playing marbles or ddakji) is a word that’s close to the theme of Squid Game. In the drama, when Oh Il-nam says to Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), “We’re gganbu,” it implicates a lot of things, such as trust and betrayal in human relationships. I was concerned that if I mentioned the word gganbu in the commercial, it would weaken the significance of the scene in the drama. So I politely refused.”

Q. Did you get any other proposals for commercials?

A. I get a lot. That’s all money, isn’t it? When I refuse, people ask me why I keep refusing when they’re giving me money. There was a time when I thought, “Should I?” but that’s all just greed.

Q. Your family might be secretly sorry that you refused.

A. My wife had a tough life, but we didn’t have to ask others for help. That’s good enough. My family’s thoughts are not different from mine.

Q. Then does that mean you’re not going to do any commercials?

A. No. I will when the opportunity comes. But even if I do, I would like to appear in a commercial where I can feel good about myself without undermining the drama or commercials for public interest.

Q. Wasn’t it physically challenging when shooting the drama?

A. The director didn’t make it that tough for the actors. He didn’t torment us. This means that he trusted us, and the actors also worked hard. The shooting was done in two studios in Daejeon and Anseong, Gyeonggi. I began shooting last April and finished in November. The dubbing was completed in January this year. I only found out that the director, Hwang had lost six teeth because he had such a hard time making this drama from his interview.

Oh is a man of the parallel bars. He calls the parallel bars “my pet workout for life” and has worked out on the parallel bars for over sixty years since his days as a teenager. He still leaves the house at 6:20 a.m. every morning, walks 20 minutes to the entrance of Namhansanseong Fortress and does fifty of his parallel bar routine. He also makes sure to walk 10,000 steps a day. There is an anecdote related to the parallel bars. When he was acting in the stage drama Jangpan (2016), the director, over a few drinks, happened to hear that Oh worked out on the parallel bars every day. He installed the parallel bars on the stage and changed the scene where the thief stretched every morning in the frost to him working out on the parallel bars. The audience loved it.

Q. Working out on the parallel bars every day, you must be healthy.

A. Ten years ago, I had to insert a stent because of a heart attack. Three years ago, I suffered from acute pneumonia and nearly died. But I have regained my health. Being alive is a joy and a delight.

Q. I heard you were quite good at go (baduk) as well.

A. My hobby is playing go on the Internet when I have the time. I try not to let my brain rest. Right now, I’m an amateur 6 dan. For a professional go player, that would be about 1 or 2 gup (kyu).

Q. Where are you from?

A. I was born in Nakha-ri, Tanhyeon-myeon in Paju-gun, Gyeonggi-do. I was the third of four boys and one girl. My dad was killed by a North Korean soldier in the Korean War. He died when I was six. My older brothers all died of diseases when they were young. After the Korean War, we lived as “dirt spoons,” but before the war, our family was quite well off. Haeju, Hwanghae Province was where my grandfather lived working as a schoolmaster. My great-grandfather was the head of the county, and he owned a lot of land in Haeju. I still have the land registration certificates.

Q. Having lost your father early, your life must have been tough when you were young?

A. Yes. I was in and out of school, and I also had to put bread on the table working hard manual labor.

Crime on Goat Island, performed at Elcanto Theater in 1983. The person to the far left on the back row is Oh Young-soo. The actor sitting, third from left in the front row is Park Jung-ja. Courtesy of Oh Young-soo

Oh’s roots are on the stage. He began acting with the Gwangjang Theater Company in 1966. He debuted in Jeon Ok-ju’s drama, A Walk in the Park in the Daytime, in 1968. He then moved on to Seongjwa Theater Company and Yeoin Theater Company and acted for sixteen years in Jayu (freedom) Theater Company from 1970. He played important roles in The Bald Soprano, Poverty and Nobility, and Faust, and he received the Dong-a Drama Award (1979) for his portrayal of Angelo in Crime on Goat Island. Around this time, he also worked as a voice-over actor on the Educational Broadcasting System (EBS). In 1987, he joined the National Theater Company of Korea and retired after performing for 23 years. He received the Baeksang Arts Award for best actor (1994) for his performance as Gukjeon in Pigo Jigo, Pigo Jigo (Bloom and Fade). In 2011, he began acting in I Love You and continued to work with private theater companies to perform in Confession of a Black Prostitute and Lee Su-il and Shim Sun-ae. Oh has appeared in over 200 works in 54 years.

Q. How did you become an actor?

A. At first, I wasn’t really desperate to become an actor. I was discharged from the military when I was twenty-five, but I couldn’t find a job. A friend, who happened to be a member of Gwangjang Theater Company, suggested that I come over, and that’s how I first joined. I sought the opportunity while doing the dirty work, like cleaning, and over a year later, I made my debut. I got my first leading role early and played Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire with Yeoin Theater Company when I was twenty-eight. I may be old now, but when I was young, I (my appearance) wasn’t so bad. Hahaha.

Q. Was acting easy?

A. Faust, which I performed when I was thirty-four, was a flop because I was arrogant and ambitious. Kim Jeong-ok, the CEO of Jayu Theater Company said, “Oh Young-soo is more a Mephisto than a Faust,” but I insisted on playing Faust. Unlike the title, Faust, the main character is actually Mephistopheles, but I attempted to make it a drama about Faust. At the time, people lined up from the Myeong-dong Art Theater in Seoul all the way to the Midopa Department Store to see the play. But the result was devastating.

