Hiroyuki Sanada has won his first Emmy. On Sunday he took home the award for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his role in FX drama series Shōgun , on which he also serves as a producer.
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“It was an East-West dream project with respect,” he said while accepting the award, “and Shōgun taught me that when people work together we can make miracles. We can create a better future together.”
In the epic drama series from FX based on James Clavell’s 1975 novel, veteran Japanese actor Sanada stars as Lord Toranaga, the ultimate strategist, whose intricate web ultimately served to unify 17th century Japan. Tadanobu Asano also stars as Lord Kashigi Yabushige, Anna Sawai as Toda Mariko and Cosmo Jarvis as shipwrecked Portuguese explorer John Blackthorne, known as ‘Anjin’.
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Sanada was previously familiar with the character of Toranaga, since in 1989’s Oda Nobunaga , he had played Tokugawa Ieyasu, the real-life man who inspired the Toranaga character. Acting since the age of six, when he began in commercials in Japan, Sanada is best known internationally for such films as The Last Samurai , Speed Racer and Bullet Train , along with the shows Lost and Westworld .
Aside from his lead role, Sanada also served as a producer on the series, which is renewed for a second season. It was vital to him to maintain authenticity, he told Deadline earlier this year. And that authenticity began with language.
“First of all, we discussed a lot how much percent of Japanese [language] was possible,” he said. “Finally, we decided on 70% with subtitles. It was a kind of gamble. But also, we believed in the audience — their knowledge, intelligence and imagination. And then, yeah, it worked.”
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In his Emmy acceptance speech on Sunday he also paid tribute to everyone who made that possible, saying, “Thank you my team for always supporting me. And thank you all the crew and cast of Shōgun , I’m so proud of you.”
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Having starred in many Samurai films from his start in acting, Sanada said he had employed all the accrued knowledge in order to instruct the show’s team on cultural accuracy. “I’ve done everything by myself before, but now, I’ve got a title of producer, and then I could hire Japanese Samurai drama specialists for each department: costume, wig, props, for every department. So, I had a team for the first time — so, much easier and smoother. I could be joined between the Japanese crew and cast with the Western crew and cast. So, I put all my experience in my life into Shōgun , as an actor, and as a consultant for the past 20 years.”
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Shōgun has also already made Emmy history last weekend at the Creative Arts Emmys, winning 14 awards, the most Emmys ever for a season of a television series. There are a total of six more potential wins on the table for them tonight.
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