Squid Game Season 3 has a whole new group of VIPs, and they’re as insufferable as ever. No shade – there are reasons they’re so jarring, as revealed by one of the cast members.
First introduced in Squid Game’s debut chapter, the VIPs are the mask-wearing, champagne-sipping, bloodthirsty billionaires who are so bored with their own lives that they bet on the lives of players for their own sickening entertainment.
Since they only head to South Korea for the final few challenges, they were nowhere to be seen in Season 2. However, they make their return in Season 3, and even get involved in Hide and Seek.
This time around, fresh faces are behind the golden masks, and just like in Season 1, viewers are already divided over the performances, with some calling the acting “horrendous” – but they’re not totally to blame.
VIP star says Squid Game Season 3 dubbed over their voices
Bryan Bucco – who played the American VIP wearing an eagle mask – has taken to the comments section of a TikTok video criticizing the VIPs’ acting in Squid Game Season 3, saying that they were dubbed over in English and he agrees it was a bad choice.
“Those are the English dubs. Not the actors’ voices,” he wrote. In response to a commenter saying the VIPs were “useless,” Bucco replied, “I agree. They didn’t further the story or compliment it well.”
The actor isn’t sure why the VIPs were dubbed over, but he speculated whether it “could be Netflix messing sh*t up? I watched a bit on a pirated streaming site and didn’t hear these voices…
“I think whoever is contracted to do the dubbing, does ALL of the dubbing. That will always be the default English dub. The Korean version shouldn’t have English dubs. If there are some in the Korean version, it would have to be due to specific lines having to be re-recorded for clarity.”
One commenter asked for further clarity on why they were dubbed in the original version too, to which Bucco replied, “Yeah I don’t know. I mean it’s whatever… maybe it’s a region thing? Some of the actors voices are more noticeably changed.
“It seems they did use voice actors to try and sound like us. I don’t even want to sh*t on my voice actor either because I think he did fine, I’m sure it wasn’t easy for him to say his lines either haha…
“It doesn’t really matter at the end of the day lol. I’ve posted an example before of the two different voices. Just… If it sounds dubbed, that’s because it probably is. And the ones used in this video above ARE the dubbed voices.”
Despite the dubbing, Bucco said he had a great experience on the Squid Game set. “It was overall a good experience. Everyone was super nice. The cast and crew,” he wrote.
“Our scenes were the very, very last scenes to be filled. Meaning there were no other major actors around except the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun). Only filmed for three days. It was a nice break from studying/work. Every night we sat together reading through lines questioning how any of it should really be said lol.”
Squid Game Season 3 VIP cast
The cast behind the new VIPs are, for the most part, newcomers to the acting world. Alongside Bucco as an American VIP, they include:
- David Sayers as the British VIP
- Jane Wong as the Hong Konger VIP
- Jordan Lambertoni as the French VIP
- Kevin Yorn as another American VIP
British accent aside, you may recognize Sayers as the guy who says, “Mamma mia” after a close shave. In real life, Sayers – from the UK – has starred in a number of short films over the years, including The Shaman, Trapped, and My Gray Face.
Wong, meanwhile, plays the only female VIP in Squid Game Season 3. Born in Hong Kong, Wong has starred in titles such as Raging Fire, Transformed, and The Calm Beyond.
The forever drunk VIP is played by Bucco, a New Jersey native who lives and studies in South Korea. His profile says he “wishes he was an actor” – it doesn’t get much bigger than Netflix’s best TV show.
As for the French VIP, he’s played by Lambertoni, a French actor who is fluent in Korean. His other credits include Amazon Bullseye and Blood From a Stone.
Interestingly, Yorn isn’t even an actor, but he is connected to Squid Game. He’s a partner of the law firm Yorn Levine Barnes Krintzman Rubenstein Kohner Endlich Goodell & Gellman, which represents creator Hwang Dong-hyuk. No doubt this connection led to him taking on the VIP role in Season 3.
Why are the VIPs so bad?
Even when the first chapter dropped, the VIPs’ acting came under fire, and it’s been no different for Season 3. On Reddit, one wrote, “The VIPs acting was horrendous, and they just seemed as if they read off of a script and never showed any emotion.”
Another said, “I couldn’t watch it. It was so awful I almost skipped through their scenes. I know everyone hated the Season 1 VIPs, I was personally fine with them, and god I want them back now after witnessing the Season 3 performances.”
“I don’t care about the story as much, but I’m just surprised how they STILL couldn’t fix how cringe the VIPs were,” added a third.
Following the show’s debut, the previous VIPs were on hand to explain why they came across so awkwardly.
Speaking to the Guardian back in 2021, John D Michaels – who played VIP One in the first chapter – explained, “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.”
Michaels explained that while some actors are able to fix clunky dialogue, “often we don’t have the scripts for the rest of the show. We are only given our scenes, so we have no idea of the tone.”
This was even trickier for the first bout of VIPs, as they were given their scripts without context, meaning the only backstory they got was that they’re “total idiots” and “dirtbag millionaires.”
Michaels went on to say, “We were all wearing very heavy plaster masks, and sitting on couches that were at least 20-30ft away from the closest VIP. We all had to yell our lines vaguely into the air, which added to the weird tonality of the delivery.”
Finally, he highlighted the editing process. “If I was editing a Russian actor speaking Russian, I wouldn’t have any idea if he was saying his lines correctly, or if his intonation was natural,” he said.
“There might be two takes. One of them could be perfect, the other wooden. If I’m editing it, the wooden one might move faster or cut more smoothly or the continuity might be better, so I’d just go with that.”
So there you have it. The VIPs might sound like they’re reading AI-generated fanfic out loud, but they don’t deserve to get the red light.
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