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Squid Game‘s breakout star Choi Seung-hyun, also known by his stage name T.O.P, breaks his silence following his casting backlash as Thanos. Following the release of season 2, Thanos became one of the standout new characters in the series due to his eccentric but amusing response to the games. While T.O.P has received praise for his performance, his casting didn’t come without backlash due to the star’s controversy with his marijuana scandal.
In an interview with The Korea Times, T.O.P spoke about his casting as Thanos and reflected on his life since the marijuana scandal.
“The offer to play Thanos was a daunting proposition. The character mirrored my past, reflecting aspects I’d rather keep hidden. The fear of being pigeonholed into one role made me hesitate. But destiny seemed to be pulling me in this direction.”
“For almost 10 years, I felt no one looked at me, but director Hwang Dong-hyuk reached out to me first. The trust (and) the belief he had in me gave me the courage to take this on. As an actor, it is my duty to repay the trust. Excelling in my performance is another assignment in my life.”
“The drug that Thanos uses in the series is extremely potent, so I researched the effects of such substances while developing the character. I tried to act differently in scenes where Thanos had not yet used the drug versus those where he had. There’s a type of rap style in southern U.S. hip-hop called ‘mumble rap,’ often associated with rappers who use powerful stimulants. I tried to channel that in the way Thanos delivers his lines.”
“For the past seven years, I have lived almost isolated from society, spending most of my time at home and in my music studio. So I just kept working on music in the dark and the reason I did that was not for any other reason, but because music was the only place where I could breathe, when I was composing music and standing in front of the microphone. I think I made music to survive.”
“My primary goal is to establish a stable and less dramatic life. I want to reach a point where I can wake up without being bombarded by negative news and feel more at peace.”
More to come…
Source: The Korea Times