Actress Mao Daichi appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) on October 6th. She talked about how she admired comedian Hitoshi Ueki when she was a kindergartener, and about two celebrities who inspire her.
As the youngest of three sisters, she says, "I'm quite shy around people, but I loved making others laugh and making them laugh." She'd been telling puns since she was in kindergarten. Ueki said, "I liked the fact that he looked very dandy but was also funny." When they co-starred in a musical, he was usually a gentleman with good taste, and that unexpected contrast was what made him so appealing. When she told him that when she was seven years old, she had said, "If I were to marry, it would be to Ueki Hitoshi," she recalls, "He was very happy."
There are two people who inspire her. One is the singer Hiromi Go. They are the same age, and she respects him, saying, "He's stoic, he walks the talk, and he's a hard worker. I always think he's amazing." She has known Go and his mother since she was in her twenties. When she visited the house where the two lived, she was surprised to see Hiromi there, like, "Wow, it's Hiromi Go here!" She recalled, "We met at various times, and he even appeared as a guest at my 50th anniversary concert, and we sang 'Otome Samba' together."
The other was singer-songwriter Mariya Takeuchi. "I was really inspired when I saw her concert. Like Hiromi, Mariya has also evolved," she said, adding, "Her talk made me cry, I thought what an incredible person she is."
