One of the trickiest new Squid Game characters to figure out has got to be Player 007 (Yang Dong-geun). The curly-haired, bespectacled gambling addict stands out in Squid Game Season 2 on Netflix thanks to the fact that he’s surprised by the arrival of his own mother, Player 149 (Kang Ae-shim), to the competition. Park Yong-sik has entered the games to earn enough money to pay off his debts and his mother, Jang Geum-ja, has done the same. Because of their relationship — and Geum-ja’s feisty, maternal nature — the mother/son duo are natural fan favorites. However, when Decider spoke with the actors during a virtual roundtable, Squid Game star Yang Dong-geun warned that series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk himself told him that 007 “really is a bad guy.”
When Decider asked Yang Dong-geun if Geum-ja secretly was holding Yong-sik back by infantilizing him, he admitted, “I think he is really someone that hides behind his mom.”
“If she wasn’t there, I think he would just keep voting yes, yes, yes, to continue the game and continue the gamble,” Yang Dong-geun said. “What Director Huang explained to me that this guy really is a bad guy. It’s just that that is hidden because he is with his mom during the games.”
Player 007’s mom helps him at a critical moment during the Six-Legged Race, inspiring him to overcome his panic and imagine his creditor’s face during the mini-game of Flying Stone. Ironically, Yang Dong-geun didn’t need help with this game at all.
“I don’t know if Director Hwang had already seen me play a pitcher in a previous project, but because of that, I was able to hit the stone really easily and well,” Yang said. “Some of the actors were having trouble with it because you actually have to hit the stone for the shot, but I was able to do it and it got a real reaction from my cast members being really excited and impressed.”
When CinemaBlend’s Alexandra Ramos asked the actor if his character’s experiences in Squid Game alongside his mother could lead to Yong-sik’s eventual reformation, Yang Dong-geun was cagey.
“I can say maybe he’ll reform, but that’s just for the time being and maybe he’ll change his mind,” he said.
One thing that was clear, though, was the fact that Kang Ae-shim and Yang Dong-geun share a sweet relationship off screen. Yang told Gizmodo’s Cheryl Eddy that Kang “was like a real mom to me.”
“We had six months of filming for Season 2, and that really persisted us throughout this process of collaboration,” he said. “Of course, there was the one spoonful of directing that director Hwang did that really added to this relationship that we had already built.”
“I’m not saying that I’m this really great person,” Kang Ae-shim told Ramos, “but I think she really is this person that I aspire to be, to bring people together and see the good in people. To be able to become her was a real joy.”