Yuka Sugai:"Being able to share my thoughts is a great support and encouragement" - Nearly 10 years in showbiz, and the secret to "keeping your mind fresh"

Yuka Sugai is appearing in the movie " True Beauty " (directed by Kazunari Hoshino) starring Koki,. While hosting the horse racing broadcast program "Keiba BEAT" on KTV and the variety program "Kaiun! Nandemo Kanteidan" on TV Tokyo, she is steadily working on her acting career. It's been almost 10 years since she passed the audition for the first generation of idol group "Keyakizaka46 (now Sakurazaka46)" in 2015. We spoke to Sugai, who is enjoying her time with the group.

◇ Koki's love rival Every line was a challenge

The movie " True Beauty" tells the story of a girl who changes her life through makeup in order to realize the person she wants to be, and pursues her "love" and "dreams" over a period of nine years from the age of 17 to 25. The first part, "True Beauty Before High School Debut", will be released on March 20th, and the second part, "True Beauty After Proposal", will be released on May 1st.

Sugai plays Kawashima Aimi, who becomes a love rival for the main character Tanigawa Reina (Koki,). Aimi is Reina's classmate and childhood friend of Shun (Keisuke Watanabe). She is wary of Reina, who is getting closer to Shun, whom she secretly has feelings for, and becomes an aggressive love rival...

Regarding Aimi, Sugai describes her role as "a character I have never encountered before."

"There were lines that I rarely say in my daily life, like 'I have to get rid of those bugs,' and that was one of the things I looked forward to about playing Manami. At first, I went to the set with a burning fighting spirit, but the director gave me advice that 'rather than showing all your fighting spirit, if you say those lines with a little 'comfortable smile,' it will be scarier.' I learned a lot from trying out various patterns, and I feel like each and every line was a challenge."

Looking back on the filming, Sugai smiled and said that it was her first time playing a strong role like Aimi, who had a strong rival feel to her character, and that it was "a lot of fun acting."

"In addition, I personally don't like my own eyes and I've been worried about them looking harsh, but this time I was given a different make-up look than usual, with the intention of 'using it to the role,' and it felt really good. I took this movie to be a wonderful way to accept myself, but through the role of Aimi I also discovered that I wanted to express more and more the parts of myself that I thought were my complexes."

◇Be able to express each and every experience you have had

Sugai gained another new experience through this movie. As mentioned above, she has been in the entertainment industry for almost 10 years, but she looks back fondly on 10 years ago, saying, "When I started this job, there were so many things I didn't know."

"It was like I was scared to reveal myself, or rather, (as an idol at the time) I was scared of 'how people would see me.' But through this job, I was able to meet people who supported and loved me for the parts of myself that I thought were weak, and I was able to overcome things that I thought were impossible if I tried hard. I feel like I've come this far by accumulating each and every one of those experiences."

In her heart, she feels grateful that "among the many people active in the entertainment industry, you found me and supported me."

"There are people who continue to support me, and people who know me through my work, and being able to share my thoughts with them is a great source of support and encouragement."

Her 10 years of entertainment activity roughly overlap with Sugai's 20s, when she turned 29 last year.

"I feel like my 20s were very intense. I was able to have a lot of experiences that are hard to come by, and each and every one of them felt really precious to me. Now that I'm in my 30s, I would like to be able to channel all of those experiences into my expression and become an actor who can project a variety of roles."

Sugai says that there is a certain "time that she cherishes" every day and a "secret to keeping her mind fresh."

"Time spent with my family is very important to me. Home is a place where I feel safe, and when I return home I feel like I can reset myself. I also love eating, so I try to go to new restaurants as much as possible. In one of his books, Yasushi Akimoto wrote that the key to keeping your mind fresh is to do something new every day, so I keep that in mind and try to visit as many places as possible that I've never been to before."