Korean actor Hoyeon covers the Spring 2023 issue of GQ US Creativity Awards. The ‘Squid Game’ star is lensed in recognizable images by Elizabeth Porodina [IG] with styling by Dena Giannini./ Hair by Tiago Goya; makeup by Holly Silius

GQ Style Editor Yang -Yi Goh gets a life update from the star in ‘How ‘Squid Game’s Hoyeon Became a New Kind of Megastar’. Noteworthy is her renewed love and appreciation for her home city of Seoul, where she now has an apartment that serves as a sort of refuge for the busy star. Hoyeon has also been in a long-term relationship with fellow actor Lee Dong Hwi since 2015.

In the interview Hoyeon speaks to the importance of her mastering English — not only as a way of challenging herself — but to put herself “on edge”. “I love challenging myself,” Hoyeon says. “And trying to speak English well and act well at the same time was very challenging—maybe too challenging.”

The effort to perfect her English is an investment in her future, so that when she’s age 40-50, she will have more opportunities available to her.

The buzz is about Yoyeon’s current project, a psychological thriller ‘Disclaimer’, in which she is working with Cate Blanchett. Filming for the Apple TV+ series wrapped in February.

Impressed with her fellow actor’s credentials, Blanchett told GQ:

“ . . . 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. You fall in love with her as a human being, but then she’s so magnetic as a performer. She has access to this sort of ferocity, both kind of a physical and psychological ferocity, yet she has this incredible sweetness and curiosity about her. I was absolutely blown out of the water by it.”

Hoyeon also has a role in ‘The Governesses’an A24 feature costarring Lily-Rose Depp that’s still in development.