Steven Prusakowski
The eyes are the window to the soul. This saying is never truer than in Anna Sawai’s breathtaking performance as Lady Mariko in FX’s epic series Shōgun. Mariko is a highborn woman in feudal Japan who is called upon to serve as translator by Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) when an English ship sets ashore in their village. Mariko must translate the words of the white ‘barbarian’ John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), an assignment that starts off simple enough but ultimately positions her to wield more power than she ever anticipated.
Throughout the series, Sawai keeps Mariko’s true feelings hidden, with one exception—her eyes. Behind them is revealed the character’s endless complexity. We see hints of the pain of an abused wife, the resiliency of a woman who lived in the shadow of her father’s shame, the flames of her forbidden desire, and the gears that are endlessly turning as she bravely sets a vast strategy into motion. By the time the series concludes, Mariko is elevated from a secondary character to the emotional and spiritual core of the story.
The concept of the eightfold fence (the title of episode four) allows for a better understanding of how so much is hidden behind Mariko’s gaze—an impenetrable wall that allows her to compartmentalize between what others see and her true individuality. The subtleties in Sawai’s performance allow viewers beyond that wall to fully embrace the full range of Mariko’s pain, loss, love, and victories.
Anna Sawai sat down with Awards Radar to record an episode of TV Topics podcast, where we discuss a variety of subjects—from the beginning of her career in a Nippon TV version of Annie, to the physical challenges of playing Lady Mariko, as well as how her work on the series has affected her and helped to change the stereotypical images Japanese women have faced for decades.
Below is the full conversation with Anna, including some special TV Topics questions about her relationship with TV. The actress brings up some series fans will be sure to enjoy. Here are some excerpts from that conversation.
On the importance of telling this story with a fresh perspective:
I had a very good meeting with Justin Marks, our showrunner, and he basically kind of explained why he wanted to adopt it in his version. Learning that he had so much respect for the Japanese culture, and he wanted to do it right. Even just feeling that way, I felt like it was like a big step forward, because a lot of times people just kind of want to do it their way and they’re not that focused on the details, but it’s the details that really matter.
I also love that he wanted to share the Japanese role characters’ perspectives with the audience and have it be a little bit more immersive, so that we’re not distancing the viewers from the Japanese people. And also with Rachel Kondo involved, she’s half Japanese. I knew when I talked to her that she cared for Mariko, like she was her own mother.
Mariko’s journey is just so special, because she’s also based on Hosokawa Gracia-san, who lived in 1600. I wanted to do it right. I wanted to give her the respect that I could. I knew that within Mariko, we would see so much of the suffocation that Japanese women have been through. And the struggles that I still see within our women today. I was like, this is something that needs to be told to the world.
On the challenges of telling the story of a layered and complex character?
I think that just doing my research on the character really, you know, built her before we began, but also as we shot, living in her shoes for 10 months. Her story was starting to affect me personally. Maybe the things that I was feeling as an actor in certain scenes, I would feel stuck because I felt like I needed to express more.
I needed my emotions to be more visible to the camera, but then she’s in front of her husband. So she has to keep it within herself. The entrapment that I was feeling felt so real that I didn’t really have to try too much.
Rachel Kondo played such a huge part in bringing her to life. She shared this beautiful story about her grandmother with me. And that was a time that I was trying to figure out, how is she able to be Catholic and also a samurai? Because they’re very on opposite sides. Learning about her grandmother really helped me kind of make that part of Mariko real.
I wasn’t really confused about it anymore. It was like, okay, ‘so when she was about to give up on life, someone held their hand out and that happened to be a Catholic priest. So it could have been anything, but that’s what saved her. That’s why she hangs on to it. So little things like that really helped me just bring her to life.
On some of the physical demands of the performance:
I had to learn a lot, not just the spear stuff. It was just how to walk and how to sit and how to hold a teacup and how to bring it to your mouth. Everything was new to me. That kind of physicality went in. The spear work was a little bit more familiar to me because I had done a little bit of training prior to the show. Then we had so much training at the boot camp as well. That stuff was very, very fun for me.
But I think the more subtle stuff, like staying in a kimono for hours and hours a day and doing that for 10 months in the rain in Vancouver, it was a lot. I was pretty happy when I got to take it off. It’s such a beautiful garment, but it’s quite heavy too. I don’t know how much it weighs, but I can tell you that I had probably seven layers of clothing.
But also, it wasn’t just seven because you would wrap a very long cloth around you, so that would end up being two layers for one piece. So yeah, it was a lot.
On how playing Mariko affected her:
I feel like I have let Mariko go, especially with the release of episode nine, I was like, okay, this is my final let go moment. It’s so funny, because I was talking to some of the people who created the show about how the sakura petals are now starting to fall and it’s so Mariko of her to be released at this time.
But I think that I’ll always carry this whole show within myself, just because it meant so much. It really taught me a lot about myself about what I want to do and the people that I want to work with, like this truly was like a dream team. The story was amazing and the character is just so heartbreaking and so important to me. She’ll always be a part of me.
On playing such an empowering character:
Taking part in this show meant I was doing something for the women in my community. I didn’t want to perpetuate the image of Japanese women being submissive and just cute, not saying too much or being just the sexy figure or just the one that does a lot of fighting somehow, nor has had a wield a sword, even though that’s not really part of her background, – you know, things like that.
So to be able to play a character who didn’t rely on any of those elements, who wasn’t just the romantic other to the male character, she’s not defined by any, it’s more about what she is, what her story, what her history is, the relationship that she has with her father, why she’s able to stay strong in a oppressive community.
Then she finally gets the permission to really take action. She’s fulfilling her needs, her Lord’s needs and avenging her family. So all of that just felt like there was so much depth to her that I hadn’t seen in other portrayals of our women.
It just feels so lovely because then I’m getting people coming to me being like, this has really opened up my eyes. I was doing press and I was able to talk to Japanese girls who were in the States, and they were like, I’m so happy to see this portrayal. I feel like it’s a reflection of myself.
Even older women who were like, ‘Oh, I didn’t even know that I was internalizing all these stereotypes and kind of answering to that image. This is giving me courage to not think about all that stuff. I’m so grateful that Justin and Rachel came up with this version of her.
On what Mariko’s path would be if she never had met Blackthorne:
I think that she would have always looked for ways to serve her Lord. But without Blackthorne, that means she wouldn’t have been a translator, which means she wouldn’t have really been in the room with Toranaga-sama as often. It would have been totally different.
I can’t even answer it, because I truly believe that you meet certain people in your life at the right time, and you’re meant to meet those people. You’re meant to walk the path in the way that you are walking it. It’s like fate, right? So I don’t even know if there’s a version of her not meeting him. That’s her shukumei, which is fate in Japanese.
Watch Anna Sawai’s work in Shōgun in its entirety, now streaming exclusively on Hulu.
Listen to our full conversation (above).
Comments
Loading…