Squid Game star Hoyeon joins Cate Blanchett in first-ever English-speaking role

Jung Hoyeon has been cast in her first-ever English-speaking role, alongside Cate Blanchett.

As a follow-up to her on-screen debut in Netflix’s smash hit Korean-language series Squid Game, the 28-year-old will appear in director Alfonso Cuarón’s forthcoming Apple TV+ mini-series titled Disclaimer.

Blanchett leads the thriller – based on Renee Knight’s 2015 novel of the same name – as Catherine Ravenscroft, whose career as a successful TV and documentary journalist is built on unearthing transgressions of long-respected institutions.

After a widowed writer (Kevin Kline) leaves an intriguing novel on her bedside table, Catherine realises she plays a key role in a story she had hoped was buried in the past.

According to IMDb, Hoyeon will play Kim, a crucial supporting role, which will see the actor take on her first English-speaking role.

“I love challenging myself,” Hoyeon recently GQ of the forthcoming role. “And trying to speak English well and act well at the same time was very challenging – maybe too challenging. But I have this desire to put myself on the edge.”

She is currently taking private lessons to improve her English, according to the outlet.

“I’m working to improve myself so that maybe when I’m 40 or 50, I’ll speak more fluent English and have more opportunities available to me,” she said.

Praising Hoyeon’s “physical and psychological ferocity”, Blanchett said: “I was blown out of the water by it.”

“I mean, if you’d asked me to go to Korea having never acted before in something in Korean, I would not have had that level of composure,” said the two-time Oscar winner.

Disclaimer is currently in post-production, with a release date yet to be announced.