Q. How so?

A. I lost my voice, and it was simply a failure. I was sorry to everyone, I wanted to cry. I even lost consciousness for about twenty seconds during a soliloquy holding a globe. I can never forget it. That is why Faust is a role that I really want to act again. If I do it now, I think I can do it right.

Q. Was there anyone who had a significant influence on your acting career?

A. The best stage actor, the late Jang Min-ho. I met him in the National Theater Company. He was my teacher and my icon. When I passed the age of sixty, I was proud and I thought, “My acting skills are fine.” But after a drink, this man said, “Oh Young-soo, you still have a long way to go. Your acting is fake.” His words hurt, but he said them because he cared about me. I was proud, but on stage, I always felt small compared to him, and I wondered why. I want to establish the Jang Min-ho Award before I die.

Oh Young-soo played Gukjeon in Pigo Jigo, Pigo Jigo (Bloom and Fade), a drama staged by the National Theater Company of Korea in June 1994 and was awarded the Baeksang Arts Award for best actor that year. Courtesy of Oh Young-soo

Oh joined the National Theater Company to marry his wife, Kang (64). Kang, who worked at a bank, was a fan who often went to see his plays. After dating for two years, they wanted to get married, but Kang’s parents strongly opposed the marriage. Oh was a poor stage actor and he was thirteen years older than Kang. Oh recalled and said, “I couldn’t lose my wife, so after agonizing over the issue, I decided to move to the National Theater Company, where they pay actors a monthly salary. Only after that did my parents-in-law approve of the marriage.”

In 1987, at the age of forty-three, Oh became a husband and the couple had a daughter.

Q. You didn’t appear in a lot of TV dramas or films. Is there a particular reason for that?

A. I didn’t want to damage the pride and respect as a member of the National Theater Company. I wasn’t happy with many of the roles I was offered.

Q. You played an old Buddhist monk in A Little Monk and Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring, which were released in 2003. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring was acclaimed, receiving the Blue Dragon Film Awards (best picture, technical award), the Chunsa Film Art Awards (planning and production, art direction) and the Audience Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

A. In the mid 2000s, I was part of the National Theater Company’s performance of The Robbers at the Internationale Schillertage in Mannheim, Germany. At the time, a German gentleman said he came from Berlin to see me, because he heard that the star of Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring was performing. I was touched.

Q. In Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring, there is a scene where the old monk writes the Parjna Paramita Hrdaya Sutram or the Heart Sutra with a cat’s tail. I heard that you wrote it yourself. I heard that you also wrote the Chinese character bi (閉), which the old monk writes on Korean paper with a brush and then places over his eyes, nose, lips and ears at the end.

A. At first, we called a person to do the calligraphy. When he was taking a break while writing the Heart Sutra, I tried writing the words next to him, and the director, Kim Ki-duk happened to see me. He asked, “Sir, do you do calligraphy?” I told him that my grandfather, who was a schoolmaster of the village school, made me memorize and write ancestral tablets when I was young. And he asked me to do the calligraphy myself. When I dipped the cat’s tail in the Indian ink and wrote the characters mohe (摩訶), the ink hardened and the cat couldn’t bear it. He twisted his body and dropped feces and glared at me like he was going to swallow me alive. Those eyes were really terrifying.

Q. What do you think is good acting?

A. I think there has to be energy in the acting. And there is a language of silence in between the lines. You have to take advantage of that with your experience, and I think that is the rhythm of breathing. I think the basis of acting is energy and the rhythm of breathing. I think good acting is something that conveys the message you want to deliver to the audience well and evokes their sympathy.

Q. What are your thoughts on the role of an actor?

A. A serious actor should be able to talk about life. But these days, most plays and films only have events and no life. I miss that. Shakespeare has managed to be alive for 500 years through his works because his works didn’t just deal with happenings. It’s because he sang about life in his works. But to talk about life, age is necessary. Unlike Europe or Japan, we don’t have works that talk about life, so there is no place for old actors. Kenshi Fushihara’s film, Life Is Fruity, which portrays the final years of an elderly couple, isn’t it beautiful?

Q. What are your wishes as an actor?

A. Once, a Russian theater company came to Korea and performed Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. The curtains closed with the soliloquy of a senior actor over ninety. I was so moved, it rippled through my soul. I want to go on stage until I am 88 working out on parallel bars. But then, it’s not up to me, is it? It’s just a wish (laughs).”

Q. What kind of actor do you want to be remembered as?

“(Oh is lost in thought for a moment.) I like the word areumdaun (beautiful) in the Korean language. A beautiful world, a beautiful society, a beautiful person... Someday, I will have to leave the stage. When the time comes, I hope the sight of me leaving is beautiful. At the end of The Tempest, Shakespeare speaks through Prospero and says, “Release me from my bands.” He then stops writing, returns to his hometown and enjoys a rural life until he dies. I would like to end my life in the countryside, in Haeju, where my grandfather lived, when we are reunified. But it probably won’t come true.

As for plans of Squid Game season 2, director Hwang Dong-hyuk recently said, “I think there will definitely be an explanation about Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun), the undercover cop, and the frontman (Lee Byung-hun).” A preview of the frontman’s story means that Oh Il-nam will appear again. Already, I look forward to the performance of the experienced actor, whose acting was simple with no sign of superfluity but had great depth, in season two.