Actor Ohtori Ran and her second daughter, also an actor, Shoda Yuki, appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) on January 20th. They talked about their experiences raising their children.
Yuki-san currently lives in Nagano and often communicates with Otori-san over the phone, so this was the first time they had met in a long time during the recording.
Yuki is also a mother of two boys, one in the third grade of elementary school and one in the senior year of kindergarten. Her husband is kind and proactive in raising their children. When she revealed that he also lets his wife into the kitchen, Otori said, "In the past, people would say that (men) didn't want to go into the kitchen. Times have changed. I'm glad we live in this day and age." Tetsuko also said, "There was a long time when it was considered unacceptable for a man to go into the kitchen."
Otori-san now has five grandchildren. "I think my oldest will be in the first year of middle school this year, and my youngest will be in first grade next year," she revealed. She said her grandchildren call her "Manny," and said with a smile, "I don't like being called Grandma or Granny. I thought about what to say, and I started saying 'Mummy.' But I couldn't say 'M', so it became 'Manny' (laughs)."
Yuki played the lead role in the Bungakuza production "Setsu" last year, but she took a seven-year break from acting to raise her child. "It's quite difficult to practice and act thoroughly. Seven years passed in the blink of an eye," she reflected. When she was offered the role, she had a seven-year hiatus and was also offered the lead role, which she couldn't accept right away, but her husband encouraged her, saying, "Why don't you give it a try?", and she was able to take on the lead role.
Meanwhile, Otori talked about raising her children, saying, "In my case, a babysitter raised my two daughters." She continued, "When I'd say, 'I'm off' (for work), and my children looked like they were about to cry, I'd pretend to be cheerful and say, 'I'll go and earn some money!' I felt at ease knowing that the babysitter would look after them properly. In that sense, I was blessed." She also revealed that she tried to stay positive, "stay positive. I tried my best to stay positive and not become negative."
When Yuki was a teenager, the mother and daughter had a big fight, and Otori said, "I don't remember raising her like that!" However, Yuki replied, "You didn't raise her like that!" Otori laughed, "That's right, I thought I didn't raise her like that (laughs)." Yuki also recalled, "We had been fighting up until then, but then we started laughing."
