NZ-born Shōgun star Anna Sawai on her historic Emmy award-winning role
Anna Sawai made history by becoming the first Japanese actress to win an Emmy in her category, best actress in a drama series. Photo / Getty Images
In Shōgun, Cosmo Jarvis plays John Blackthorne, a sailor who’s the first Brit to set foot in Japan. New Zealand-born Anna Sawai plays the show’s leading female character Toda Mariko, who acts as Blackthorne’s translator and the object of his gruff affection.
The two rising stars spent nearly 11 months making the series, which is based on James Clavell’s bestselling slab of historical fiction from 1975. Judging by the reviews, the new Shōgun is shaping up as one of the television events of the year – just as it was back in 1980 with a global hit miniseries.
The new version, though, is less white-samurai-and-saviour, more Game of Thrones in a 17th-century feudal Japan very much resembling the real thing. One where Christianity has begun to take hold, Western weapons and ship design might sway the balance of power and Blackthorne – who Clavell based on the real figure of English seafarer William Adams – is first regarded by the locals as a useful idiot and barbarian who doesn’t bathe enough.
As Jarvis speaks to the Listener from Tokyo, he agrees it’s strange that it has been the show’s promotional trail which has led to his first visit to Japan.
“It is an odd thing doing it this way around instead of the other way around … but it’s lovely to be here. It’s a lovely place. It’s very clean.”
Sawai, sitting alongside him, laughs at her co-star paying her country a compliment. Yes, beyond inspecting the hygiene, he has gone out to see some history.
“It was astounding some of the relics they had. They had a 1000-year-old sword, and it was excellent to see.”
Jarvis’s answers come deliberately paced, making you wonder if he chooses his words very carefully, or it’s a side effect of having spent a couple of days in Tokyo and having everything he says translated. Perhaps it’s both.
Like her character in the show, Sawai is brisker and more business-like. That’s understandable for someone who has been on the acting, dancing, singing star-making conveyor belt since she was a pre-teen. She was born in Wellington as her Japanese family followed her father’s overseas job postings before settling back in Yokohama.
Sawai is already famous in her home country after spending five years as a member of the J-Pop girl group Faky. She left the band in 2018 to pursue an acting career. That has already led to roles in the British crime drama Giri/Haji, the South Korean-Japan generational saga Pachinko, the Godzilla spin-off Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and the ninth in the Fast & Furious franchise.