42-year-old actor Ryuhei Matsuda appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi), which aired on January 8th. He spoke about his thoughts on the passing of his father, Yusaku Matsuda, who passed away at the age of 40, as well as the pressure he felt when he made his acting debut.
Ryuhei has surpassed his father's age and says, "I thought I was getting close to my father's age, but when I turned 40, it was nothing. When I look at my father's work, I think he is younger than I am now," but adds with a sigh, "I don't look younger."
"I've seen Matsuda Yusaku not so much as a father, but as an actor, and I've often met people who have worked with my father, so I feel like the Matsuda Yusaku I know through these experiences has grown into a bigger person," he says.
His mother, actress Miyuki Matsuda, married Yusaku when she was young, so she said, "It must have been difficult for him," and reiterated, "Of course I respect him."
Ryuhei made his acting debut at the age of 16 in the film "Gohatto" directed by Nagisa Oshima. Following in his parents' footsteps as an actor, he said, "I felt pressure, or rather, I thought I'd never be able to do the same thing as my father. He was a manly, strong man. I knew it would be impossible for me to become an actor like him."
However, he changed his mind, saying, "An actor's job is to play many different characters, so I thought I could do it even if I wasn't an actor like my father." When he first started acting, he thought it would be good to become an actor who was the complete opposite of his father.
Because his father was stoic, he ended up "slacking off and being late." He was scolded, but "I just went along with it, thinking it was okay." He spoke of his feelings at the time, saying, "I get nervous easily, so there may have been times when I couldn't do it if I hadn't had that kind of attitude."
He had heard that the people at the Kyoto film studio were strict about greetings and that many of them were scary, so he felt intimidated. When he first entered the makeup room in Kyoto, he heard a voice from behind him say, "Hey, aren't you supposed to say hello?" He thought, "Is that it...?" and apologized, then looked around to see who it was and saw, "Oh, it's Tera-chan." He revealed with a smile that it was actor Susumu Terajima, whom he had known since childhood, who had called out to him jokingly, hoping to scare him a little.
