Momoka：Aiming to become an Olympic athlete, he devoted himself to swimming as a child; "It's all connected" to his current life as an actor

Momoka is an actor who appeared in the movie "Mangaka, Hori Mamoru" starring Yamashita Koki, which was released on August 30th. She plays Sakura Haru, an important childhood friend of the main character, manga artist Hori Mamoru (Yamashita), and says, "I felt like I saw a new me as an actor." Momoka also said that she believes that her daily experiences of seriously devoting herself to swimming as a child "are all connected to the present," and we asked her about her current thoughts as an actor.

◇ "On weekdays, I would swim in the morning before going to school." Momoka was born on August 25th, 2000, and is 24 years old and from Kanagawa Prefecture. From 2013 to 2014, she was an exclusive model for the elementary school fashion magazine "Nico☆Puchi" (Shinchosha), and since then, she has appeared in many dramas, movies, commercials, and music videos as an actor.

She started swimming at the age of 4, and until she decided to pursue a career in showbiz at the age of 13, she was serious about it, entering the athlete course with the aim of competing in the Olympics. "I swam almost every day," she recalls, not only after school and on holidays, but also "on weekdays, I would swim in the morning before going to school."

In the NHK program "Heroine Birth! Dramatic Women" (2022), she used her swimming prowess to delve into the life of Hideko Maehata, the first Japanese woman to win an Olympic gold medal, but she also says that her experience as a "former athlete" is "all connected" to who she is now.

"Physically speaking, first of all, it's stamina. Even though the practice is really tough, I think it made my body stronger and gave me guts. Also, since I was little, my coaches have been telling me to make my own decisions, so I think it helped me develop my decision-making ability and the mental strength to keep going as long as I decide to do it, and I'm glad I did swimming."

◇Sometimes I'm moved by unexpected emotions

Such is the movie "Manga Artist, Hori Mamoru," in which Momoka plays the heroine Sakura Haru. The story is about three ghosts appearing before Hori Mamoru, a novice manga artist who can no longer draw, and various events that unfold connect the past, present, and future.

Haru is Mamoru's precious childhood friend, and once pursued her dream of becoming a manga artist with Mamoru. Momoka said, "At first glance, she seems very cheerful, but when Mamoru is feeling down, she pulls him along, or pushes him forward. She's a girl with a strong presence."

"She tries to be strong, doesn't complain to people, and is the kind of girl who thinks about the people around her and acts for them. I could relate to her in many ways, and I really understood how Haru felt during the play. I myself am not the type of person who can show my weaknesses to people, so when Haru blurts out her true feelings to her mother in the middle of the story, I thought, 'I get it,' because it's someone she trusts."

What I tried to do on set was to embody Haru's feelings of "No matter how hard or painful it is, I don't want Mamoru to worry." "There were many parts I could relate to, so it just happened naturally," but there were also times when she was moved emotionally in unexpected ways.

"It was like I was able to feel different emotions than before, and I felt emotions I'd never felt before, and I felt like I'd discovered a new side of myself as an actor. Through this experience on set, I was reminded that acting is fun, and that I love it, and when I was talking with the director after filming wrapped, I couldn't stop crying. That's how memorable it was."

◇I hope the viewers can understand the importance of communicating.

Momoka once again reveals her thoughts, saying, "I hope the viewers can understand the importance of communicating."

"Communicating seems easy, but it's actually difficult. I want this film to make people think, 'I want to communicate,' so that they won't regret it and will not regret it if they watch it and tell their loved ones, or people they need to tell now. I hope that it will warm the hearts of the viewers, and that it will make them realize something and make them think, 'I'll try to communicate,' and have some kind of influence."

She said that she has been a "drama fan" since she was a child, and that "the dramas and the actors' acting have saved me."

"When I was feeling down, I would watch a drama and change my mood, so I think that dramas and the actors' acting can really save people. I think that there are people who want to become doctors in the future because they watch medical dramas, and I think that they definitely have some kind of influence. I hope that my acting can turn depressed feelings into positive ones, and even if it's a sad story, I can empathize and shed tears to make them feel better. I hope that by moving people's emotions with my acting, I can be a salvation for them in some way. I want to continue acting because I think I can save them."