Hollywood’s Favorite Samurai Reimagines ‘Shogun’
While reigning as one of Japan’s most famous and respected actors, Hiroyuki Sanada worked an unofficial job—making sure the Hollywood productions he starred in also got their depictions of his country’s culture right. When preparing for his role in “The Last Samurai," Sanada helped instruct co-star Tom Cruise in wearing a kimono and wielding a sword. While playing an android samurai on HBO’s “Westworld" he weighed in on the look of robot geishas.
Even on “Mortal Kombat," based on an over-the-top videogame, the movie’s most seasoned star routinely inspected costumes in a process his castmates called “Sanada time." Keanu Reeves says he’s relied on Sanada as an actor and an adviser—for the protocol of a suicide ritual in 2013’s “47 Ronin" and for the way their characters held cups of tea in a somber scene in last year’s “John Wick: Chapter 4." “His standard of excellence is quiet but profound. You don’t want to let Hiro down," Reeves says, describing his friend’s on-set sign of approval as a nod and an affirmative “mmhm." Now, at age 63, Sanada’s role as arbiter of authenticity is official. For “Shōgun," a new adaptation of the famous saga set in feudal Japan, Sanada helped lead the project as both a star and a producer.
“Finally, after 20 years in Hollywood movies, I got a title," Sanada says at a Japanese garden in Los Angeles, his home base for the past two decades. “Shōgun," premiering Feb. 27 on FX and Hulu, is the most expensive production ever for Disney-owned FX.
It’s a lavish and risky retelling of a title that looms large in pop culture. In James Clavell’s 1975 novel, an English sailor navigates a labyrinth of Japanese warlords, Catholic priests and romance with his translator. Clavell’s bestseller led to a 1980
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