In the Asadora drama "Anpan " (NHK General TV, Monday to Saturday 8:00am and others) starring Mio Imada , Takumi Kitamura plays Takashi Yanai , a childhood friend of the main character Nobu (Imada), who later becomes her husband. We asked him about his role as Yanai Takashi Yanase, who is modeled after Takashi Yanai, the manga artist and picture book writer who created "Anpanman," and what he is conscious of when acting in scenes with Imada.
◇What did you use as reference when preparing for your role?
"Anpan" is based on the married couple Takashi Yanase(1919-2013) and Nobu (1918-1993), the manga artist and picture book writer who created "Anpanman." It is a "story of love and courage" that will make you feel the joy of living, depicting how these two, who were once nobody, overcame all sorts of rough seas to become "Anpanman," the embodiment of "unreversible justice." The script was written by Miho Nakazono, who is known for the "Doctor X: Surgeon Daimon Michiko" (TV Asahi) series.
Before filming began, Kitamura read books and watched interview videos related to Yanase to help him prepare for his role. "While I read a lot of books to gather information, the thing I watched the most were Yanase's interview videos," he recalled.
"Mr. Yanase talked about his thoughts and philosophy, his thoughts on war and Anpanman, and I watched intently, staring at his way of speaking and his facial expressions to learn from them. I learned about Mr. Yanase's thoughts on 'unreversible justice' from the video, and as I was watching it, many things began to make sense to me, and I felt like I finally had all the parts I needed to play a role modelled on such a great person as Mr. Yanase."
After watching the video, he was able to expand on his image of Yanase as "a very humorous and gentle-mannered person," and said he "was able to see the goal" for playing the role of Takashi.
"Ever since childhood, Taku has been shy and not very outspoken. At his goal, Yanase is humorous, looks people in the eye when he speaks, is fashionable, and is kind and loving. So I was always asking myself, 'Is this the right answer? If it were Taku, if it were Yanase...' while playing the darkness in Taku along the way. Of course, it's important that he resembles Yanase, but there were also many moments when I felt that I was able to make a certain expression because Taku was modeled after Yanase. It's fun and different from the roles I usually play, so it's fulfilling."
◇ On weight gain and loss for the role: "I think I've lost a lot of weight"
When preparing to play the role of Takami, he takes into consideration the changes in his body that come with age and environment.
"When I was a student, I wanted to show off my thin bones, so I made my body look slender. Then I moved to Tokyo to enter art school, and as I was excited about the new encounters and sights of Tokyo, I gained weight so that my face would show a sense of fulfillment. After that, there was a war scene, so I ran and took a bath to sweat, and eventually I lost all the water, so I think I lost a lot of weight."
In particular, regarding the war scenes, which he "wanted to approach with a sense of realism," he spoke about his commitment to his role, saying, "I would go into filming without having eaten anything, and when filming more energetic scenes I would eat carbohydrates to bring energy to my eyes...I did things like that throughout the course of one day of filming.It wasn't so much about how it looked on screen, but rather a matter of mentality.I wanted to experience hunger, and I thought that I wouldn't be able to be convincing unless I did it in that kind of environment."
◇What do you keep in mind when co-starring in scenes with your “wife”Mio Imada?
This will be his sixth time acting alongside lead actor Imada, and they will play a married couple. Kitamura revealed, "I'm going into filming hoping that everyone will really see us as Yanase-san and Nobu-san."
"Since Takami is basically a passive actor, he receives people's emotions in various ways and sometimes returns them, and sometimes he sympathizes and sheds tears along with them. Takami doesn't often throw the ball. So, Nobu is often the one to lead the way, including the emotional aspects, and I try to think about how I can receive her feelings as purely as possible."
When filming the climax scene of the story, they were crying all day, to the point that the two of them even said, "Isn't this all just tear-jerking?"
"It wasn't like the two of us helped each other out and shed tears, but rather, I think there were many times during the play when we clashed with each other in a pure way and shed tears. As Takami, I am conscious of my behavior on set and my responses during the play in a way that doesn't make Imada feel uncomfortable."
The tearful scene between the two is said to be one of the highlights of the story.
"For Nobu and Takashi, the vacant lot with the seesaw becomes a very important place. Filming was tough and I was moved to tears, but you can expect something to happen in the vacant lot scene. Please look forward to it."
