The world excuses failure in your first attempt at anything, but some talented individuals don’t need a second chance. Jung Ho-Yeon is one such talented individual, who aced her role as Sae-byeok in Squid Game. The SAG nominations might have shocked many, but they acknowledged Jung’s acting skills.

If you were waiting for insights into Jung Ho-Yeon’s journey, then you are in luck. The actress recently opened up about her experience as Sae-byeok and acting. So, let us look at the debutant’s acting journey that helped her bag a SAG nomination.

How did Jung Ho-Yeon foray into acting?

For the uninitiated, Jung Ho-Yeon was a model before she explored the acting field. “I had even more time on my hands when my career was slowing,” the actress explained. “I delved into even more films and books, and began to think I’d like to express myself in that artform someday. That desire started to grow. So every time I returned to Korea I’d take month-long acting lessons and slowly grew my dream.“

Since Sae-byeok was Jung’s debut acting role, she had some nerves at the beginning. Jung Ho-Yeon related acting with modeling when she expressed her thoughts about acting for the first time: “It was like when I was modeling, I felt like I hated every single photoshoot I did, the way I walked on every runway. That’s similar to how I felt this time.”

Jung Ho-Yeon’s preparation for Sae-byeok

Jung Ho-Yeon lived the role of Sae-byeok, of course not literally, but she got into the right headspace. Sae-byeok’s portrayal showed meticulous preparation and execution by Jung Ho-Yeon. Thus, the actress elaborated: “I started writing a diary for Sae-byeok, about everything that she went through. The smells, the emotions, the sounds she heard. I began adding more and more detail.”

Squid Game had many physically and emotionally draining scenes. And if we, as the audience, felt the heat, then the actors must have had a hard time filming. “There’s this scene where Sae-byeok is alone in the bathroom, which doesn’t come until later in the show, but we filmed it relatively early in the process,” Jung Ho-Yeon described her most challenging scene.

You can check out more of Jung Ho-Yeon’s QnA for other questions.

What do you think of Jung Ho-Yeon’s SAG nomination? Let us know in the comments about your favorite Sae-byeok moment in the Netflix Original, which you think justifies her nomination.