Plus, nomination predictions in the lead acting categories, in EW’s “The Awardist” digital magazine.
in the Limited or Anthology Series category at the 2024 Emmys.
Illustration by Kagan McLeod
THE AWARDIST: Reviews for this have been so wonderfully positive.
Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai in ‘Shōgun’.Katie Yu/FX
It is a project that I know took a lot of time to film and with great care.
Have you read the reviews?
Have you been paying attention to viewer reaction?
Illustration by Kagan McLeod
HIROYUKI SANADA:I just saw some reviews and they were so excited.
Especially for Mariko’s story, episode 9, and everybody’s saying she’s done a great job.
And I totally agree.
Only Anna could make it.
This role is so complicated, hard, not only language-acting, but also fighting, emotion, everything.
ANNA SAWAI:Aw, thank you.
Honestly, I would not have been able to play a character like Mariko without the help of Hiro.
So truly, I owe it to everyone who was part of the production.
But the reactions have been amazing, honestly.
It’s so fun watching with the audience because you get fresh takes on everything.
They’ll choose specific lines and they’ll make memes out of it.
And it’s actually quite funny the way they react to it.
I wish I could just respond to everyone, but it’s just been so lovely.
It is a big, sweeping, epic series.
I’m curious if both of you could feel that scope and scale while you were filming?
SAWAI:Reading the script really made me feel like, okay, this is going to be huge.
It’s going to take a village to really make this come to life.
And it felt like something that hadn’t been seen.
And also I’d never experienced anything like it.
SANADA:Yeah, me too.
It was a crazy, huge set they created.
Hiroyuki Sanada in ‘Shōgun’.Katie Yu/FX
The whole village, whole harbor with the buildings and castle and then real-sized ship two ships.
We can’t do this and that.
But with our show, from what I heard, they were giving us a little bit more budget.
Anna Sawai in ‘Shōgun’.Katie Yu/FX
So we were given more and that to me was already telling.
I could add a little bit more small elements.
Lots of conversations with [writers] Rachel Kondo and Caillin Puente, especially for episode 9.
Hiroyuki Sanada in ‘Shōgun’.Katie Yu/FX
They wrote a beautiful story that I feel could have only been written by a woman.
We’re going to come back to that episode in just a minute.
Every day I was on set, even if I had no shooting as an actor.
Of course, I had a responsibility and pressure, but more than that, so much fun.
I really enjoyed it.
So when I was standing in front of this camera, it was like a freedom or reward.
Just be there as a character just react to others.
SANADA:It’s huge.
That was my childhood.
And then, I started learning a lot of things as an actor.
And finally, almost after 40, my first Hollywood film comes it wasThe Last Samurai.
So I put all my experience in my life intoShogun.
Maya Erskine and Donald Glover in ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’.David Lee/Prime Video
So that’s meaningful for me.
Anna, mentioned earlier episode 9 and how important that was.
Can you take me a little bit into that?
Ayo Edebiri, Abby Elliott, and Jeremy Allen White on ‘The Bear’.Chuck Hodes/FX
I feel like there was a shift in mindset with that episode.
SAWAI:Oh yeah, for sure.
I think that we see two shifts.
And then once her husband comes back, everything is shut down again.
She’s also kind of lost in life.
She doesn’t really know if she is any good for the Lord.
She’s not serving him properly, and so she asks for permission to take her own life.
And even though it’s ultimately for the Lord, they’re trying to protect Mariko-sama.
I called her Mariko-sama.
[Laughs] That’s the first time I’ve called her Mariko-sama.
Now you are Anna.
SAWAI:Yeah, that’s so interesting!
I always call her Mariko because she’s a part of me.
I don’t want to pay respect to the character, but yeah, okay, wow.
But when she’s fighting and she’s down on the ground, it is a shameful thing.
Aaron Paul at the 2014 Emmys.Michael Tran/FilmMagic
We can read the subtitle.
So yeah, the casting was right and then everybody was happy.
So yeah, it was a hard day to shoot, but always high tension.
And then, my work is: Don’t cry.
So that was my mission.
It was so hard.
[Laughs]
Well, it’s a wonderful scene.
Which brings me to an interesting quote.
Mariko says this a couple times: “We live and we die.
We control nothing beyond that.”
It’s such an important line in this series because death is so prevalent.
SAWAI:Well, I was playing it all dramatically.
But I don’t know if I was able to balance out the heaviness, to be honest.
So maybe that’s how it worked.
I don’t know.
I was pretty heavy into everything.
Did the two of you ever break out into song together on set?SAWAI:Every single day.
SANADA:[Laughs]
SAWAI:I’m just kidding.
Even cannot go out for dinner.
So we had no chance to sing together.
SAWAI:Maybe in a future season, we’ll doShogun: The Musical.
We just need to get the two of you together for a collaboration.
In what ways did the discipline required for that prepare you for acting in something as challenging as this?
SAWAI:I really did enjoy being with the girls and being a J-pop singer for a while.
But prior to even joining the group, my team knew that I wanted to act.
So I’m grateful for the experience.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Nominations voting endsJuly 17 Nominations announcedAug.
15 Final voting beginsAug.
26, 10 p.m. it’s possible for you to expect Gary Oldman to followhis Golden Globe nominationwith a nod in this category.
Even more exciting: This could (will!)
be the year Walton Goggins gets his long overdue second Emmy nomination and maybe even a third.
