Reagan To, the voice behind the Red Light Green Light doll in Netflix’s worldwide phenomenon Squid Game, humbly admits that she is still in awe of how the show’s success has continued to grow. Hearing her doll voice in music and on Saturday Night Live feels very surreal for the young actor. “I have to pinch myself to check if I’m dreaming! I didn’t know anything about the series because the production team didn’t tell us too much”, she explains, recalling how the director and the team gave only a brief background into Ga-Yeong. With that, she took time to prepare for both roles; characters the actor found challenging but also fun to voice. She explains how the character of Ga-Yeong felt like a girl who was genuinely concerned for her father as she acted like an adult trying to take care of him.
Stylist: Quentin Fears @mrqfears
Hair & Makeup: Allison Noelle @allisonnoellemakeup
Character Development
The actor explains how her recent projects have taught her an incredible amount about playing characters with a strong family focus. One of her favourite roles, she recalls, was from the popular show Sisyphus on Netflix! “My character was young Seo-Hae, who went through a lot of heavy emotions over the series— there was even a scene involving a death in the family.” She goes on to point out how she found it particularly challenging, but learned a lot about voicing a character with a big emotional range. Reagan remembers thinking about how the character grew and changed their feelings in different scenes—a trait she was keen to use in all parts of her voice to show her range.
From a young age, Reagan has loved acting. Although she openly admits that it only truly turned into a passion for her when she found herself really ill. She recalls her mom asking her what she wanted to do if she recovered from her illness. The answer for the young Reagan was a simple choice. She wanted to pursue a career in acting after being inspired by the various performances she had seen on TV during her hospital stay. But, even more importantly, Reagan wanted to become an actor so she could be an inspiration for other kids who may also be sick and in need of encouragement.
Humble Beginnings
Reagan explains how she started taking acting and voice acting classes when she was only five years old! Her time on set with Gina Rodriguez during her first role on Jane the Virgin, changed how the young actor thinks of her profession. She points to learning an incredible amount about staying professional, but also found herself inspired by how talented and humble everyone was. Thanks to Gina’s dancing videos, the actor found herself experiencing an inner motivation to find her own way to achieve the same result.
She believes it is incredibly important to find another creative outlet to let go and have fun—to just be you, without limitations or conditions! Reagan opens up about her good fortune and is fully aware that she is in an incredible position to enjoy performing in dance, voicing numerous roles, and acting in front of the camera.
“I noticed getting feedback for performances is quite common, and my auditions have taught me a lot about facing this feedback. The directors and teams I’ve worked with have been very professional and helpful in guiding me to perform my best!”
Reagan has a fondness for roles where the character is somewhat similar to her as she can relate to scenes a bit more. She’s of the mindset that she needs to challenge herself too if she is to progress further in the industry.
The young actor is further inspired by her childhood idol JoJo Siwa, a performer who is by her nature incredibly accepting, whilst also inspirational. Reagan explains that she does her best when she focuses on performing better and not on those judging her performances.
“In both acting and dancing, we need to brave through the negative thoughts so we can be more of ourselves.”
Reagan points out that when she goes to auditions, she always sees a diverse cast set. She feels incredibly lucky to have experienced a number of roles where her characters have been new characters, through stories she has not come across before, further highlighting how every new project puts her in a new culture. The actor pushes herself to learn about the history and situations that her characters must face. When she is not busy acting, Reagan loves dancing, modelling and baking. She even has aspirations of opening her own bakery someday! #watchthisspace
