tom cruise the last samurai interview

Tom Cruise Talks About "The Last Samurai"

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In order to prepare for the role of Captain Nathan Algren in The Last Samurai , Tom Cruise endured months of strenuous physical training while at the same time trying to get inside his character. Cruise's character Algren is a decorated veteran of the Civil War who's lost his soul. Hired by the Emperor of Japan to train Japan's first modern army, Algren finds a kindred spirit in the form of Samurai leader, Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe). Together the two men discover much about each other's culture and find that ultimately their lives are not so different as they appear on the surface.

Producer Marshall Herskovitz praised actor/producer Tom Cruise for his work ethic, dedication, and incredible focus. "Tom threw himself wholeheartedly into the preparation. I've never seen an actor do as much research for a film. He had a library of information and was amazingly helpful. Ed and I have always challenged each other, that's the center of our creative relationship, but it's rare for us to be stimulated in a similar way by someone else. Tom became a part of our creative partnership and it's been incredibly enjoyable and rewarding," said Herskovitz.

Interview with Tom Cruise

You learned Japanese, you learned to fight with swords, you learned a little bit of everything. What was most challenging for you? The character was really challenging. I needed every bit of the months before shooting and every bit of the months during shooting to get to the character and work on it. Definitely, the physical aspects of it were…At the beginning, I just thought, “How am I going to do this?” I didn’t tell anybody that (laughing). I told Ed Zwick, “Oh, I can do that. Don’t worry about it. I can do that.” But I just knew I had to be very, very disciplined about preparing for it. But also the physical transition and the character development at the same time, I just kept diaries while I was doing that. I knew that things were going to change and I was constantly looking for the character.

You’re in great shape. Is there a regular workout routine you stuck with after filming? No, I do so many different activities. It’s role-dependent, just to be able to do what I have to do. I’ve lost 25 pounds I had to put on.

Do you ever have any second thoughts about doing your own stunts? No, no I don’t. I’m very safe when I go to do them. I’m meticulous and safe.

You described working on this as being like a full course meal. Can you elaborate on that? Three countries, over 2,000 crew members, different cultures. It was just beautiful is what it was, just beautiful. I loved it.

Why did you pick this movie? For me as a man, philosophically, when you talk about honor and integrity, that’s the way I want to live my life. It moved me. And also I’m just fascinated with their culture and this gave me the opportunity to explore it and to honor the things that I love most about their culture. And to work with Ed Zwick; it’s a very ambitious film. How can you say no to that?

Hiroyuki Sanada plays one of the samurai who initially doesn't accept your character. Sanada said that behind the scenes he helped you by giving you pointers. He did. He’s tough, he’s good. He worked with me. I worked many months before shooting but then when I came in he was always very supportive and very helpful.

Several of your co-stars have mentioned you had Penelope Cruz and the kids on the set with you. What was that like having family there? Fun. I always have my family with me when I’m working. It just becomes part of the life.

Were there activities you could do with them during your downtime? It was great in New Zealand because there was sea-kayaking and caving and all that stuff. It was a lot of fun.

The real Ron Kovic ("Born on the 4th of July") is here at tonight's Premiere. What's it mean to you to see him here? Well for me, I’m really proud of this film and it’s just always good to see Ron. I was born on the 3rd of July and he was born on the 4th of July so that experience that we went through, that was a very powerful experience making that film. I’m just glad to see him and he’s doing well and he says he feels stronger and he looks really happy.

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In what will certainly be considered one of the best films of the year, The Last Samurai provides an in-depth look into the Japanese culture as America and other outside nations began to impute their philosophies on Eastern traditions. Blackfilm.com sat with Tom Cruise as he described the preparation and discipline involved in developing the film.

AH: In the film, your character searches for an inner peace. Have you personally been able to find that same peace or are you still searching?

TC: Yes I have been able to find that, definitely. It’s well known that I am a scientologist and that is helping me find that inner peace in my life and it’s something that has given me great stability and tools that I use. It’s also something that enables me to help others in a way that I have always wanted.

