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Sanada Hiroyuki’s star is shining even brighter with him going abroad to train. (work).
His performance in the “Twilight Samurai” and “The Last Samurai” had received much attention from America and Europe. He just finished a movie, “Sunshine” directed by England’s Danny Boyle and produced by the joint effort of USA and Britain. I have interviewed him to ask his state of mind after being directed by so many famous directors in the continent. (London)
Danny Boyle is a powerful British who had directed a hit avant-garde movie, “Trainspotting” then made the “28 days Later” and the “Millions” in succession. And now he is making an unusual sci-fi movie starring Americans, Chinese, Japanese and other foreign nationals as the scientists on a spaceship who are trying to save the earth from destruction.
Sanada plays a captain of the ship of seven spacemen, which includes Cillian Murphy and Michelle Yeoh. All this action takes place in the tight quarters of the spaceship, so it requires good acting skills.
Director Boyle’s making of this movie had started three weeks prior to the shoot. All the principal actors stayed in the student dormitory in London to live as a group, getting lectures from morning until night, studying science and space and watching old sci-fi movies. They even prepared their evening meals together. “This helped us get the feel of living in the spaceship together to bond with each other in the natural transition. This reminded me of the thoroughness of the workshop for the stage performance and it was like a breath of fresh air.”
They built a model spaceship in the suburb of London. It was quite elaborate and they did not stint even where the camera would not have reached.
“They were really thorough about the set and the rest was up to the actors. This was supposed to be a commercial movie, but it was treated more like an independent and an artistic one and that was most stimulating”
The first part of last year, he made a movie “The Promise” in Beijing and Guangzhou with Chen Kaige, who had directed a movie, “Farewell My Concubine”. And in the latter part of last year, he made the movie, “White Countess” in Shanghai directed by James Ivory. The former in Chinese and the latter, in English!
“For the recording of the dialogue for 'The Promise', I had five Chinese teachers correcting my pronunciation very thoroughly. On the other hand, in James Ivory’s case, it was so spontaneous and on top of that, the main star, Ralph Fiennes was ad-libbing so that made me very nervous.”
Probably the experience Sanada had in playing the part of “The Fool” in the King Lear, directed by Mr. Ninagawa in England from year 1999 to 2000, prepared him for the long shoot and eventually he was able to ad-lib himself. He was the first Japanese actor to appear in the Royal Shakespeare Company and he received high praise in Shakespeare‘s home town.
Wong Kar Wai, who directed the movie, “In the Mood for Love” had seen Sanada’s performance and had recommended him for the part in “Sunshine“
“I worked abroad continually, thinking this is a good training ground outside of my home. I like to keep challenged and would like to consider the whole world without borders to be the center of the action in coming years.”
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