He boils a man alive in the first episode of FX’s vaunted 10-part series “Shōgun,” but somehow we’re still charmed by Kashigi Yabushige, played by Tadanobu Asano. Like all samurai, he lives by a strict code. Unlike others, he’s willing to bend that code to survive in a land where life is cheap and death is glorious. Such a land is feudal Japan. The year is 1600, the events that unfold a mixture of fiction and fact based on James Clavell’s bestselling novel.
The series has been nominated for a record 25 Emmy Awards, including a supporting actor nod for Tadanobu, best known to American audiences as Hogun in the Thor movies, or Lord Raiden in “Mortal Kombat” and its upcoming sequel. A longtime punk rocker in his homeland, he formed the band Mach 1.67 with filmmaker Sogo Ishii in 1996 and later played in the bands Peace Pill and Safari. Recordings include 1999’s “Bloodthirsty Butchers” and “Codeine Slash” with Joujoku.
The actor-producer was keenly aware of telling the story through a Japanese lens, unlike the 1980s miniseries. It’s a good start, he says, toward introducing his culture to the world.
“I talked to the costume department and they were like, ‘Yabushige’s a rocker.’ I was delightfully surprised that we were going in that direction. I loved that,” Tadanobu tells The Envelope.
With five regents in Osaka united against him, Lord Yoshii Toranaga, played by Hiroyuki Sanada, angles for the title of shōgun in an effort to undermine a corrupt power structure and unify Japan under one leader, ending cycles of internecine warfare. Leading his forces are men like John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), a shipwrecked English sailor known to the locals as Anjin, and Lady Mariko (Anna Sawai), who acts as Anjin’s translator and spiritual guide through medieval Japan. Last but not least is Yabushige, a survivor who can be counted on to put his own interests first even if it means discreetly switching allegiances.
“In a situation where people are scared, he’s not as scared because his curiosity always overrides his fear,” Tadanobu says. “It’s not that he’s strong or weak. I would say he probably grew up a little bit throughout the series, but his basic animal instincts haven’t changed.”
He’s a weasel with a sword, the drunken-samurai trope like the tragic buffoon Kikuchiyo, portrayed by the great Toshiro Mifune in the Akira Kurosawa classic “Seven Samurai.”
“Honestly, all of it is important, not just what Mifune did but De Niro, Method — anything from the current to the past,” Tadanobu says about his approach to acting. “With Yabushige, he’s kind of a big character, but I always had to find somewhere where it was grounded in realism using all of that.”
Crediting his performance to the writing of showrunners Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks (also Emmy-nominated), Tadanobu found the biggest challenge was being on set and trying to understand the reaction of Marks, the crew and his fellow actors.
“With a mix of Japan, Canada and all of the world,” he says, referring to the location shoot in British Columbia, “I’m saying it in Japanese without them seeing any subtitles. So, it was really important to observe what their reaction was. If I didn’t get a reaction, then I go through the process of re-messaging everything when I go back home for the next day.”
Homesick throughout the shoot, he leaned on his old friend Sanada, with whom he worked on the Keanu Reeves film “47 Ronin.” “In ‘Shōgun,’ Yabushige was a handful for Toranaga, and I think even for me, personally, I was probably a handful for him too,” Tadanobu sighs.
‘This job was particularly complicated in terms of research,’ says costume designer Carlos Rosario, whose team made about 2,300 costumes for the series.
Originally from Yokohama, he was introduced to acting by his father, a talent agent, and got his first role at 16 on the TV show “Kinpachi Sensei.” Since then, he has worked with such masters as Hirokazu Kore-eda, Wong Kar-wai, Martin Scorsese and Kenneth Branagh, but might be best known to samurai fans for 2003’s “Zatoichi,” playing the legendary blind swordsman.
“In my career, I’ve had different roles, small and big, and I’m at a place where I’m taking on bigger roles that have more impact on the story being told. It’s just where I built my career and that’s where I’m at,” says the 50-year-old, a five-time nominee for the Japan Academy Film Prize and first-time Emmy nominee. “I can probably start saying no to smaller roles or things I think are not contributing to the larger story.
“I’m very excited and happy that ‘Shōgun’ has been embraced,” he adds. “And what comes next, who knows?”
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