Rohan's beliefs supported him.
――Mr. Takahashi has always been a fan of Rohan Kishibe from "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure". Weren't you surprised as well as happy when you received this offer?
It was a real joy. I never thought I would get to play a character I've loved since I was a teenager. Actually, it was a secret between me and my manager that I hoped to play Rohan Kishibe one day (laughs). Furthermore, I never imagined that I would be asked to play the role by director Kazutaka Watanabe, who I worked with on the previous historical drama Onna Jôshu Naotora, so I was thrilled that something like this was possible.
――Rohan is the type of person who is curious and pursues reality. What do you think is the appeal of Rohan, Takahashi-san?
Rohan is a particularly strong example of the kind of human beliefs that are portrayed in JoJo. Unlike the other characters, Rohan is a manga artist, just like Hirohiko Araki, the author of the manga. Characters with that kind of occupation are rare in JoJo, so in a way, I think he embodies what it means to be a manga artist in a very concrete way. When I first read Jojo as a teenager, he was the character who encouraged me to be so particular about my work, and to be so biased. That's the most appealing part.
――How did you develop your own image of Rohan, such as the saltiness of the quirky manga artist Shiobai and the balance with his partner, Kyoka Izumi, the editor in charge?
I don’t create how much energy I can go to or how I can express it myself. First of all, I'll give it my best. It was like trying out the limit of what I could do once, and then tweaking it to see if it was too much or not. I think the on-site staff are the closest viewers to watch, so while watching the reactions of those people, I also formed a dialog with Izumi-kun, who has a buddy feeling.
――I think it's difficult to make JoJo's world live-action, not just Rohan. Did you engage in discussions with Mr. Watanabe in creating the role, such as trying to faithfully reflect Mr. Araki's worldview or emphasize original elements?
Basically, I don’t talk about theater with any director. No matter how many words you say, "I will perform like this", if you try to do a play and you say, "No", that's it. Reality is just an accumulation of subjectivity, and I feel that it is difficult to share a worldview in words. That's why I believe that actors should first present themselves in their own bodies. This time, the director, Mr. Watanabe, was a person I could trust very much, and I thought he would tell me if it wasn't good, so I was able to approach it with an absolute sense of security.
Also, I thought it was important for me to create characters that would be convincing to many people, both those who knew Rohan and those who didn't know him, so as an actor, I asked myself, "how persuasive can I be? How much does it make sense?" That's what I was focusing on.
Don't show any signs of "hard work".
――Personally, I’m really looking forward to seeing how the corn scene in the “Millionaire Village” will be made into a film.
As you say, the corn scene is very dramatic and exciting in the manga. Moreover, Ikkyu, who is the guide of the rich village, is an unusual existence serving the gods of the mountain. However, in the drama, Shibasaki Fuga, who played Ikkyu, is very cute, and it only looks like an adult is cornering a child and making him cry (laughs). But I think the painful harshness clearly shows that Rohan does not look at children as children, but treats all people equally, as the subject of his manga.
The way people face each other based on a certain ability approaches with a kind of vividness and deformation. Through the "Millionare Village," "Kushagara," and "D.N.A," which will be made live-action this time, I think that the restrained and inner movement of the mind is dynamically produced.
――I love the exchange of "I'll do poaching" and "I like it because I like it" in the original work "Poaching Seashore", and Mr. Araki even said that he drew the story because he wanted to do it. In his comment, Rohan said, “the boundaries of the rules of modern society may be crossed for something more important. But don't forget to respect tradition and history." Takahashi-san, do you have any rules or aesthetics for acting?
Don't show any signs of "hard work." I said, "where did you work hard?" I'm not good at being asked. It is natural to work hard, and since I am a professional as long as I am doing it as a job, I feel that it is somewhat different to reinforce with words "I did my best." Now, we are in an era where everything is shared, but it seems that they are revealing the secrets of magic, and I always have a sense of incongruity about that. After all, I think it’s all about having people watch the play and how much they feel about it.
――This time, Mr. Takahashi I think there are many people who come into contact with the world of JoJo for the first time. Could you tell us how to enjoy it not only for hardcore JoJo fans but also for beginners?
If I mention the highlights of the performance, it will only attract attention, so I will keep it a secret (laughs). However, if you are reading a manga, you might say, "did you put out the movement of this volume and this story here?" I think you can understand that, so I want you to look for it. The use of the words in the original work is also interesting, so it would be great if you could immerse yourself in the story by taking as a starting point the vividness of when a real person spoke.
By the way, the word "Stand", which is familiar to JoJo fans, is not used at all in the drama. I think that it is easy for people who see it for the first time to approach it because it is put into the words "ability", "what you have received", and "gift".
