Actor Mio Imada plays the role of Jiro Wakamatsu , the husband of the heroine Nobu (Imada), in the Asadora drama series "Anpan " (NHK General TV, Monday to Saturday 8:00am and others), starring Imada Mio. This is Ayumu Nakajima's first Asadora appearance since "Hanako to Anne" in the first half of 2014. Looking back on 11 years ago, Nakajima revealed, "The reviews (for my acting) were very bad, so that has become a trauma for me." We spoke to him.
◇ "I couldn't do it well at all" with "Anne and Hanako"
"Anpan" is based on the married couple Takashi Yanase(1919-2013) and Noriyuki Yanase (1918-1993). It is a "story of love and courage" that will make you feel the joy of living, depicting how the two met, overcame all sorts of rough seas, and arrived at "Anpanman", the embodiment of "unreversible justice."
Nakajima plays Jiro, Nobu's husband, who graduated from a maritime academy and works as a first-class engineer. When asked how he felt when he received the offer to appear in the play, Nakajima said, "I was very happy. It was a big stage, so I was excited."
On the other hand, in "Hanako and Anne," he attracted attention for his role as Ryuichi Miyamoto, a handsome young man who falls in love with Hasuko (Yukie Nakama), the daughter of an earl. However, he regretted, "Perhaps because I was just starting out, I wasn't very good at it at all."
"My acting received very bad reviews, so I realized that this must have been traumatic for me while I was preparing for ' Anpan.' Asadora develop rapidly within the 15 minutes, and the lines are quite different from modern colloquial language, so it's difficult to handle that, and I thought it would be difficult for someone just starting out."
Looking back on that time, Nakajima said, "I thought I would become a huge hit from here, but my reputation wasn't that good, so I didn't get any work. But fortunately, I met good directors and producers, who gave me lots of experience and helped me grow on stage and in movies. I'm really grateful now to have been able to appear on a big stage like this again. I think I need to continue to approach things with humility."
◇ "Ambivalence" in response to social media reaction
Even now that he has established a career as an actor, he says the trauma from that time has not gone away, and he reveals, "I think the trauma will stay with me forever. I never realized how much the comments on the internet can hurt me."
"That's why I'm scared to read the reactions on social media. I'm always at Shinjuku Musashinokan, so if I become a trend on social media, I feel scared. I'm in awe of the extent to which so many people are watching and the influence I can have. I think that the number of people who use social media is only a small fraction of the total, but even though I'm skeptical, I'm greatly influenced by the criticism and praise I receive there. Recently, reactions on social media can even change the storyline of a drama."
On social media, there have been many positive comments about Nakajima's performance as Jiro, but he laughs, saying, "I feel happy and scared at the same time, so I have ambivalent feelings."
"It was a script that wouldn't work unless your heart was truly trembling, and you could really connect with each other, so I did a lot of preparation beforehand, faced Imada-san face-to-face on set, and tried my best, so I'm glad if that worked. I was determined to work hard, but I did better than I thought I would. I was really attached to the script, and I wanted to give life to (screenwriter) Miho Nakazono's words. I think it was precisely because of the trauma of 'Hanako and Anne' that I was able to work so hard."
Reflecting on the setbacks she experienced at the time, Nakajima said, "If I had been recognized so easily there, I don't think I would have studied and trained so hard. But now I'm really enjoying acting. I'm able to express my imagination and ideas in a variety of ways, and it's so much fun, so I think it's because of those experiences that I am where I am today."
