"Midnight Swan" Director Eiji Uchida I want to give back to the movie that saved me [Director's Interview Vol.79]

Different performances for Tsuyoshi Kusanagi and Kisaki Hattori

Q: There are a lot of rich characters appearing this time as well, but Kusanagi-san and Hattori-san are by far the most amazing and overwhelming. How did you direct the performance for the two of you?

Uchida: I think Mr. Kusanagi is the type of actor who is accepted, so I tried to have him assimilate into the space. When you put Ichika, played by Hattori, in front of Kusanagi, he gradually becomes assimilated into the role as he takes in the situation. I directed it using that strategy.

On the other hand, I made quite a bit of effort into Kazuka. We rehearsed quite a lot, and Hattori-san is an amateur who is new to acting, but I think it was quite difficult because he had to give something to Kusanagi-san. I practiced letting my emotions explode many times. Actually, there was a lot of ad-libbing on set for this movie.

Q: Is that so?

Uchida: I create a scene on set, and when I put the two of us there, a chemistry naturally ensues. Mr. Kusanagi reacts to Kazuka, who has prepared well for his role. In this way, any situation can be created through improvisation by the two of them. In the latter half of the shoot, I often took pictures like that. I think that turned out to be a good thing.

Q: Mr. Kusanagi seems to be able to handle anything, but Mr. Hattori was new to acting and was still in his first year of junior high school at the time of filming.

Uchida: That's right. I was number one in middle school. She grew five centimeters taller during the filming. The growth period is not normal (lol). Also, after about a month of shooting, I started to become more of an actress. I was working on stopping it one by one.

Q: What does it mean to stop?

Uchida: You start acting. Once I started acting, Mr. Kusanagi started not being able to accept it. That's why I don't have to act. All I have to do is just be there with pure feelings, but this is quite difficult and I end up acting it out. ``For now, just think about your favorite cake,'' he said, approaching the project with a mindset that was the complete opposite of directing.

Q: I think this is the fate of stars, but we are so familiar with Tsuyoshi Kusanagi that when we watch a movie, at first we just see him as Tsuyoshi Kusanagi. I watch Kusanagi-kun acting, but halfway through he starts to look like Nagisa. It went beyond amazing to almost frightening.

Uchida: I was there on set, too, and I'm always drawn to the play. There were many times when I looked behind me and saw that all the staff were crying. I've never seen a scene where the staff cried so much. I never set out to make a movie that would make people cry, but this was the first time I've experienced such emotional transmission.

impressive characters