TC: As a kid when I was growing up I remember vividly being at a Drive-in. I was six or seven years old and I was on the roof of my family station wagon and across the screen was the Sahara Dessert. I always wanted to see other places and learn about how other people lived. As I traveled I saw different people, even living in America there are different cultures; its American but that’s a generality. When I go to Japan, it’s so different. I am absolutely fascinated and in awe of the culture. I find it aesthetic and the people are fascinating. I wanted to know more about the people and how they lived, how they got to where they are today. When you study the sword; that is the greatest sword ever made in the history of this world. It is both a powerful weapon and it is also aesthetically superb. It is an amazing culture and I have always been fascinated by it. One of the amazing things as an actor is that I get to travel to these places and I get to learn about the people. That is the most enjoyable thing to me. You find a common ground, even though the language is different. It really gives you a sense that we are all together in this and that we need to help each other out.

AH: You committed a lot to time to this film; can you explain why you decided to put forth such an effort?

AH: What kinds of things did you study to prepare for the film?

TC: I had to study the American-Indian Wars. I thought I knew about the American –Indian Wars, but that time period in our history; I was blown away by how little I knew. I also studied Japanese history during that time period and how the country came to this moment. I also revisited the Civil War for myself.

TC: Wars do not resolve conflict, ideas do. You look at how history keeps repeating itself. We are in a time where we have great technology, we have very sophisticated ways for communication and travel, yet there is still famine and there are still wars. You have to look at what we are doing wrong and change the operating base at some point. So it is a metaphor for that. The film is a romantic adventure, but it also has content and we never wanted it to be pretentious in that way.

TC: I could not touch my toes when I started. All the training…I had done stunts before, but I knew I would have to carry fifty pounds of armor and that is a tremendous amount of pressure to have on your knees when you have to bend and move. I put on twenty-five pounds of muscle and I worked with a great stunt coordinator, Nick Powell, who built me up very slowly. There was a lot of stretching and just training and learning moves, the same as my character did. The balancing took a lot of time.

TC: Those values are very important to me. I think that they are very important to have in life. The Samurai were the artists of their time. They were educated. They were educated to be leaders and to lead and to help people. Helping someone is the most gratifying thing in the world.

AH: What is it about this movie that you want audiences to know?

TC: Each audience walks away with an experience from a movie. I would like them to have that feeling that they are going to see a different world that I did. I love movies and this movie is going to take you to a different place and time and yet, you cannot help but connect. The timeframe and the humanity in the picture are real. Like a record album, every film has its audience and I’ve made very diverse film. I am very proud of this film. I will do what I can to support it. So much of my life has gone into my films and I want people who want to see the movie, to go see the movie and I know what it takes to make a film and the responsibility that goes along with that.

Interviews: Tom Cruise on The Last Samurai !

Tom Cruise plays Captain Nathan Algren in the amazing new epic film, The Last Samurai , from director Edward Zwick. In the Warner Bros. feature, Algren is hired by the Emperor of Japan to train the country’s first army in the art of modern warfare. As the Emperor attempts to eradicate the ancient Imperial Samurai warriors in preparation for more Westernized and trade-friendly government policies, Algren finds himself unexpectedly impressed and influenced by his encounters with the Samurai.

ComingSoon.net sat down to talk to Cruise who says he’s always been fascinated by other cultures. “One of the great things about being an actor is I get to travel to these places,” he says. “I get to learn about the people and that is the most enjoyable thing to me, to learn the history of other people and how people live in their daily lives, and even though the language is different, you find that common ground of joy, happiness, pain. It’s the humanity and it really gives you a sense of we’re all in this thing together here, that’s why we gotta help each other out and I really enjoy that.”

