Netflix
Things were bleak on the set of "Squid Game: The Challenge," according to some contestants — so much so that a few turned to lubricated condoms in a desperate attempt to soothe their chapped lips.
Contestant Trey Plutnicki — also known as Player 301 on the show — told Entertainment Weekly that the claim, which some other contestants have made on social media, is "100 percent real." Trey, however, didn't personally take part in lubing up his lips.
"Do you think I did that? Do I seem like a person that did that?" he told EW. "No, hell no. That's so stupid."
"Squid Game: The Challenge" is based on the Netflix's wildly popular Korean-language series "Squid Game," which premiered in 2021. The reality series, shot in the United Kingdom, features a group of 456 players competing in a series of challenges inspired by the show for a cash prize of $4.56 million. Unlike the Korean series, players are merely eliminated with a splash of ink across their chest rather than killed when they fail a challenge.
EW reported that production provided players with a set of toiletries on set, in addition to communal toiletries in the bathrooms. Lip balm, however, was not part of that initial set.
"There was lotion, there was conditioner, and those were the first two tries," Trey told EW. "And after I tried those and they weren't working, I was like, 'Well, that's all of our options, because obviously we're not going to use the condoms.' And within a day, maybe a day and a half, all the condoms were gone. It was absurd. And it still didn't work!"
Other contestants on the show had previously spoken on social media about the unusual use of condoms. According to Trey, after all alternative chapstick options were exhausted, production eventually provided each contestant with a small tin of lip balm emblazoned with their numbers.
"When people tried it and they kept trying it and it didn't work, and I was like, 'Obviously!'" he said of the condoms.
Netflix representatives for "Squid Game: The Challenge" did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
