IR Interview: Rachel Keller For “Tokyo Vice” [Max-S2] - Part II
Actress Rachel Keller talks to The Inside Reel about energy, motivation and environment in regards to the 2nd season of her crime thriller series: "Tokyo Vice" on Max.
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00:00 [dramatic music]
00:03 [dramatic music]
00:06 ♪ ♪
00:11 [dramatic music]
00:14 ♪ ♪
00:21 [speaking Japanese]
00:24 ♪ ♪
00:30 - But the great thing that both you and Anson,
00:33 you play these characters,
00:35 and I mean, it's true of the Japanese actors,
00:37 but they're inherently flawed.
00:39 You know they're inherently human.
00:40 They're going to make mistakes,
00:42 but they keep up--keep going.
00:44 Could you talk about looking at the strengths and weaknesses
00:47 and how they make us a full person?
00:49 Because, you know, she does make mistakes,
00:51 but she keeps going.
00:54 - Sure, I mean, she has a friendship
00:57 with a client at the club,
01:00 and it's inevitable.
01:03 I think when I spoke to a lot of hostesses,
01:05 it's sort of inevitable to not build friendships,
01:09 genuine friendships with people,
01:12 particularly if you're like a really great listener
01:15 and really care about the person who's there.
01:19 The client that she becomes really good friends with
01:22 ends up getting caught up in some of the darker stuff
01:28 that she's involved with,
01:30 which I think is heartbreaking to her.
01:33 And the death of her friend is always with her,
01:39 of the death of Paulina.
01:41 That felt like something that never left me
01:45 when we were filming this season.
01:47 Like, it was almost as if Paulina was always there.
01:52 And when you have a loss
01:56 that is, like, not just a loss
02:01 because someone had cancer and died,
02:03 but a loss because they were murdered,
02:06 and so brutally so,
02:09 I think that there's an inevitable fire
02:14 that builds that you can sort of put your blinders on
02:20 and just keep marching forward.
02:23 So what exactly do you do all day?
02:27 I chase down stories.
02:30 What do you love most about your job?
02:36 I'd say the unpredictability of it.
02:39 Never knowing what's coming next.
02:42 ♪♪
02:44 [Tires screech]
02:46 Jake, you did not come to Tokyo in pursuit of one man.
02:53 There are other stories, other crimes to be exposed.
02:58 That is your job.
03:01 ♪♪
03:03 If you saw anything that can help me, now's my chance.
03:07 I saw a tattoo.
03:09 ♪♪
03:11 You know I'm onto something.
03:13 Chase it. Tell no one.
03:16 Because of that change, that trajectory,
03:19 was there a big change in how you played her
03:21 between season one, season two?
03:23 And on top of that, because of when season one was shot
03:26 and now when you guys shot season two,
03:28 it was probably a much different sort of environment, too.
03:32 Could you talk about it from both of those perspectives?
03:36 Well, Japan was way more open.
03:40 The second season.
03:43 I mean, I had like a pretty transcendent moment
03:51 walking down the Nakamiguro River during COVID.
03:55 So no foreigners are there,
03:57 except for the ones that have visas to work there.
03:59 And it's end of April, and the cherry blossoms
04:02 are blooming along the Nakamiguro River.
04:07 And I'm like, I am the only one walking down the street right now.
04:11 The next year, there were like vendors,
04:14 and it's like the state fair.
04:16 And I didn't realize that.
04:18 I didn't see how lucky we were in the --
04:22 I mean, it was difficult, right?
04:24 There was no karaoke or bars and stuff like that.
04:28 But there was really great things to both.
04:32 I get distracted easily,
04:35 and so I like to kind of stick to myself and do my own thing.
04:40 And I will do that whether there's COVID or not COVID.
04:45 But it was really liberating, this second season,
04:50 to be able to feel Japan open up to us a bit more.
04:58 I'm not sure. I don't know.
05:02 I actually haven't seen them all,
05:04 so I don't know how that changes the performance at all.
05:07 I think the second season to me felt incredibly dramatic,
05:12 like meaning relentless.
05:17 And so it felt a little like, oh, by the end,
05:21 a little exhausting by the end of it.
05:25 But it was like when I left Japan this past time,
05:31 it was like a heartbreak.
05:32 Like I cried for --
05:36 I just cried as if I was losing a friend or something,
05:39 as if I can't go back.
05:41 I can go back.
05:43 But it was a really beautiful time
05:45 that was difficult to leave.
05:47 There's something that lingers in you after.
05:49 I mean, I don't think a day goes by
05:52 that I don't think about Japan.
05:54 [speaking Japanese]
06:00 [shouting]
06:05 Watch yourself. Don't be stupid.
06:14 Don't be stupid.
06:16 I'll have to remember that.
06:18 [speaking Japanese]
06:23 [speaking Japanese]
06:26 [speaking Japanese]
06:29 [speaking Japanese]
06:31 Who knows what he'll do
06:34 if Tozawa thinks we have this information?
06:37 Maybe you should lay low.
06:39 Well, I mean, 'cause the show itself,
06:42 there's a method of sort of people striving
06:44 and wanting to have joy,
06:46 but that inevitable dread that is always beneath,
06:49 there's that tone.
06:50 And I'm not sure if that was written into the script
06:52 or it's something you find in the moment sometimes
06:55 that just these people are about to be dragged under
06:58 and yet they're barely keeping above water.
07:00 It's a really neat sort of balance in the performance.
07:03 And it's with Sho, with Anson, with Ken, with you,
07:07 so many of the actors, you feel that.
07:09 Is that just an inherent tone of the show?
07:12 Or is that something that you guys have sort of found
07:14 as you've gone forward?
07:16 I think that is the design of the show.
07:18 I mean, this is the Tokyo and then Tokyo.
07:23 It's what's underneath everything.
07:26 It's designed that way.
07:27 It's a crimey, pulpy, underworld,
07:32 you know, journalism and the police
07:35 and the yakuza and the hostess club.
07:38 So I think it's designed that way.
07:39 It's quite thrilling, I think.
07:41 But they feel grounded.
07:43 All these characters feel grounded in that way, you know?
07:46 It's heightened, but you feel their sadness
07:51 in many ways, you know?
07:54 Yeah, I mean, I think there is a dial that's turned up.
07:57 It's not like a documentary.
08:01 It's a Michael Mann, J.T. Rogers type, yeah, yeah.
08:05 Yeah, you get to like saturate it a little bit with,
08:09 which is really a gift for an actor
08:11 because all we want to do really is play.
08:14 And, you know, be inside of something
08:18 and explore that world.
08:21 And yeah, I think it was all part of the design of it,
08:24 that it's meant to have a bit of style
08:29 and take the volume up.
08:33 - And a bit of scarface.
08:34 That's what I will say,
08:36 because I saw the fifth episode of that.
08:37 It's always intense to see how things are done.
08:40 - I have to say, I felt that for a lot.
08:43 - Today, a man told me he'd kill me
08:45 if I don't stop writing.
08:46 - I think you gotta keep going.
08:48 - Be careful.
08:49 - Other people are relying on you now.
08:52 You are the way this ends.
08:54 - You are the way this ends.
08:56 (dramatic music)
08:59 (speaking in foreign language)
09:03 (gun cocks)
09:06 (screaming)
09:08 (dramatic music)
09:11 (gunshots)
09:13 (dramatic music)
09:16 (whooshing)
09:18 [BLANK_AUDIO]