Do we like Lee Jung-jae?
Our score: 6 out of 10. No campaigning against anyone on the record, but old unverified claims and a boardroom stoush keep this short of a clean pass.
Lee Jung-jae is the Squid Game bloke: Seong Gi-hun, the broke dad who turned the Netflix hit into a global phenomenon. He won the 2022 Emmy for it and says the show is an inseparable part of his life. He's also admitted he's had hits and flops, so he doesn't pick roles hoping for glory.
On the finale, he told TheWrap he was shocked by Gi-hun's fate and asked the director whether it was the right ending. He chose to back Hwang Dong-hyuk's vision rather than push his own. He reads the ending as offering some hope, which is a decent way to leave a character.
Now the stains. When he won the Emmy in 2022, old claims resurfaced online. They were four assault cases in the early 2000s, all alleged to involve alcohol, two allegedly injuring women, plus two drunk-driving cases. Malay Mail reported these came from social media posts and gave no outcomes, so treat them as unverified, twenty-year-old allegations.
The harm check is the awkward bit. The same 2022 coverage reported an alleged 2013 magazine-interview remark telling a friend to stop being gay. His representatives denied the claim about who that friend was. Nothing newer turned up from him on LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the climate. We found no conspiracy talk, no culture-war grifting and no work with people who push it. A search of his recent projects also turned up nothing worrying.
There's also a money stoush. In late 2024 a media report alleged stock-price manipulation around Artist United, the company he's the biggest shareholder of. His agency denied that he or Artist Company were under investigation and said he wasn't involved in insider trading or leaks. We couldn't confirm how that ended. This October the shoe is on the other foot, with his side as complainant.
The fresh bit: Artist Company filed a criminal complaint on 22 October over alleged breach of trust worth about 681.76 million won. It names a former executive and four others, and the company says it will audit and seek damages. Jung Woo-sung resigned as inside director on 2 October. Lee's side is also renaming Artist Studio as Studio Ssolssol. Nothing is proven either way yet.