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SPOILER ALERT: Do not read unless you’ve seen the first five episodes of Squid Game: The Challenge on Netflix.
Anyone who’s tuned into Netflix’s exhilarating reality show version of Squid Game was no doubt moved by the plight of Spencer Hawkins, aka Player 299 — the poor dude whose team got stuck with having to extricate umbrellas in the Dalgona cookie challenge.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hawkins said his decision to join Squid Game: The Challenge was actually based on how he was a cancer survivor, not that he was obsessed with the South Korean thriller that dropped on Netflix in 2021.
“I wasn’t a diehard fan,” he admitted. “The biggest reason I signed up for the show was a few years ago I recovered from cancer, and with that I became much more intentional about the things I wanted in my life, meaning deep human connections and unique experiences. This show provided me the opportunity to be able to meet new people and to be able to hopefully win money to be able to take care of the people I care about.”
But when he became leader of a team that had to embark on the cookie challenge — in which players must extract a circle, triangle, star or umbrella from a honeycomb cookie without breaking the whole dang thing — Hawkins was racked with anxiety and nausea.
“It was a demanding day,” he said. “After the decision being made for which cookie shape we each get, it took a few hours for different groups to be able to compete, and so I had to be separated from my line for a time before I was even able to come back to them. In that time I was trying to get into the mental headspace to be able to prepare for the game, drinking lots of water while trying to save up spit in my mouth, so I was getting physically exhausted while also feeling all the emotions of everything. And then finally, it’s time to come into the room, and there’s not much energy left.”
Hawkins admits he became ill when he saw the pain in the faces of his teammates. “Difficulty for myself, that’s one thing I can handle. But when you’re talking about difficulty for others, that’s my responsibility,” he said. “That’s a weight that doesn’t really go away. It was like seeing friends who are hurting, because that’s how I ultimately viewed everyone else there, as a friend. I did feel physically sick.”
Hawkins was ultimately eliminated from the competition when he broke his cookie. “I was extremely close. I mentioned that I rushed it a little bit, and that’s an understatement. At about five minutes left, I had the little hook inside the umbrella left. And I held it up and I could see how close I was, but the nerves I had at that point, I just couldn’t handle it anymore. My hands shook a little too much and I cracked it. You have to prepare yourself to win and now you realize, “I haven’t won. And not only have I not won, but other people haven’t won because of me.” I was sad, but I got to meet people and I had the pleasure of speaking to some of them when we rode back to our hotel afterwards, and I’m grateful for the experience.”
Hawkins also talked about participating in the Red Light, Green Light challenge, which is now the basis of a lawsuit filed by two participants. The players claimed they suffered hypothermia and nerve damage while shooting in cold conditions in the UK.
Similar to the old schoolyard game, Red Light, Green Light requires players to evade the attention of a menacing robotic doll.
“My first pose, I stopped in mid-lunge, and so I was expecting to be able to hold it for just a little bit and then to start running again. But no, I was definitely holding that for many minutes and my legs were shaking when I finally had the chance to move. From then on, I tried to just stand straight every time we got to a red light. One of my best friends in the game would just run as fast as he could and then he’d dive and fall on his face and that was his strategy. I could see a few people who were doing that as their strategy. They wouldn’t have to worry about moving if they’re just laying down on the ground.”
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