Squid Game Star Lee Jung-jae Learned English for The Acolyte

Originally posted on Men's Journal | By Griff Griffin | Last updated Jun 6, 2024 3:00 PM ET

Lee Jung-jae took a crash course in English to land his role on The Acolyte.

The Squid Game actor, whose first language is Korean, revealed the lengths he went to in order to play wise Jedi Master Sol in the Star Wars series.

"Learning English was definitely a huge challenge in preparing for this role," Jung-jae tells Radio Times. "However, I had two incredible dialogue coaches that were helping me along the way, and we spent so much time together, and down to the small details they were really teaching me how to speak - and because they had such great personalities as well, we were always joking around and laughing on set, so it still remains a really great memory for me."

Disney

One person who also unleashed her English skills is The Acolyte showrunner who hit back at claims Star Wars went ‘woke’.

Taking place a century before the rise of the Empire, The Acolyte follows Master Sol as he reunites with a former Jedi Padawan (Amandla Stenberg) to investigate a series of crimes against the Jedi.

For die-hard Star Wars fan Jung-jae, it was a massive honor, and one he took seriously. "I went and did a lot of research and studied all these Jedi of the past in order to build my character of Master Sol. So that was kind of my first homework, was going and looking at all these past performances.”

Those performances include Alec Guinness’ Obi-Wan Kenobi, Samuel L. Jackon’s Mace Windu, and Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon Jinn. “Out of respect for the Star Wars universe, and also just the feeling that I got from watching those earlier movies,” says Jung-jae, “I wanted to make a connection between my character and Jedi Masters of the past.”

This article first appeared on Men's Journal and was syndicated with permission.

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