A Squid Game star released footage of his encounter with a McDonald’s manager, who he claims assaulted him and refused service for “being American.” On December 31, Geoffrey Giuliano, who played one of the evil VIPs in the hit Netflix series, was returning from a work trip in Lisbon, Portugal, when the incident occurred. The actor, 69, said he was denied a veggie burger at McDonald’s in Amsterdam Airport Schiphol when he visited the outlet during his connection. During the video recording, there appears to be a male employee barging into Giuliano, who has once played Ronald McDonald on TV, before another male employee appears to raise his hand towards Giuliano as well. The actor, who was in a wheelchair due to a knee injury he sustained during a movie stunt, claims he was assaulted in the confrontation and has demanded an apology from McDonald’s. He said his diabetic condition required him to seek food at McDonald’s since that was the only food establishment nearby at the time.
He told The Daily Mail that he would be taking legal action against McDonald’s and the Amsterdam Schiphol airport, where the incident occurred. He said, “It was conveniently ‘closing time’ as soon as they saw me. An older Indian McDonald’s greeter saw me, politely put me in the line, and pushed me forward. However, when I started talking to my son Eden, a young manager heard my American accent, and suddenly they would not serve me. When they realized we were American, they would not serve me. The whole thing was due to an aggressive manager and another employee who obviously did not like Americans.” Giuliano said this is not the first time he has encountered “anti-American discrimination” in Holland and that the situation has worsened since Trump became president. The news comes after footage of the actor and his son was captured in 2017, showing what the cameraman claimed was Giuliano cutting in line at a supermarket in Thailand before telling the man, “I’m an American, I do what I want, we’re the kings of the world.” He said he also had a similar experience when a woman in a shop told him, “why don’t you go back to America and Donald Trump” when he was with his granddaughter. Giuliano was with his 15-year-old son Eden, as he was in Thailand in 2017.
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The father said his “very shy” son was upset about the two experiences and no longer wants to go out for food with him. Regarding McDonald’s, “I had a wheelchair for the flight there and back. I stood up and began filming when the manager and another male employee became suddenly aggressive and moved toward my son and me. If you look at the video carefully, you can see where he hit me as the camera bumps and I shout, ‘that’s assault.’ Regardless of what the staff say, they served people before me and they served people after me, I was the only one who was not served. This is a case of blatant discrimination that spiraled into a physical assault upon my person at the Amsterdam airport. Hitting people is not a justifiable way to deal with anything.” As he explained, Giuliano was flying back from a business trip in Lisbon in Portugal to his second home in Thailand via Amsterdam. He says he reached the front of the queue at the fast-food outlet for a snack while people ahead of him and behind him were being served despite staff claims that it had closed.
“Of course, this is all the more ironic in that in the 1980s, I was Ronald McDonald on television in North America, and a vegetarian at the time undercover,” he said. According to Daily Mail, in a previous email exchange with Giuliano, the McDonald’s branch operators claimed that “the restaurant closed at 20:00 (8) PM.” The outlet noted that the video metadata shows Giuliano’s flight with Dutch carrier KLM departed at 8:55 pm, while the video was recorded at 5:54 pm. The company wrote in the email, “Thank you for your response, informing us about your visit on New Year’s Eve 2022 at one of the McDonald’s restaurants at Schiphol Airport, where you and your son, during a long layover, were unable to order food. Please be informed that the restaurant closed at 20:00 pm on New Year’s Eve. Since you entered the waiting line before the cash register after 20:00 pm, you were no longer able to place an order since the restaurant had officially closed. The guests in front of you had placed their orders before 20:00 pm and hence were being served. We have looked at the footage you sent us, and based on that, we do not agree that the manager (or any other staff) assaulted, humiliated, or harassed you. The footage clearly indicates that they were being filmed against their will and without their permission.”
