“Squid Game” star demands 1 million USD per episode, higher than Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo combined?
On June 29th, Korean news outlet Sports Today reported that actor Lee Jung Jae demanded a salary of over 1 million USD for each episode of “Squid Game 2”.
In particular, an industry insider allegedly revealed, “Netflix cannot ignore Lee Jung Jae’s request. Lee Jung-jae called Netflix for a guarantee of more than 1 million dollars per episode”. With this, the actor is expected to earn about 13 million USD upon completing the project.
Lee Jung Jae’s requested salary is way higher than other Korean stars, even the top-tiers ones.
Previously, Munhwa Ilbo reported that Song Hye Kyo was paid 200 million won (around 152,000 USD) per episode for her role in “The Glory”.
Meanwhile, the production team of “Vincenzo” paid around 300 million won (around 228,000 USD) per episode to invite Song Joong Ki to join the project. This means that even when combined Song Joong Ki and Song Hye Kyo receive a total of 500 million won (less than 500,000 USD) per episode – a much lower number compared to Lee Jung Jae’s requested salary.
The combined salary of Song Hye Kyo and Song Joong Ki is lower than half of Lee Jung Jae’s requested payment for “Squid Game”
Source: Nate, k14
