I’ve Been Screaming My Head Off In The Booth By Myself For Years Now

The protagonist of the Netflix megahit Squid Game is Seong Gi-hun, an indebted gambler and absentee father who screams, sweats, and strains his way through the very intense experience of watching hundreds of people get straight-up killed—while trying to avoid being killed, and retain some sense of ethics and loyalty.

But what was it like to voice Gi-hun in English for the many people who watched Squid Game with the dubbing option turned on?

Slate magazine interviewed veteran Los Angeles voice actor Greg Chun, who voiced Gi-hun, to find out what it was like taking on this role.

Greg explains the challenges of the intense scenes he had to deliver standing alone in a sound booth.

“I mean, live-action dubbing is hard. It’s really, really, hard. When you’re trying to actually provide a voice for a real, living, breathing person, that you can see every little tick of their eyebrow, every kind of, you know, slight grin, frown, grimace, and you’re trying to match all of that vocally, there’s a lot to do and pay attention to. You’re doing your vocal performance while watching the actor’s performance.”

“I actually think the most vocally stressful thing I had to do for Squid Game was the horse racing [gambling] scenes. That got me more tired and thrashed than any of the other stuff that was going on. I screamed myself raw for those.”

Fortunately, Greg has many years’ experience behind him “As a video game actor, I mean, I’ve been screaming my head off in the booth by myself for years now.”

He also has the benefit of working with VoiceQ, with the English dubbing of Squid Games successfully managed by VoiceQ client VSI International in Los Angeles.

Read more about how VoiceQ enables Greg to become immersed in the delivery of his lines and make the moments real. https://slate.com/culture/2021/10/squid-game-voice-actor-greg-chun-dubbing-gi-hun-into-english.html

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