‘Squid Game’ team to be absent from Golden Globes

Actors Lee Jung-jae, Oh Young-soo and director Hwang Dong-hyuk will not be attending the 79th Golden Globe Awards.

According to Lee’s agency, Artist Company, the actor decided not to participate in the awards ceremony after careful consideration.

“Though it is a great honor to be nominated for the Golden Globes, Lee will be absent from the awards ceremony after considering the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, self-quarantine regulations and Netflix’s decision to not submit the series in the awards,” Artist Company’s official told The Korea Herald on Thursday.

“The director and Oh are not participating in this year’s Golden Globes either,” a Netflix official said.

Netflix’s South Korean megahit “Squid Game” was nominated in the best drama series category on Dec. 13, even though the streaming platform had not submitted the series for consideration. New rules allow for work that was not submitted to be reviewed and nominated.

Lee became the first Korean actor to get a nomination in the best television actor category at the Golden Globe Awards, where he is up against Brain Cox and Jeremy Strong of HBO’s “Succession,” Billy Porter of Netflix’s “Pose,” and Omar Sy of “Lupin.”

Oh was nominated for the best supporting actor prize along with Brett Goldstein of AppleTV+’s “Ted Lasso” and HBO’s Kieran Culkin of “Succession.”

The annual event, honoring the best in television and films, has come under fire over allegations of racism and sexism.

In May 2021, the Golden Globe Awards’ longtime broadcaster NBC announced that it would not air the 2022 Golden Globes, considering the scandals which were swirling around the show.

After facing boycotts by various film studios and stars in Hollywood, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced that the organization has put its utmost effort to become better by changing the rules, bylaws, code of conduct and governance.

Though the awards presentation is scheduled to be held on Sunday at 6 p.m. (US time), details on how the ceremony could be viewed have yet to be announced.

By Lee Si-jin (sj_lee@heraldcorp.com)