Actress Rachel Keller talks to The Inside Reel about approach, poise and strategy 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]
00:05 [dramatic music]
00:14 [speaking in foreign language]
00:30 - You know, Samantha as a character,
00:33 between season one and season two,
00:34 it's about choice and sort of path that she has to choose,
00:38 you know, because of certain things,
00:40 certain situations that dictate that.
00:42 Could you talk about her psyche?
00:44 Because she's a survivor, she always has been.
00:47 But did you have to look at her emotionally,
00:48 intellectually, physically in that way?
00:51 - Yeah, I think you do have a responsibility
00:58 to learn about where someone came from,
01:03 which the writers gave to me so beautifully
01:09 in that episode in season one,
01:10 when we get the flashback to this religious cult
01:15 that she comes from.
01:16 I'm really struck, I suppose, by the young women
01:22 who go to Japan to become a hostess for,
01:26 I don't know, four months, eight months, three years,
01:29 however long, and why.
01:30 I met so many and interviewed so many,
01:33 and there's similar threads,
01:35 but also really varying degrees
01:39 of wanting independent, financial independence,
01:44 and autonomy, and adventure,
01:47 and a sense of confidence,
01:52 and all of that comes in for Sam.
01:57 She is particularly ambitious,
02:01 which I think, I'm not sure,
02:03 but maybe is born from being in a birdcage,
02:08 trapped, being so trapped.
02:13 - So what exactly do you do all day?
02:17 - I chase down stories.
02:21 (dramatic music)
02:24 - What do you love most about your job?
02:26 - I'd say the unpredictability of it,
02:29 never knowing what's coming next.
02:33 (tires screeching)
02:37 - Jack, you did not come to Tokyo in pursuit of one man.
02:42 There are other stories, other crimes to be exposed.
02:49 That is your job.
02:50 - If you saw anything that can help me,
02:56 now's my chance.
02:58 - I saw a tattoo.
02:59 - You know I'm onto something.
03:03 - Chase it.
03:04 Tell no one.
03:05 - I mean, because she has her strategy,
03:08 and we see that, at least through the first part
03:11 of season two, I don't wanna give too much away,
03:14 but you see that she's tactiturn.
03:17 She knows what she wants,
03:18 but she knows what she wants to protect.
03:20 She's very clear on that.
03:22 Could you talk about sort of that confidence of her,
03:24 and did you find that talking through
03:27 with some of the hostesses,
03:28 and some of the women over in Japan?
03:31 And while you were there,
03:32 it obviously would imbue you, I would think.
03:34 - Right, being there is everything.
03:37 I mean, it's an exceptional country,
03:40 and the people are just ridiculously kind and welcoming.
03:47 I did speak to many hostesses.
03:50 Lots of that was really helpful,
03:52 and all of that research is such an opportunity
03:56 to learn about all of that.
03:58 That being said, she is an American there,
04:02 and I met primarily Japanese hostesses.
04:07 And so I guess the thinking was,
04:11 when you are protective over something,
04:16 sometimes it's not so conscious.
04:21 It sort of comes out of necessity,
04:23 or a kind of impulse to maintain a sense of dignity,
04:29 particularly in a world, in the Tokyo Vice world,
04:36 where the majority of the characters
04:39 that inhabit this world are men.
04:41 I think it's really brave
04:44 how they've written someone, a woman, a young woman,
04:49 who is relentless in her pursuit of protecting herself
04:54 and protecting the people around her.
05:00 (speaking in foreign language)
05:04 (shouting)
05:11 (dramatic music)
05:14 - Watch yourself.
05:19 Don't be stupid.
05:20 - Don't be stupid.
05:21 - I'll have to remember that.
05:24 (speaking in foreign language)
05:29 - Who knows what they will do
05:40 if Tozawa thinks we have this information?
05:43 - Maybe you should lay low.
05:45 - Which is the irony, considering the Yakuza
05:48 and the world like Sato and Ishida live in,
05:51 and not Jake, 'cause Jake is sort of like,
05:54 he's a gaijin as well.
05:55 But can you sort of talk about that idea of how she,
05:59 it's interesting, 'cause there's a line
06:01 between business and pleasure,
06:03 and she tries not to step over that,
06:06 and yet the relationship she has sort of dictate that,
06:09 especially with Sato in the first season.
06:12 But you have a great sort of face-off scene
06:15 with Ishida in season two, which was beautiful.
06:18 But can you talk about sort of that yin and yang?
06:21 It's about that poise.
06:22 It's about that poker element between everyone.
06:26 - Yeah, I mean, that is embedded into the Japanese culture,
06:32 the Japanese language.
06:36 There's some really gorgeous ways to speak to someone
06:41 who is below you and someone who is above you,
06:45 and the sort of faux pas of crossing the line.
06:51 And I don't know that she's a,
06:56 like, she's not trying to provoke anyone or harm anyone,
07:01 but she isn't,
07:04 I don't think she's willing to accept,
07:09 and this happens a lot in Japan,
07:13 that an American will come in and go,
07:15 "But I want it this way."
07:17 And the Japanese are like, "It doesn't happen that way."
07:20 And the American's like, "Yeah, but I want it that way."
07:25 And that's a really interesting cultural dynamic
07:30 that I think Samantha, she's unwilling to forgo
07:35 what she wants and how she's gonna get it.
07:37 And that's the fun of the character of Sam and Jake,
07:42 because they are up against what they're allowed to do
07:47 in the Japanese culture and what they're gonna do
07:51 because they're American.
07:52 - Today, a man told me he'd kill me
07:55 if I don't stop writing.
07:57 - I think you gotta keep calling.
07:59 - Be careful.
08:00 (dramatic music)
08:01 - Other people are relying on you now.
08:03 You are the way this ends.
08:05 (man screams)
08:07 (dramatic music)
08:10 (gun clicks)
08:16 (man screams)
08:19 (dramatic music)
08:22 (guns fire)
08:25 (upbeat music)
08:27 [BLANK_AUDIO]