Hiroyuki Sanada has lived a thousand lives in show business: child actor, action star, Shakespearean fool, Hollywood actor. As a consultant, he has long helped lend authenticity to representations of Japanese culture. But he knows he found the role of a lifetime, on and off camera, in the acclaimed FX drama series “Shōgun.”
His acting work in the series is quite impressive. Sanada, 63, plays Lord Yoshii Toranaga, a member of the Council of Regents of 17th-century Japan. Toranaga, a skilled military and political strategist, is tested when his fellow regents attempt to oust him from power. With the help of a shipwrecked Englishman (Cosmo Jarvis), an enigmatic translator (Anna Sawai) and an opportunistic and duplicitous lord (Tadanobu Asano), Toranaga emerges as a master chess player, allowing the action to come to him, responding accordingly and He is apparently one step ahead of his enemies.
Sanada, best known to American audiences through films such as “The Last Samurai” (2003), “Sunshine” (2007) and “Bullet Train” (2022), infuses Toranaga with an iron stillness, patient but dynamic. He already knew the character well, or at least the historical figure he is based on. Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) was the first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan and an important figure in the unification of the country. “He was a hero of my childhood,” Sanada says by phone from New York. “He created a peaceful era for a long time after the war period. He remains a hero in Japan and I hope that playing him and presenting what he did brings a very important message to the world.”
So Sanada was deeply involved in “Shōgun,” which, like the previous 1980 miniseries, is based on James Clavell's 1975 novel. And although the series tells the full story of the novel, FX recently announced that it will continue the story, with Sanada on board. But his performance as Toranaga was just the beginning. He has worked as a historical and cultural consultant since “The Last Samurai,” in which Tom Cruise plays a bitter U.S. Army captain who travels east to train the Imperial Japanese Army (Sanada also plays master swordsman Ujio). For “Shōgun,” created by Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks, he took his duties further and became a producer for the first time in his career.
While he might have been hesitant to offer guidance and advice on previous projects, this time he had license to bring his considerable experience to bear on every element of the series, from acting to language to bringing in Japanese crew members who understood the era and style. . .
For Sanada, the 1980 miniseries “showed feudal Japan only through blue eyes.” He had extensive conversations with Marks about not making the same mistakes. The new series uses subtitles throughout. The dense plot assumes a level of intelligence on the part of the audience.
Hiroyuki Sanada not only stars in “Shōgun,” but also acted as a producer.
(Katie Yu/FX)
As Sanada says: “We tried to put more Japanese lenses into the script. We wanted to show more details of the culture, the characters, the rules, the atmosphere and everything else. “That's the biggest difference from the original '80s series. Maybe the audience will be able to understand it more easily this time.”
For Sawai, who plays the key role of translator Mariko, Sanada's presence was a blessing.
“As a person, he's just a delight,” he says in a video interview. “He is just a very good human being. But other than that, this show wouldn't have been as accurate, authentic, and epic without Hiro. He really led everyone.”
Sanada would show up on set on days when he wasn't expected, “just to share his knowledge with us,” Sawai continues. “He was always there. He would FaceTime with me for hours on the weekends to go over my lines when he was just starting out, because he wanted to make sure he was doing the Japanese period correctly. “I can’t say enough about him.”
Born in Tokyo in 1960, Sanada found one of his early mentors in Sonny Chiba, the Japanese action star who founded his own acting and martial arts school, Japan Action Club. Sanada signed up and by the time he was a teenager he knew how to act, fight, sing, dance, perform acrobatics, ride horses and do anything else a set or scenario might require of him. He became a prolific presence in Japanese film and television, even playing Tokugawa Ieyasu, the man on whom his “Shōgun” character is based, in the 1992 television production “Oda Nobunaga.”
But one of the most treasured turning points of his career took place on stage. In 1999 and 2000 she played the Fool in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of “King Lear.” It was a daunting task, the most challenging English role of his career to that point. “My God, what an experience,” he remembers. “I don't even remember opening night.” But he does remember hearing the warm laughter after his first biting, epigrammatic comment, and realizing that, in fact, he could do this.
He was made an Honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his “contribution to the spread of British culture in Japan.” You can hear the pride in his voice when he recalls his experience on “Lear,” which he credits with giving him the confidence to move forward with “The Last Samurai” and other Hollywood films. He has called Los Angeles home for the past 20 years.
Now Sanada has reached a new level with “Shōgun” and crystallized his purpose to move forward.
“I hope this is a big step into the future for me, for the industry and for the Japanese artists and team,” he says. “I hope it introduces our culture to the world.”
