Squid Game Star HoYeon Jung Is Headed to Hollywood With Cate Blanchett

HoYeon Jung went from a fashion insider-favored model to a household name seemingly overnight last year when she became the breakout star of Squid Game, Netflix’s most-viewed series of all time. And while the 25-year-old former model has maintained a steady presence on the red carpet in the six months since, it’s only now that we’ve gotten a sense of what’s next for her acting career: HoYeon is moving into the Hollywood sphere with what’s bound to be another hit show, this time on AppleTV+. Late last week, the streaming service announced that she will next star opposite Cate Blanchett, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Kevin Kline in Disclaimer, a thriller series helmed by multiple Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuarón.

Based on a 2015 novel by Renée Knight, Disclaimer stars Blanchett as Catherine Ravenscroft, a TV documentary journalist known for exposing the transgressions of established and highly regarded institutions. A widower played by Kline gives her a taste of her own medicine when he writes a novel exposing a secret she’d prayed would remain buried in the past. HoYeon will play Kim, Catherine’s “ambitious, hardworking, and eager-to-please” assistant who’s hoping the gig will be her big break. Once upon a time, HoYeon would have felt the same about playing Kim, but since Squid Game, her perspective has changed. “I have always wanted to go to Hollywood and to act in America,” she recently told Vogue. “And I still do. But Squid Game changed my mindset. It doesn’t have to be an American movie or a European movie, it’s the story and the message that are more important.”

HoYeon isn’t the only buzzy up-and-comer Cuarón has recruited for Disclaimer, which has yet to begin production. She’ll be joined by The Power of the Dog’s Kodi Smit-McPhee, and between the pair, you’d better keep an eye out for the red carpet whenever the show premieres.