Mizuki Kayashima plays Akane Kurokawa in "Oshi no Ko," a drama and film adaptation of a hugely popular manga about the entertainment industry. Akane is the "complete opposite" of herself in some ways, but also in others she feels is "similar." Kayashima spoke to us about how playing Akane, who suffers from online slander, also brought back painful memories of her own.
◇I asked the director to film until I was satisfied.
"Oshi no Ko" is a manga created jointly by Akasaka Aka, who worked on "Kaguya-sama: Love is War," and Yokoyari Mengo, known for "Scum's Wish," and has sold over 18 million copies (as of August this year). The TV anime that aired last year and this year also became a hot topic. The story is about Aqua and Ruby, twin siblings left behind by the legendary idol Ai. Aqua vows to take revenge on the mastermind behind Ai's murder, while Ruby aspires to be an idol, admiring her mother.
Kayashima says she was a fan of the original work even before she received the offer. "When I first read it, I was surprised that there was a work that expressed the reality of the entertainment industry to this extent! I could really empathize with the worries of the characters, and I thought Akasaka-sensei was amazing... Many of my friends in the entertainment industry were reading it, and it was a hot topic, so I started reading it too, and I was hooked (laughs)."
Because it is a work with many fans, she emphasizes, "I felt a great sense of responsibility to turn it into a drama and a movie." "Of course there was pressure, but as a fan of the original work, I was really excited to see how it would be visualized, so when I received the offer, I replied immediately, "I want to do it!""
Akane, who she will be playing, is an actress who mainly works on stage. She has received high praise for her possessive acting, which involves studying the role thoroughly, and is called a "genius actress." Akane sometimes plays a role in the play, and Kayashima plays Akane, and Akane plays a role... it is a complicated role.
"It was very difficult..." she said with a wry smile, and about playing the role of a genius actress, she reflected, "Akane herself doesn't think of herself as a genius, so I thought I didn't need to be too hung up on the idea of being a genius actress. I played the role with the awareness that she was a girl who doesn't have much confidence and works hard at her acting."
While using the original work and the script as a guide for creating the role, she said, "When I actually performed the role, there were times when I felt different emotions than I had expected. When that happened, I consulted with the director and acted accordingly." One of Akane's highlights is the scene where she is possessed by Aqua's mother Ai in front of Aqua (Kaion Sakurai). "It was very difficult, so I asked the director to film it until I was satisfied," she said, revealing, "I filmed while watching videos of Saito (Asuka)'s Ai to use as reference."
◇Who is your rival?
Akane is a person whose "personality is the complete opposite of mine." "I'm a cheerful person at heart, so I don't think I'm similar to the shy Akane in terms of personality," she said, but on the other hand, she revealed that there were some similarities between her and Akane, saying, "I can empathize with the feeling of caring for someone, like the love she has for Aqua, and I've experienced slander in my life as an actress..."
She said that she recalled the emotions she felt when she was slandered online when she acted out the scene. When asked if it was painful, she confessed, "Yes... I remembered things that I don't really want to remember, and acted out the scene."
Akane takes notes when preparing for her role, and this attitude was also something that made her think, "We're similar!" "I absolutely need notes when preparing for a role, too. If I don't write things down on paper first, I can't organize my thoughts and I can't do it well. I made a notebook this time as well. I pasted up Akane's memorable expressions (from the original work) to check them, and I scribbled down a lot of emotions when I read the original work and the script." Akane has a rival as an actor, Kana (Hara Nanoka), but Akane says, "There is no one I think of as a rival like Kana-chan," and declares, "My rival is myself."
"When there is a difficult scene before I act, I get anxious that I might not be able to do it. When I overcome that feeling in myself, I can create a good scene, so it's that kind of conflict with myself. There were a lot of crying scenes in this work, but I'm not good at crying scenes, so I couldn't sleep at all the night before... (laughs)," she said with a smile, but she revealed the difficulties.
The drama and movie "Oshi no Ko" is a joint project between Amazon and Toei, and episodes 1 to 6 of the drama will be exclusively streamed worldwide on Prime Video from 9:00 PM on November 28th, and episodes 7 to 8 from 9:00 PM on December 5th. The movie "Oshi no Ko - The Final Act -", which depicts the continuation of the drama, will be released nationwide on December 20th.
Regarding the movie, he said that there are "a lot of things I can't say," and appealed, "I think you'll be surprised. The ending is very surprising, so I hope everyone will look forward to it."
