Eric Roberts has admitted filming for Squid Game: The Challenge was “intense”.
Last week, Goss.ie exclusively revealed the Donegal native will appear as one of 456 contestants in the brand new Netflix show which premieres on the streaming service today, November 22.
The content creator, who boasts over 587k TikTok followers and 251k followers on Instagram, will compete to win the largest cash prize in reality TV history – $4.56 million.
A well-placed source previously told Goss.ie that Eric filmed the show over a year ago, but had been sworn to secrecy over his part in the programme.
They told us: “This is such an incredible opportunity for Eric to branch out into an international market.”
“He took a huge leap when he quit his job as a full-time special needs assistant earlier this year, so this has proved he made the right decision to focus on his career as an entertainer.”
“This is just the beginning of Eric’s TV career, and who knows what doors this could open for him.”
Speaking to the Irish Independent about filming for Squid Game: The Challenge, Eric said: “It was so intense from the get go. It was insane.”
Revealing each of the contestants were forced to quarantine for three days, the Donegal native recalled: “We were all told to wear masks and we were told that under no circumstances can we talk to anyone.”
“We’d been given a time to go for breakfast, lunch or dinner. So we would go downstairs with our masks and there would be people there to warn us not to talk to anyone else. It was a strange three days.”
“Our phones were taken off us on the last day of the quarantine and we were taken to get our tracksuits so obviously they didn’t want us to take any photos.”
“Then, we were brought back to the room when we were told, ‘Be ready at whatever time,'” Eric explained. “You just didn’t get more sleep.”
The contestants were later brought on buses, reminded not to chat to one another, and brought to “one gigantic room”.
The former SNA recalled: “The doors eventually opened and 456 of us walked in. That scary doll lady was at the bottom of it with the red guards.”
Eric revealed during the infamous Red Light, Green Light challenge contestants ran for five seconds and were frozen for 40 minutes, which continued for eight hours straight.
Picture: Brian McEvoy
“People were fainting, screaming for medical help — it was -3°C or 4°C,” Eric revealed.
“Medics were coming in, but if you were up the front you couldn’t turn around to see what was going on. It was the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
“My legs had seized up after three hours. So when the music started playing, I couldn’t run. I had to sort of do like a penguin waddle just trying to get up as far as I could get. And people are getting eliminated all around you.”
After the Red Light, Green Light challenge, Eric recalled: “We walked into the dorms that had bunk beds stacked five high on top of each other, so 200 beds in one room. They close the doors. There were about 200 cameras around the room and that was the game, that was the start of the show.”
“It was just totally immersive, locked away in that room for two weeks,” he explained. “You got out when you did the games and didn’t see daylight very often. Like, we didn’t know what time of day it was. We were all sleep deprived.”
“We were on… I think it was 1,000 calories — I could be wrong. But they fed us white rice and eggs. It got so bad that after the first week we were smacking on the doors like, ‘Please give us some fruit or protein bars’. We were all starving.”
“I mean, all people spoke about for maybe 23 hours of the day was food, so I don’t know how they’re going to build a storyline around certain conversations.”
“After game one, I think there were two days where we didn’t play any games and it was basically get to know each other, go find your cliques, get your alliances, get your teammates. And just like the show essentially, you didn’t know who to trust.”
“It was a mental battle of don’t be fake, get to know everyone, but don’t be the loudest in the room,” Eric admitted.
“But you couldn’t be the quietest in the room because if anyone had any reason not to like you, you were gone.”
“I was with mostly Americans all together and you can imagine what that’s like; all of them trying to get their five minutes on television. Whereas I was just kind of a normal Irish guy and every time I got close to a group of people that were kind of normal, they’d be eliminated.”
“I didn’t like the fakery of it all. For a while you just felt like you couldn’t be yourself, and I really didn’t enjoy that. It felt like I was in a room with a lot of people trying to be a reality star. Whereas I was just like, ‘I’m just here for the experience’. I don’t really know how to not just be myself. So that for me was one of the biggest things I struggled with.”
