"Squid Game: The Challenge" Contestants On Fearing Death, Practicing Cookie Scratching & Why Eliminated Players Should Quit Whining

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SPOILER ALERT: This story features details from the first five episodes of
Squid Game: The Challenge

EXCLUSIVE: Squid Game: The Challenge may look like a hyper-saturated fever
dream, but for the contestants who plunged themselves into the world of the
Korean megahit, it all felt deadly real.

Netflix welcomed 456 members of the public to its lavish reality show
reimagining of Hwang Dong-hyuk‘s singular vision. For two players, the
recreation was so accurate, it was like stepping into the screen.

Dash Katz (player 141) and Lorenzo Nobilio (161) tell Deadline that they
were fans of the show before arriving at the wintery set of Squid Game: The
Challenge at Cardington Studios, 50 miles north of London, earlier this
year.


'Squid Game: The Challenge'
Any January blues were quickly blasted away when they came face-to-face with
Young-hee, a menacing robotic doll who, in the original Squid Game,
literally shoots anything that twitches in the show’s opening game, ‘Red
Light, Green Light.’

Death was not an option for Netflix’s reality series, so producers Studio
Lambert and The Garden saddled contestants with automated squibs that
propelled black ink when they were eliminated.

“It definitely exceeded my expectations because the set was so realistic,”
says Nobilio, an Italian private equity executive living in London. “It was
a fully immersive experience … you actually feel you’re going to die for
real.”

Dash adds: “When my friends would get eliminated, it would feel like they
were really dying. And you see how I mourn, it was extremely extra.”

'Squid Game: The Challenge'
Players freeze for ‘Red Light, Green Light’ during ‘Squid Game: The
Challenge’ Netflix
Nobilio and Katz both evaded the attentions of Young-hee, earning a ticket
to the Squid Game dorm at London’s Wharf Studios, where the games really
begin as contestants get their first sight at the cash prize of $4.56M.

Stripped of home comforts, including phones, coffee, and clocks, players
were thrown into a reality-bending universe that Katz says was designed to
inculcate chaos.

“With no windows and no clocks, you don’t know what time of the day it is,
you don’t know how much sleep you’re getting. It was insane. It’s going to
bring out the chaos,” Katz adds.

Nobilio likens the experience to being in a Las Vegas casino, except the
odds of winning are even slimmer than betting against the house, given only
one player can walk away with the cash prize.


Dash Katz (141) embraces a fellow player
Katz, who uses the pronouns they/them, entered the show with a social
strategy. They wanted to befriend anyone willing to form an alliance, but
when kicked off a tug-of-war team in episode three, Katz chose to target
players who “betrayed me first.”

The conflict did not make the final cut, but Katz’s retaliation was included
in the show. “I look like a total snake. Those people that I was aligned
with had lied to me first, but you didn’t see that. I may look like a
savage, but my back was against the wall,” they say.

As a reality TV superfan, Katz knows the grammar of the genre and doesn’t
hold any grudges against Netflix for their portrayal on the show, even if it
did potentially fuel homophobic abuse on social media.

Inside the Squid Game dorm, Katz says they felt totally supported by
producers. “When I was mistreated by other players, there were therapists as
part of welfare on set. I felt very validated,” Katz recalls.


Lorenzo Nobilio, third from right.
Nobilio adds that “mental health was not underestimated in the show.”
Although Nobilio exudes self-assurance — to the point where he brazenly
steals an extra helping of food in episode one — he felt isolated at times
because he was outnumbered by Americans.

In preparation for their experience, Katz studied Squid Game lore before
entering the show, even memorizing Korean numbers. Nobilio went to the gym
because he thought that strength training might improve his chances of
success.

Both admit to feverishly practicing cookie scratching for Squid Game’s
second game in which players must prize out a shape from a honeycomb dalgona
candy using only a sewing needle. Katz says it is the only reason they
passed the task — and with just a second to spare.

Despite the intensity of the experience, the New York-based model says they
would do it all again. As for eliminated contestants who have complained
about conditions during filming, such as the cold temperatures that led to
some people requiring medical treatment in ‘Red Light, Green Light,’ Katz
reminds fellow players of the spirit of the show.

“This is not Barney & Friends, this is Squid Game,” Katz smiles. “Y’all know
what you signed up for.”

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Let's go Brandon!