INTERVIEW: Singer Masumi becomes action star in ‘Yakuza Princess’
Photo: Masumi stars in Yakuza Princess, out now. Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing / Provided by official site with permission.
Masumi has built a successful music career over the years, performing in the United States, where she was born, and Japan, where she grew up. Today, she is expanding her artistic offerings and recently kickstarted a career as an actor. This fall saw the release of her first major role: Akemi in the new action thriller Yakuza Princess, also starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Tsuyoshi Ihara, and directed by Vicente Amorim.
In the movie, Akemi loses her parents, but not her inheritance, which is vast and violent. The character finds herself heading a sizable portion of the Yakuza crime syndicate, and the only way for her to stay alive is to kill — in spectacularly violent fashion — the other half of the Yakuza that are not under her direct control. Helping her out is Rhys Meyers’ character, who has a few secrets himself.
Yakuza Princess, which is set in the Japanese community of Sao Paulo, is now available from Magnet Releasing, a branch of Magnolia Pictures. The film is an adaptation of the successful graphic novel by Danilo Beyrouth.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox spoke with Masumi about her new role. Here’s what she had to say …
On what attracted her to the role:
When I first read the script of Yakuza Princess, I immediately thought of how similar my situation and Akemi’s situation was. She’s Japanese growing up in Brazil, and I was born in the United States, and I grew up in Japan. So there’s identity and belonging stuff that I had to think about growing up, and I think that takes a big part of Akemi’s life. So that was one of the things that really piqued my interest in the beginning. …
We had a lot of discussion about Akemi because I understand Japanese women obviously, so we talked a lot about her behavior and her looks, her hair, her dialogue and things like that. Vicente was very open to hearing my ideas.
On her experiences on the set:
It was very tough. There was a lot of fighting stuff, and that was a lot to learn for me as well. Ninety percent of the shoots were nights, so we would start shooting from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., which I never had been up that late before. To do martial arts from midnight to 6 a.m. was the toughest part I think. …
Jonathan was like my big brother. He really helped me out. I told him it was my first time acting, and he immediately told me that he understands the feeling, that he was always going to be there to help me and support me, which is exactly what he did. We had a lot of scenes together, and he would teach me how to work with cameras and those kinds of techniques. It was always very supportive. It was a great experience.
On violence in films …
Do I like that? I’m not very good with violence in general, so I don’t watch violent movies actually. Period. Because I have a hard time watching stabbing. …
I struggled watching it. It’s very painful when you’re making it. I talk about how I have a knife phobia or anything pointy. It’s very scary for me, like forks and butter knives or whatever has a pointy end. So when we were shooting in Brazil, even if I knew everything was fake, sometimes I’m using plastic things that won’t hurt anybody, I was still very worried that it might hurt somebody. And then after all the effects go in, it really does look real, so that’s tough for me to watch. But I still love the performance because all of the actors were amazing I thought on Yakuza Princess, so it’s really amazing to see.
On how she would describe Akemi as a character …
I think she’s incredibly lonely in the beginning, to not have a father figure growing up, to not know what her true identity is, to not feel like she belongs anywhere, neither in Japan or Brazil. So she has a lot of self-doubt and insecurity and loneliness that is with her, especially in the beginning when she loses her only family. I think what she goes through is she learns how to fight, she learns how to stand up for herself, she learns how to protect yourself. And it’s an incredible overcoming that she does, and I see it as her overcoming her fear. That’s the biggest arc for me, that she starts off feeling so lonely and maybe incapable, but by the end of it she overcomes her feeling of incapableness and the fear. And she stands up for herself basically.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Yakuza Princess, starring Masumi, is now available from Magnet Releasing, a branch of Magnolia Pictures. Click here for more information.
