Golden Globe-winning Squid Game actor O Yeong-su has been found guilty of sexual misconduct.
Per The New York Times, the 79-year-old was given an eight-month suspended sentence and must attend 40 hours of sexual violence classes after his guilty sentence. He was accused of inappropriately hugging and kissing an actress on her cheek against her wishes in 2017. The actor denied the charges against him but admitted to holding her hand when he helped guide her around a lake, which he apologized for. He plans to appeal the verdict.
The actress who accused him of the incident has not been publicly named but said the incidents happened multiple times in August and September 2017. She said he hugged her, held her hand, kissed her on the cheek, laid down in her room, and made inappropriate comments. The woman said she suffered emotional distress as a result and underwent sexual violence counseling in March 2018. She said the success of Squid Game, the widely popular Netflix series, made her seek his apology.
Yeong-su won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries, or Television Film for his role as Oh Il-nam in 2021 and was nominated for an Emmy for the role in 2022. He is not set to appear in the highly-anticipated second season of Squid Game, which debuts on Netflix later this year. He's also been dropped from other various projects, including a government commercial campaign, and the movie About Family by South Korean director Woo-seok Yang.
While walking into his first court hearing in February 2023, he told reporters, "I am sorry, I think I behaved badly."
