Following a very enjoyable evening rubbing shoulders (and claws) with the stars at THE WOLVERINE’s premiere at The Empire, Leicester Square last Tuesday THN were given the envious task of interviewing its two beautiful female stars Tao Okamoto and Rila Fukushima.
THN: Thank you both for your time. Could you please begin by telling us a little about your characters in THE WOLVERINE?
Tao Okamoto: I play Mariko she’s from the wealthiest family in Japan. She’s always been an outcast from society and very lonely, and that is something she can share with Wolverine because that’s somethings he’s always been so it was not difficult for her to fall in with him.
Rila Fukushima: I play the character of Yukio who is highly trained in martial arts she’s a badass and work for most powerful family in Japan as a bodyguard. She is only friend of Mariko who is the Granddaughter of the Yoshida family. The film start with Yukio travelling outside of Japan looking for Logan. Also, Yukio became Logan’s bodyguard.
THN: Rila, as a bodyguard there is a lot of spectacular action and fighting. Tao, you get to throw yourself around as well. Did you do most of the work yourself?
TO: I loved and I didn’t know I could manage myself doing that before because I’m not the type of person work out. It was a great opportunity to know about myself and what I can do. I didn’t get as much action as some of the cast but I definitely want to try more in the future.
RF: I’m so happy that people say that, that’s something that all actors probably do but it was challenging. I spent three weeks training before filming as I’d never done any action but my stunt team and trainer train me so well so I did most of the stuff. I am very surprised yesterday (at the Premiere 16th July) the fact they used most of my action sequences. I mean, I can’t flip in the air so my stunt double did an amazing job there but she’d always say ‘come on Rila, you can do it, you have to do it’ and if you try first, if you can’t make it I’ll do it but it would be so much cooler if you do the sequence yourself. So she tried to push me and train me so well I really appreciate it. You know straight after I watch the film I send e-mail to my stunt double to thank her. I’m very appreciative to the stunt team and also Hugh. Because I not have much experience with action, but he’s a pro right? So he gave me a lot of tips and it was really nice of him, telling me as I’m a first time actor.
Onto that. This is both of your first feature film. How did you find it in comparison to modelling?
TO: It was totally my first acting experience I’d never done any lessons or classes or anything and I just absolutely loved it. I think about myself and I think I was always acting in front of the camera, and I just I love it because I can use my voice more and move my body more, much more and express myself and transfer myself with other people. I think this is very much my world now.
RF: Yes it was exciting to see myself on the big-screen. I felt like the luckiest person in the world to work with such an amazing cast and crew including Hugh Jackman, James Mangold, and other Japanese cast and crew and Tao. She was the only one I know, from modelling, so we’d turn up with each other, our characters are completely different. Physical power is something difficult for me so sometimes I’d pass out on the chair, and all over the place. My muscles, I try to build them up but, you know you need to sleep right? To recover. I was speaking to Tao and I passed out, she was like ‘Rila, Rila you ok?’ I was like ‘what, what?’ ‘you were talking to me then you passed out’. (laughs) It would happen a lot. So, yeah it was really great I miss them a lot. I was one of the first to leave Australia so I was very last because of all the action sequences so I was like ‘bye Hugh, bye Will, bye Sanada’. The last person was Tao and I was about to cry, I was so sad that Tao was leaving people ‘don’t leave me alone’, I was like that!
Tao, could you give us an insight into working with James Mangold and Hugh Jackman?
TO: I cannot thank the two of them enough ever, if it wasn’t Hugh Jackman’s movie I wouldn’t have put myself forward or auditioned or tried because I wasn’t interested in acting. I’m such a huge fan of Hugh Jackman so I tried myself in an audition. Even then I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do acting until I met James Mangold and he made me feel this is what I was looking for for a long time. I’d never done any classes or anything, he pretty much taught me everything about acting what he’d need to do with me and I have to thank the two of them forever until my career goes on.
THN: The film is set and filmed a little in Japan. Tao, was that a big sell for you?
TO: Of course, first of all we were so honoured to have such a huge movie based in our country. And we could have two weeks to shoot in Japan, most of it was shot in Sydney, but the set designers and everyone was so respectful of our culture everything was so detailed and so right. Even sometimes I’d find not quite Japanese and they’d fix it very quickly. I really appreciate they did that, and I love they pictured so beautifully especially outside Tokyo. I’m sure that not very many people get to go outside of Tokyo on holiday or for work and I really love that this picture was taken out of Tokyo and I love that part.
THN: With the new X-MEN film coming next year, would you like to have the chance to reprise your role from THE WOLVERINE?
TO: There’s a way, I hope so.
RF: I hope so, yes, I’m gonna try not to lose my muscle.
THN: Do you have any other projects you are working on?
TO: Not for the moment, I’m very open about it there are lots of beautiful Japanese films out there so I really want to try but I’m very Japanese (accent) so I try.
RF: I do have other options also in Japan the film open in September so I try to let people know (adopts scary voice) Wolverine is coming! But they are all very excited.
THE WOLVERINE is released 26th July and you can read our review here, and our two-part interview with director James Mangold here and here
The Hollywood News would like to thank Tao, Rila and Twentieth Century Fox for their time and help in arranging these interviews.
