Hiro's MAINICHI SHIMBUN Interview

HS-Mainichi Shimbun

I'm still working on the translation of Hiro's looooong interview on Japanese premium cable channel WOWOW, but a short and extremely insightful interview appeared in Mainichi Shimbun, one of Japan's 3 major dailies, this morning.

http://www.mainichi-msn.co.jp/entertainment/cinema/news/20070404dde018200047000c.html

Not only does Hiro discuss his work in Sunshine, he talks about his upcoming movies and what it was like to work with Sir Anthony Hopkins and Jackie Chan.  Hopefully, this summary will whet your appetite for the longer article so enjoy!

**NOTE:  I have edited my post to correct all of my grammatical errors, provide some links, and to clean up some of the confusing language .... I've learned my lesson not to translate anything at 1:00 a.m. after a very long day at work!!

Japan's leading actor Hiroyuki Sanada, who transferred his base of operations to Los Angeles in order to aggressively pursue overseas opportunities, will be starring in a series of non-Japanese films.  He first graces the silver screen as the doomed spaceship captain Kaneda in Danny Boyle’s SF thriller Sunshine, which is opening in Japan on April 14, to be followed by James Ivory’s The City of Your Final Destination in which he plays the lover of the character played by Sir Anthony Hopkins.  He will also appear as the main villain in the latest installment of the Jackie Chan-Chris Tucker franchise Rush Hour 3.  We recently spoke to Sanada-san in Los Angeles.

Q.  How did your involvement with Sunshine come about?

HS:  Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai saw me in The Twilight Samurai (2003 Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Picture) and recommended me to Danny Boyle.  I am extremely honored to have been selected as a member of the director’s cast of 8 all hailing from different countries.

Q.  Was it difficult to serve as the leader of a group of actors of different nationalities?

HS:  We spent 2 weeks in training at a student dormitory located near the studio where we didn’t have a television and had to share a communal kitchen.  Some of the younger actors complained because they wanted to go home, or that they felt such an experience was unnecessary since they were “pros.”  Because I understood what Danny wanted to accomplish, I told all of them that being a professional was the absolute minimum requirement for each of us to get to this point, and what was most important was for all of us to create an atmosphere where we actually were on this extraordinary mission and had been working together for 16 months.  As the oldest cast member, I just naturally fell into the role of a captain.

Q.  Your English is excellent!

HS:  It’s the same as working with a Japanese dialect coach.  Each film requires me to speak with different accents and intonations, so I’m having a lot of fun.

Q.  Your career is so well-established in Japan – why do you feel the need to start from scratch, so to speak, in tackling the overseas markets?

HS:  Nothing will change unless someone like me takes the chance to jump into the overseas' film industries and struggles to learn the ways of the world, because people will continue to hang on to the belief that Japanese actors are unemployable due to their lack of facility with other languages.  Although the fundamentals of acting are universal even when different languages are spoken, we shouldn’t become complacent.  In order to work in English-speaking countries, an actor should learn to speak English at a minimum, and continue to work regardless of the “size” of the role.  What’s important is to continually seek new opportunities in order to improve one’s skills and to leave behind a series of accomplishments/body of work.  I want my generation to see the day when it will be an ordinary occurrence to see Japanese actors involved in international projects.

Q.  For the first time in your career, you will be portraying a gay character in James Ivory’s The City of Your Final Destination – were you nervous?

HS:  Because I was working with Anthony, I had the utmost trust and confidence that he would be able to accept any and everything I threw at him.  Although there are love scenes, the characters’ relationship had morphed into a familial, father-son bond after 25 years of living together.  The most difficult scene for me was when I had finish tying a string tie around Anthony’s neck the minute I completed speaking my lines – I practiced every night tying it around my leg, but the director changed the type of knot at the very last minute.  I became so nervous that my face must have turned into various shades of green, but Anthony told me to stop wasting my time being tense and nervous and to just relax and enjoy myself.

Q.  You’re right in the middle of filming Rush Hour 3 (Hiro finished filming on Mar.21) –

HS:  Jackie Chan is one of a handful of actors who shares the same roots as me, starting as an action star in Asia and segueing into making Hollywood/overseas films. But we never had the opportunity to work together in the past and I also felt a sense of distance from him.  My role in the movie is that of a man who was like a brother to Jackie’s character while they were growing up in an orphanage but ends up as his enemy.  I felt that I was able to pour a lot of emotion into my character.

Q.  You are spending 75% of your time outside of Japan now –

HS:  I’m not sitting around waiting for offers to come my way – I’m actively pursuing a lot of opportunities.  This is the time for me to cultivate, plant the seeds, and water the land.  I also made the decision to take the plunge into Hollywood because I felt a sense of challenge, danger and peril for the industry.  I want to become an actor that can succeed in the global marketplace.