Today was the press conference for NHK’s 2011 taiga dorama "Gō ~Hime-tachi no Sengoku~" starring actress Ueno Juri. She plays the role of Gō, the third daughter of Oichi-no-kata and wife of the second and third Tokugawa shoguns, Tokugawa Hidetada and Iemitsu.
"I recently started watching Ryoma den and I still don’t seem to realize that I’m going to star in the next taiga dorama. However, I’m looking forward to play as Gō." She mentioned during the interview. Fukuyama Masaharu, the current starring taiga actor and her senpai at her agency sent her some encouraging words. "Let’s do our best together," he said. Ueno surprised everyone with her reaction upon his message, "We’ve never met, we’ve never even passed by each other, but now he finally called me Ueno-san!" She always wanted to hear him say that, it seems.
Further Ueno talked about her thoughts when she received the offer for the role. "It’s a first for me to portray the whole life of a person. I played roles from their teens to their twenties and considered that to be a long time span already, but that’s nothing compared to portraying a whole life within 1 whole year. It will definitely be worth it." Especially great will be the difference between her peculiar role in Nodame Cantabile and that of an important historical figure. "This time I’d like to truly act as a Japanese woman."
Tabuchi Kumiko who wrote the script for the successful 50th taiga dorama "Atsu-hime" starring Miyazaki Aoi will also provide the script for "Gō." As mentioned above, Gō was the third daughter of Oichi who was married to the daimyo Azai Nagamasa. Oichi became famous as the mother of three daughters who married well and become important women in the history of Japan. The eldest and most famous daughter, Yodo-dono became the concubine of Hideoyshi who later killed both of her birth parents and her stepfather. Ohatsu, the second daughter, married Kyogoku Takatsugu. Together they are known as "the 3 Azai sisters."
Let’s go back to the interview before this article turns into a history lesson, though it would be quite an interesting lesson. There are a lot of historic facts and documents about Gō, but the most challenging part for Ueno will be to portray her mental state. Not much is know about her actual and true feelings at that time. "I tried to read the original and one fact seems to be that she was a really great speaker. She always got to the heart of the matter." She should definitely play as a strong-willed woman. "I also think there are a few similarities between us and I will try to play some parts based on my own impressions because of that." It will be interesting to see a Gō mixed with Ueno’s own personality.
At the beginning of the interview, Fukuyama sent his message and talked about the great experience of acting in a taiga dorama. Ueno commented on the message in her own peculiar way. "He’s a musician and an actor. On top of that he is a great challenger in both of those fields and a person who always puts in a lot of effort." It felt liked she was more happy about the sender than the actual meaning of the message, but that’s what we like about her.
Producer Yashiki Youtarou about working together with an actress like Ueno: "Once you start to see her performance, you can never take your eyes off her anymore. Before you know you start to sympathy with the role she is playing and really start to care about that character. Her acting abilities would certainly be worth an Olympic medal (if there was one for acting)."
Further he commented why Ueno was chosen for the role. "Gō’s life was like water, full of ups and downs. It’s a story and a role where you need to be able to play a lot of different characters in one. You always have to surpass yourself. I don’t think there would be anyone better for that role of Gō than Ueno."
How much more can you praise an actress or an actor? Ueno smiled when she received all those compliments, but you could also see that she was getting more nervous. "That was really nice, but it increased the pressure… I hope he will still have the same opinion after seeing me playing that role. I really want to live up to his expectations."
The filming will start in August this year.
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Written by: KawaiiJoyuu
Sources: Oricon
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Thx for this update HPriest. I’m so excited that Juri was chosen to star in this 8^)
Thank you very much for this. I’m really excited about her new project.
Thanks a lot for the translations, HP!!
I’m so thrilled that Juri chan has been given another challenging role to show her talent.
Juri chan, Go!! XD