Hiroyuki Sanada Talks "Amazing" Audience Reaction to Shōgun

Watch our interview from the Emmy Awards red carpet.

Transcript

00:00Hiroyuki Sonata nominated for a show.

00:03Oh my god, it is so good to see you.

00:05We got to meet you yesterday at the Motion Picture Television Fund

00:09and you just seemed so excited and grateful to be here celebrating.

00:15Tell us what this whole weekend has been like for you.

00:18Oh, it's an amazing experience for me.

00:21You know, first nomination and so proud of our crew and cast.

00:26Happy to be here.

00:27When the show came out, in your wildest dreams,

00:33did you anticipate that it would be embraced by audiences as much as it has?

00:37Because it's a fantastic show, but there's a lot of fantastic shows

00:40and this one really broke through in a way that a lot of other shows haven't.

00:44Oh, thank you so much.

00:45Yeah, we tried to make it authentic as much as possible

00:50based on James Crowder's great novel and the Respect novel,

00:54but also we made arrangements for the, you know, nowadays audience

01:00and then even 70% Japanese language with the subtitles,

01:07but we believed the audience, intelligence, imagination, and it worked.

01:15My father-in-law called me one night and he said,

01:18stop what you're doing, the guy, he tells me all the great TV,

01:22stop what you're doing and watch Shogun right now.

01:25And I'm telling you, it was late.

01:27And I said, okay, and it blew me away.

01:30It's beautifully done, beautifully shot.

01:33How did you feel when you first saw the finished product?

01:36Because you're, you know, you're working, you're on set, you're doing the job,

01:38but when you first saw the finished product, what struck you?

01:42Actually, after I finished the shooting,

01:45as a producer, I spent that one year and a half for the post-production.

01:50So every single version of editing or recording, VFX, I checked everything.

01:57So maybe first time I saw the on-air episode one and two together,

02:07the next day reaction, it was amazing.

02:10So that was my first expression for the, yeah, first showing.

02:15I was like, no, this is crazy.

02:18And how does it feel to know that people are clamoring for more?

02:22Oh yeah, because we had a great reaction, so we decided to go forward.

02:28And now preparing the script and another new crew or casting.

02:34So another long journey just begun.

02:37We can't wait for it.

02:38Please enjoy your Emmys.

02:40Cannot wait, you're amazing.

02:42Amazing.

02:42Have a great night.