The Squid Game Set That Actually Scared The Actors

The Bridge Game — or the Glass Stepping Stones, as the game is officially called — is the second to last round in the entire contest, and its luck-based nature and tight time limit make crossing the bridge a nerve-wracking experience for the characters and the audience alike. However, as actress Jung Ho-yeon (who plays Kang Sae-byeok in the show) revealed in a behind-the-scenes featurette about the making of "Squid Game," the experience was pretty unnerving for the actors, as well. 

"Filming Glass Stepping Stones was actually terrifying," she said. The set was about one meter [3'3"] above the ground. We put real tempered glass there and ran around on it." The show's creator Hwang Dong-hyuk noted that making the actors worried about the bridge was precisely the point of the set design. "The glass made them nervous," he said. "I think we could express the unnoticed rigidity and fear of the body. It felt like really jumping off a high bridge. The game was real and they felt real fear. Their bodies showed that fear. We think that set had the power of realism."

The video also shows how they filmed the fateful moments of glass breaking underneath a doomed contestant. On some occasions, two burly men held a sheet of tempered glass as an actor jumped on it, and then physically lowered it, creating an illusion of a legitimate fall. You can also see an alternate, far more terrifying set, in which the bridge was a genuinely elevated structure. Luckily, the fall wasn't half as long as it is in the show, and the actor was wearing a wire harness as he took a plunge from the platform.