“In this Academy campaign, I think I need to make a plan to… eliminate some of the other nominees,” Lee joked with TooFab exclusively. Lee is up against Chalamet, Clooney, DiCaprio, Jesse Plemons and Ethan Hawke.
Timothée Chalamet, George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio and more need to keep an eye out for Lee Byung-hun.
While walking the red carpet at the premiere of his new film No Other Choice, Lee Byung-hun told TooFab’s Christina Cavaleri that he has his eyes on the Golden Globe.
The South Korean actor made history by being the first Korean nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
“In this Academy campaign, I think I need to make a plan to … eliminate some of the other nominees,” Lee quipped with Cavaleri exclusively. Lee is up against Chalamet, Clooney, DiCaprio, Jesse Plemons and Ethan Hawke. “Joke. It’s a joke,” Lee continued, before being reminded who he was up against. “Be careful,” he added.
Lee is no stranger to eliminating the competition, as its a through line for his characters of Yoo Man-soo in No Other Choice and Front Man in Squid Game. While speaking with TooFab, the actor admitted he did have award season on his mind while preparing for No Other Choice.
“I thought about that a little bit because it’s director Park Chan-wook’s movie,” he shared. Park, of course, is no stranger to acclaim, having picked up major honors at Cannes, the BAFTAs, Blue Dragon Film Awards and tons of film festivals around the world.
Along with No Other Choice, Lee has another film up for Golden Globes — KPop Demon Hunters — after voicing the main demon villain, Gwi-Ma. The animated film became a cultural phenomenon after its Netflix release, scoring a sequel. However, Lee admitted he doesn’t know much about the next storyline.
“I have no idea. I don’t know about that. But I think they might make a second one, I think. That’s all I know,” he said, before revealing if he listens to the soundtrack just as much as the rest of us.
“My two-year-old daughter always listens to that music. So I listen to them automatically. My daughter likes ‘Golden,’ so I like ‘Golden’ too,” Lee said.
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Once more niche in the US, Korean content has transformed into a global cultural phenomenon, thanks in large part to K-pop and films including No Other Choice and Parasite becoming the new mainstream. So what is it about Korean content that has us all hooked?
“My friends working in Hollywood movie industry, they said to me, ‘Korean content, the storyline is very unpredictable,'” Lee explained to Cavaleri. “That’s the power of Korean content,” he added.
Squid Game, of course, is another piece of art from the Korean film and television industry that made waves around the world — so much so that there is currently an English version of the series in the works.
“I think any country and any story can be made with a plan and idea like Squid Game,” Lee said.
He continued: “Because it has the color of a fantasy genre, I think we can make a lot of fun stories with imagination. I think an idea like Squid Game can be rendered in other countries and cultures as well because it’s kind of part of the genre of fantasy so people can really use their imagination to make it their own.”
