Squid Game's VIPs have had different reactions to the criticism

The Guardian

The acting of the four English-speaking VIPs has been called stilted and mannered. But for Bangkok-based Geoffrey Giuliano, who played VIP Four, Squid Game has given him a kind of fame that being the author of 32 The Beatles hasn't. “I ain’t complaining, baby!” he says. “I’m in the hottest show in the world. I got fanmail. VIP Two actor Daniel C. Kennedy, who's been acting in South Korea since 2014, admits he hasn't taken the criticism well. “I suffer from extreme clinical depression, so it’s been a bit of a challenge,” he emails from Seoul during a gap in his packed shooting schedule. “Initially, I was gutted by the comments but, with time and distance and some honest self-reflection, I’ve been better able to filter the feedback into the stuff I can use to improve next time, versus the stuff that is bound to come when you’re part of a project that gets global recognition.” John D. Michaels, who played VIP One and who has been acting in Korea for five years, explains why the acting can be stilted. “It’s different for every show, but non-Korean performers often act with dialogue that is translated by a non-native – sometimes even by Google Translate – so it can sound unnatural,” he says. While actors do have the freedom to fix clunky dialogue, it often happens at the last minute, and comes with plenty of restrictions. “And often we don’t have the scripts for the rest of the show,” he adds. “We are only given our scenes, so we have no idea of the tone.”