This drama is not full of action, nor is it dynamic or physical entertainment. "How dramatic and exciting does what's happening inside look?", "How much can you make your inner life come alive?", I think it is a work like that. In this age, I feel that there are many works that are easy to follow the story and understand the feelings of the characters. That’s not a bad thing at all, but I think it’s a work with a different approach. I thought it would be good to have time to enjoy it, not to eliminate it because it is a foreign substance. I would be happy if you could enjoy such a strange feeling of foreign matter and discomfort.
――You have appeared in many manga-based works in the past. Is there anything you keep in mind when acting?
The premise of turning a manga into a film is that there are many people who have seen that character before. However, even the same character should look subtly different depending on the subjectivity of each character. Of course, I try to get as close to the movements, visuals, and descriptions of the characters as possible, but when I actually perform a play, I don’t feel any sense of urgency or try to keep this in mind.
I don't really trust forms that start with emotions. I think that the emotions that come from the form are actually more realistic. So, I think that more than half of the characters are completed depending on the shape. The visuals for Rohan were decided after many meetings with the director Watanabe and the character design supervisor Tsuge (Isao). At that point, I felt that the soil had hardened.
How to "protect" the mold.
――I think JoJo fans and Takahashi-san fans will be interested, but what characters do you want to play outside of Rohan in the future? Also, this time it's a spin-off of Part 4, what part do you prefer, Takahashi-san?
There is no character I want to be other than Rohan (laughs). After all, I like Part 4 "Diamond is Unbreakable", but I think the philosophy of Part 7 "Steel Ball Run" is also amazing. I also enjoy the boyish side of JoJo. But... Part 2 "Battle Tendency" is also hard to throw away.
――It's hard to choose (laughs). Jojo is also sprinkled with musical, such as 'Red Hot Chili Pepper' and 'The Hand'. Mr Takahashi himself has sung the theme songs for dramas such as "Quartet" and "Tokyo Bachelor Boys". How does music influence your acting?
Basically, I'm the type of person who can't do without music in my life, so it's like the Tower Records slogan (NO MUSIC, NO LIFE.) (laughs). Recently I've been re-listening to some of my old favourites, like XTC.
――You love New Wave!
When I was in primary school, I saw XTC's "Dear God" music video on MTV and thought it was really cool. I was in the US for work at the time, so I dashed off to Tower Records in New York to buy it. In the music video, frontman Andy Partridge is dressed as a pastor, and in the "Impressive" music video, Andy is wearing sunglasses with round glasses, so I still wear sunglasses with round glasses too (laughs).
――Do you feel like you're listening to music while you're reading a script?
When I'm putting dialogue in, I try not to have a musical bias. However, I do put music on at the moment when I'm like, "It's done!"(laughs).
――It has been a quarter of a century since the role of Seiji Amezawa in the Ghibli movie "Heartless," and 2020 has become a ridiculous world. Even so, when I saw Takahashi-san’s latest work “Wife of a Spy” on the big screen of the theater, I was really moved by the wonderful film. I think living in the world of acting is a difficult thing if you don't keep yourself strong. I would like to ask you if there are any important things you have learnt in life from JoJo and Rohan.
Thank you very much. I felt really happy about “Wife of a Spy” when I saw so many people in the audience from the podium at the stage greeting.
Like Rohan, I, too, think it is very important to know the norms, rules and patterns first. After understanding them, how do you "protect, break and separate"? Even more so because ours is an intangible form of expression that does not require a licence or qualification, we need to learn a certain form before we can break it down or rearrange it. I don't think I'm old enough to imitate anymore, but I still think that human beings start from imitation. I think we all start by imitating, and then we put it into our own gut. I think it is important to think about what is really necessary for you when you have made it your own.
One way to do this might be to force yourself to think and approach things in a way that is opposite to your own. So, in the future, I'm going to write an article that says, "this is the place where I worked hard in a play!" If I said so, I think I was taking the exact opposite approach (laughs). There must be something that will not come out unless you look at it from the opposite point of view, so I may be constantly experimenting with that.
――We look forward to witnessing the amateurish Mr Takahashi (laughs). Lastly, the "Good Life with Books" site is a book website, so what are your all-time best and most recent recommendations other than JoJo?
I love the stories that Takehiro Ueda writes. I can really empathise with the way he pursues one thing. "Sun and Planets" to the latest work "Cue", the themes are the same, even if the works differ or take different forms. The film stubbornly depicts war as the limit of humanity, and what kind of place humanity will ultimately end up in. I can't get over the fact that he keeps trying to pierce it from a single point all the way through.
I also like Yoko Tawada's "The Lantern Envoy", a novel published in 2014, which seems to embody what would happen if we went further from our current situation. It's about a Japan that has closed itself off to the outside world in the near future, and what happens to people from there. It's interesting, so please give it a go.
[Translated by LocacacaFarmer]
