In the NHK Asadora"Bakebake " (Monday to Saturday 8am and other times), starring Akari Takaishi as the heroine, Ryo Yoshizawa plays the role of Yuichi Nishikori, an English teacher who becomes deeply involved with Toki (Takaishi) and Heaven ( Tommy Bastow). Ryo Yoshizawa spoke about how he felt when he received the offer, the intensive English training he underwent, and his impressions of Takaishi and Bastow.
◇What made you decide to accept the offer?
Nishikori Yuichi, played by Yoshizawa, is modeled after Nishida Sentaro, a great man from Matsue during the Meiji period. He is Matsue's most brilliant student and is nicknamed "Daibanjaku" (Great Standing Stone). He is an English teacher at Matsue Junior High School and supports Heaven, who has come to Matsue as a foreign teacher.
This will be Yoshizawa teaming up again with "Bakebake" production manager Hashizume Kuniomi and director Murahashi Naoki, following the 2021 taiga drama "Aoi Tou wo Tsuke," in which Yoshizawa starred.
"I was grateful to be contacted by the 'Seiten o Tsuke' team again, and I was very happy to do it."
After reading the script, Yoshizawa felt that the dialogue was interesting.
"The character of Nishikori is based on a real person named Nishida Sentaro, and after reading various materials I was given, I thought he was a very fascinating person, so I really wanted to try playing him."
He also said that the opportunity to take on a role that spoke English was a deciding factor in accepting the offer.
"I've always had a vague desire to learn English, so I thought this might be a good opportunity, and so I decided to do it, but there are a lot more English lines than I expected, and it's so difficult that I'm in despair (laughs). When I first got the offer, I was told that there might be times when we'd be filming two or three days a month, but before I knew it, I was in Osaka for half the month, which I thought was a bit strange (laughs), but I'm doing my best to memorize my English lines and get ready to film."
To prepare for his role as Nishikori, Yoshizawa has been taking English lessons two to three times a week since around December last year, before filming began. He has continued practicing since filming began, and is taking advice from his English teacher as he approaches filming.
"Nishikori is such a brilliant man that he is called 'great master.' I'm not aiming to have a native-like pronunciation or anything like that, but I want to speak well enough that it doesn't seem like I've been practicing, so that the viewers don't feel uncomfortable. Even if I can memorize the lines in English, it's difficult to get the excitement going when I actually say them. However, Tommy-san, who saw the completed fifth week, gave me his seal of approval, saying it was 'perfect,' so I think I've managed to get it into shape."
◇What is your impression of Akari Takaishi and Tommy Bastow?
"Bakebake" is set in the Meiji era. The Meiji era was also depicted in "Seiten wo Tsuke," in which you played the lead role. Do you feel that your experience there has been put to good use in your acting in this film?
"I didn't consciously think about anything, but the atmosphere of the people who lived in that era may have been similar. Shibusawa Eiichi was a man who truly enjoyed the changes of the times, but there are also those who are left behind by them, and those who have no choice but to go along with it, so I wondered what Nishikori would be like. I feel that what I learned and experienced while filming 'Aoi Tou wo Tsuke' is being used in creating this role, and I think there will be scenes in the future that will have a 'Aoi Tou wo Tsuke' feel to them."
He says that from the fifth week onwards there will be more scenes with the three of them, including Takaishi and Bastow, and praises the acting of the two, saying, "Both of them act really naturally, and although it's a comedy, it's really nice that they don't overact."
"As for Takaishi-san, I get the feeling that he likes comedy, and he seemed to fit right into the acting, to the point that I couldn't tell if he was laughing at the lines or if he was laughing genuinely, so I was a little confused at first. Tommy-san is someone who can speak Japanese fluently, so during filming I always ask him if the English lines were okay. I get inspiration from the two of them, and I feel it's really easy to act with them."
Going forward, there will be many scenes in which Nishikori is thrown into disarray by the unrestrained behavior of Heaven, played by Bastow.
"In the fourth week, Nishikori came to Tokyo with the lofty ambition of changing the world and Japan on his own, partly because he didn't come from a privileged family. So I was conscious of making him seem like a genius, but from the fifth week onwards he's been at the mercy of Heaven-sensei (laughs), so I didn't pay too much attention to that, and instead tried to create a sense of chaos."
He said that the cast was constantly ad-libbing during filming, and revealed, "Tommy would ad-lib in Japanese, which made me laugh a little. I got the impression that he was responding without any hesitation and seemed to enjoy it."
"I sometimes try to improvise with my English lines, but when I try it in rehearsal I think, 'I'll give up' (laughs). I'd like to continue studying English in the future, and hope to be able to shoot a scene like that one day."
