The Making of FX's Shōgun with Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada
Stars Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai share their thoughts on the immense triumph and profound responsibility that comes with their leading roles in FX’s highly anticipated series, Shōgun. As they delve into their experiences on set, they reveal the challenges and rewards of bringing such iconic characters to life. Shōgun, a reimagining of the epic tale, showcases their dedication to authenticity and the cultural significance of the story. The series, now streaming on Hulu, invites viewers into a world of historical drama, where honor, power, and tradition collide.
Shōgun Cast:
Cosmo Jarvis, Hiroyuki Sanada, Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano, Fumi Nikaido, Tokuma Nishioka and Ako
Stream Shōgun Season 1 now on Hulu!
Shōgun Cast:
Cosmo Jarvis, Hiroyuki Sanada, Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano, Fumi Nikaido, Tokuma Nishioka and Ako
Stream Shōgun Season 1 now on Hulu!
Transcript
00:00I think curiosity is the thing that makes our best characters stand out on this show.
00:08It's that skill, that ability to observe and close your mouth and be silent and just listen to people
00:14that we hope, more than anything, this show engenders.
00:17You must train yourself to listen.
00:20For instance, you can listen to the sound of a blossom falling or the rocks growing.
00:27Both Toranaga and Lady Mariko are just such layered characters.
00:32And in a novel that's a thousand pages long, you really get that depth of them.
00:37But it's such a different experience as an actor, I think, bringing that to the screen.
00:42Including you, Anna. It was your first time on the horse with the sword.
00:47I feel like it was a lot to learn, but I loved every moment of it.
00:52For Mariko, we looked all over. We went through several countries.
00:57And Anna was somebody who had come to us early, and she just blew us all out of the water.
01:01There wasn't a second choice. She was the only one.
01:04Being able to create this very tranquil energy isn't something that you can just do like that.
01:10And it really helped me kind of go into zen mode.
01:14Smelling the tatami, walking on the gravel outside in the garden.
01:19Seeing the pond, hearing the water.
01:22What do I say?
01:24Tell her she's beautiful.
01:26All of those little elements really put me into the mind of Mariko.
01:33I actually think the women, they weren't pulling strings as much as they were watching those who pulled the strings so closely.
01:41That they could either anticipate it, get ahead of it.
01:44Or, you know, the women of the show, to my mind's eye, had to be that much more cunning, that much sharper, stronger.
01:54It really felt personal.
01:58We're constantly having to think about how people perceive us, but that doesn't matter.
02:03It's really in your heart, and it's what you know as the truth.
02:06Even at her worst, Mariko always knew her truth.
02:10Please wait until I have fallen.
02:13I was really nervous before I came here because I've never done period pieces.
02:18Hiro-san is a legend, so I knew that he would be able to see right through me, which really scared me.
02:25But, from day one he was just really eager to just help and share his knowledge.
02:40You may be able to change the face of the world with me.
02:49Of all the actors we've hired, Hiro has probably been on this project longer than anyone else.
02:53I think he's been on the project seven or eight years.
02:55And it's like the role he was meant to play.
02:58Hiro comes into it with just an openness and an eagerness and truly just a warmth that you will rarely find at the top of a call sheet.
03:08The first time that I met him was at a weapon training with hundreds of cast and BG.
03:15And he would just show up and come up to individuals and just share any tips that he had.
03:23He would spend hours talking to me on a weekend to discuss certain lines and polish the Japanese dialogue.
03:31And make it more comfortable for me to speak because it's such a complicated language.
03:37When we were out there in the woods on countless nights in the rain and the mud shooting the battle sequence from 103,
03:46he's out there in full armor with that sword making up moves as he went because he'd been doing this for so long.
04:17He's just very invested in creating a world that feels authentic and feels real.
04:22He'll watch respectfully and he'll come in and just make small tweaks and you can see immediately a shifting everything.
04:46He left Japan a long time ago.
04:48I came here and thought that he came here all by himself, shining the earth and making the soil.
04:58And I thought that this time he would be the one to plant the seeds.
05:05I think he's a bridge between Japan and the world.
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