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Entertainment

22nd Nov 2023

Irish social media star lands spot on huge Netflix reality series

"It really was 24/7 just a terrifying experience"

Sophie Collins

Netflix, Eric Roberts

Donegal native, Eric Roberts, will compete in the new Netflix series, ‘Squid Game: The Challenge’

The reality show has already landed on Netflix, with the first five episodes available to binge-watch and more will follow over the coming weeks.

Among the 100,000+ people applying for a spot on the show, the Irish TikTok Star was the only Republic of Ireland candidate to make the final 456 contestants.

‘Squid Games: The Challenge’ is tipped to be the biggest reality show of all time – with nearly $5 million on the line.

Eric will join 455 other contestants in the Netflix series as they’re pushed to their limits. 

Spilling some of the details, Eric spoke to Newstalk’s Moncrieff and said that fans will be very familiar with the first challenge.

As for the remaining exercises, Eric said: “The rest were definitely more of an emotional battle.

“After the first day, you went into the dorms and you made your friends.

“As the games progressed, the alliances that you’ve made and the friends that you’ve made may not necessarily make it through the games.

“That was quite difficult and it was lonely at times.

“They definitely weren’t as physically gruelling but there was definite mental battles throughout”.

Speaking about the process of landing a spot on the highly-anticipated show, he went on to explain to Newstalk: 

“We had several Zooms with casting directors, and I suppose they just wanted to whittle it down to who they thought was going to be the good personalities on the show, and who they thought might be able to withstand the torture that we went through.

“They were just general chit-chats about our own backgrounds and our experience, have we seen the show and what did we expect when we get in there, and our gameplans.”

Roberts said there were several ways of being caught out and eliminated which made it a “24/7 terrifying experience”.

“People would nominate themselves to take part in certain challenges, and those people might win the opportunity to eliminate another player, or vice-versa, he explained.

“If you didn’t complete a challenge you were at risk of being eliminated.

“It really was 24/7 just a terrifying experience.”

You can catch all the action on Netflix now. 

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