{"id":116558,"date":"2025-11-04T01:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T01:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/116558\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T01:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T01:02:07","slug":"squid-games-kiwi-chris-williams-was-kidnapped-in-tanzania-now-hes-been-imprisoned-on-netflix-for-a-chance-to-win-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/116558\/","title":{"rendered":"Squid Games: Kiwi Chris Williams was kidnapped in Tanzania. Now he\u2019s been \u2018imprisoned\u2019 on Netflix for a chance to win millions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Gisborne graphic designer survived an intense kidnapping ordeal six years ago, where four men forced him and his partner to withdraw cash<\/a> in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam.<\/p>\n

Williams and Tiffany Zyp caught what they thought was a safe taxi, when men locked the doors and threatened murder as they made forced withdrawals at various ATM machines. <\/p>\n

The men robbed the pair of $4200, plus the $500 cash they had on them, and their phones, before their passports and wallets were returned. They were told to \u201cact normal\u201d when they were released, or they would be followed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat really sort of made me not let life stress me out or let the little things faze me,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I saw this application [for Squid Games], I was like, \u201cOh, let\u2019s go. Do your worst,\u201d Williams says today.<\/p>\n

More than 80,000 people from around the world applied for a shot at the US$4.56 million (nearly $8m) prize, with intensive virtual interviews. Williams was the only New Zealander to make the cut and was flown over to London in January for the filming.<\/p>\n

\"ChrisChris Williams and Tiffany Zyp from Gisborne were kidnapped in Tanzania August 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m based in Gizzy on a little rural section of a crusty gravel road, and work from home with my cat, my four sheep, and my chickens, so yeah, it was quite insane to be included,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Nothing can compare to his kidnapping ordeal, but during filming he was \u201cactually quite shocked at how intense the game is when you\u2019re actually in it\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no break in the set, which blew my mind. When you are in it, you really feel you\u2019re in it. Those dorms, it\u2019s not like you can turn around and see all the camera crew. You are in it, and this is real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams can\u2019t reveal the result of the show just yet – it starts on Netflix today – but he can say just how ridiculous some of the challenges were, as the first 13 minutes of the series have been released on YouTube.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne consisted of the full 456 players being split into two and simply needing to figure out a way to count as accurately to 456 seconds as possible,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, imagine your fate at the hands of a couple of people counting as the rest of you watch in agony as your entire Squid Games experience could be over! One team was two seconds off and continued, the other was 12 seconds off, and a depressing mass elimination of 228 people ensued.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChrisChris Williams at home with his sheep in Gisborne.<\/p>\n

It was difficult to chat to everyone during filming, but Williams says he did manage to meet about six Aussies, a fair few Brits, and lots of Americans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a complete full age-spread. You had to be 18, but there were some retirees in there. There were also some famous influencers, who I didn\u2019t realise were influencers, and lots of couples, lots of dads and daughters and even twins,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people were giving up their jobs for it. Some people were telling their boss they\u2019re not going to come back because they think they\u2019re going to win it. So it was pretty crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Filming was also kept heavily under wraps, and Williams had to keep his \u201cwork trip\u201d secret from his family because of strict non-disclosure agreements.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I finally told my mum, dad, and partner, I said, \u2018guys, I\u2019m going to be the villain. I\u2019m going to be the Kiwi villain. I don\u2019t care\u2019. And they said, \u2018No, you got in because you were being yourself. Just be yourself\u2019… So, that was the game plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while keeping true to himself likely put him on good stead, there was also the classic Kiwi \u2018she\u2019ll be right\u2019 determination that rang true throughout Williams\u2019 experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could see the people struggling from the sleep deprivation and struggling with the lack of food, but I was like, \u2018Bring it on. Do your worst. Let\u2019s go\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChrisChris Williams (centre) with some of his fellow Squid Games competitors after filming.<\/p>\n

Applications are already open for season three, and naturally, Williams\u2019 advice for potential Kiwis wanting to give it a go was the same he took upon himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust keep it Kiwi, trust your initial gut feeling, and go with it!\u201d<\/p>\n

You can catch Chris on Squid Game: The Challenge Season 2 on Netflix from November 4.<\/p>\n

Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald\u2019s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke\u2019s Bay Today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Gisborne graphic designer survived an intense kidnapping ordeal six years ago, where four men forced him and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9331,63058,82764,1558,3276,69658,690,28145,156,2082,3011,6489,12506,37151,5431,305,5420,54106,78,20920,82762,194,13840,1619,1132,4380,5430,11692,1094,111,139,425,69,90,2847,82761,23367,50540,18323,6642,61,6859,6736,6923,13971,82763,6027,1959,6438],"class_list":["post-116558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-chance","tag-63058","tag-82764","tag-been","tag-chris","tag-contestant","tag-dead","tag-designer","tag-entertainment","tag-for","tag-four","tag-games","tag-gisborne","tag-graphic","tag-hageman","tag-have","tag-hes","tag-imprisoned","tag-in","tag-kidnapped","tag-kidnappers","tag-kiwi","tag-like","tag-london","tag-million","tag-millions","tag-mitchell","tag-nearly","tag-netflix","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-now","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-only","tag-squid","tag-studio","tag-tanzania","tag-tell","tag-tells","tag-to","tag-told","tag-was","tag-what","tag-williams","tag-willingly","tag-win","tag-your","tag-youre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}