Akari Takaishi plays the heroine in the NHK Asadora"Bakebake" (Monday to Saturday, 8:00 AM and other times). In the 21st episode (broadcast on October 27th), Lefkada Heaven (Tommy Bastow), who later becomes Toki's (Takaishi) husband, arrives in Matsue. Kuniomi Hashizume, the production manager for this series, spoke about the reasons for casting Bastow and the amazing work he put into the role.
"Bakebake" is based on the story of Koizumi Setsu, the daughter of a fallen samurai from Matsue, and her husband Yakumo (Lafcadio Hearn), and depicts the heroine, who loves ghost stories, going about her everyday life with her foreign husband.
Bastow, 34, was born on August 26, 1991, in the UK. He gained attention for his role as Priest Martin Alvito, one of the main characters in the TV drama "SHOGUN," produced by and starring Hiroyuki Sanada. He was selected for the role of Heaven after an audition out of 1,767 other candidates.
Looking back on the audition, Hashizume revealed that he was concerned, "Tommy's Japanese is fluent, so I wondered if it would work if someone who can speak Japanese tried to act like he can't speak."
"Despite my worries, at the audition he was able to act in a way that made it seem like he spoke broken Japanese. He himself seemed to be remembering how it was when he first started studying Japanese. That, and other aspects of his acting, made for a really good performance."
Regarding his impression of Bastow, Hashizume said, "He's really a man of character development."
"He places great importance on preparing for a role, and rather than what happens once he's on set, he values what he's done up until then. He spends a tremendous amount of time preparing for a role, and then once he's on set, I think he's able to naturally become the character. That's why he's consistent and gives his characters depth, and I think that's one of his strengths."
Hashizume revealed that there are a huge number of books about Yakumo Koizumi, and that he was not able to read all of them in order to produce the film. On the other hand, Bastow was impressed, saying, "He has read all the books, even those that we haven't read, and of course, he has read everything in the original English."
"He's studied a lot, even reading articles I wrote in the US that haven't been published in book form. He's created his own version of the life Yakumo Koizumi lived before coming to Japan. Lafcadio Hearn was a prolific writer who kept a diary every day, so he's imitating that and writing his own diary every morning. He also doesn't normally smoke, but Lafcadio Hearn liked it, so he apparently smokes kiseru pipes to help him prepare for the role."
Hashizume praised Bastow, who even changes his everyday life in order to live the role, saying, "He has incredible stoicism," adding, "He himself has created the character of Heaven in his own way, and that shows on the surface."
"He even consciously changes the way he walks, perfecting his own character. That's why I think he's able to act so freely without being bound by the rules of acting, and because he is the character himself, I think he can do anything."