Cruise says that he put quite a lot of time in preparing for the project. “It took me almost a year to physically be able to make this picture. I love what I do, I take great pride in what I do and I can’t do something half way, three quarters, nine tenths. If I’m going to do something I go all the way. And I didn’t know if I could do it, honestly. If I could find that kind of physical elegance and movement that the Samurai have. I looked at Hiro [Sanada] and Ken [Watanabe] and there’s a natural grace of them as actors. It was a year preparing, not only physically, but it was developing the character because the transition that the character makes, I kept copious amounts of notes so that I could remember, for the training sequences, where Algren starts and where he ends up. I had to study the American-Indian War. I’m an American, I thought I knew a lot about the American-Indian Wars and that time period in our history, which I was blown away at how little I knew. And also the Japanese history during that time period, how the country came to this moment. Also I went and revisited the Civil War again for myself just because Algren had lived through that time period and I collected a small library.”

Physically, Cruise went through a lot of training to get into top shape. “I couldn’t touch my toes when I started. I put on 25 pounds for the picture, I was 25 pounds of muscle heavier than I am right now. I worked with a great stunt coordinator, Nick Powell, who built me up very slowly. He did all kinds of Chinese sword work to build up my forearms and my shoulders just to be able to make that movement, the rotation. A lot of stretching and just training and doing the sequences, building it up and learning the moves and

working, working, working, working. Working on it the same way that Aldren did in the training. I spent a year being able to do that. You see the first time that he moves in the village, and then by the end of the movie there’s a grace that I was going for. And I have to say the guys I worked with were excellent.”

We asked Tom what it was like working with a mostly Japanese cast. “They were very generous with me. I felt their support and we’d done so much research, they validated the research that we had done. I think they were a little surprised how extensive it was, the wardrobe, the sets, the history that we knew. And Ed wanted to know different ceremonies that you see in the film. It informed the film, it informed us about their culture. That’s something we discovered through rehearsal when we were making the film. I’d always say, ‘What do you think? How do you feel?’ I like a sense of family. When I’m making a film, it’s not about me. It’s about the movie, it’s about us together, working together. So I really depend on that kind of support from everyone. When it comes together, the film is much easier to make when everyone’s going in the same direction, working together. It’s a great feeling and I really felt that from Ken, from Hiro, from everyone involved. When I was speaking Japanese, Hiro actually came in and worked with me on my accent. They gave that kind of support throughout the entire film. I was excited the first day of rehearsal to meet the Japanese actors. I was very excited, I’d seen the tapes, Ed had met them and I was really excited to meet them. What’s it going to be like? I want to learn more about their culture. You just find that you have so much in common. It was great fun, great fun.”

In the film, Cruise’s character is put in a house which includes a child that he grows close to. He says that he was able to work well with young Japanese actor. “He doesn’t speak English, so we would draw pictures to each other back and forth. We had a wonderful communication together so he started imitating me, making all these things. I found out that he wanted to fly airplanes and he liked that I flew airplanes, so we were drawing each other airplanes back and forth. And he’s just a character, you know, he’s just an absolute character, wonderful.”

The role also required a lot of stunts and Tom put a lot of trust in the stunt crew. “The movie needed that level or realism and it was part of the challenge for me to be able to do it, and I got through it. You’re talking about those battle sequences that are twelve hours a day, so I’ve gotten pretty good at knowing how to take care of myself and pace myself. This movie was a marathon, so I’ve gotten very good at scheduling the scene and preparing myself for it, saving the energy, conserving the energy, knowing when to go for it and having the available reserves to be able to do that. You have to think about that because at the end of the day, you might be doing the close-up and working on this scene and you’ve got to be prepared, you’ve got to have it available.”

The film is definitely Oscar material, but Cruise just wants you to walk out of the theater with some kind of experience. He hopes that “each audience walks away with an experience from the movie, whether it’s a thrill-ride, or an epic or romance or a thriller, and I would like them to have that feeling they’re going to go see a different world in the same way that I did as a kid. I want them to know that they’re going to go to a time and it is authentic even though the story is fiction. The timeframe in which it takes place and the humanity in the picture is real.”

Next up for Cruise is the Michael Mann-directed action-thriller Collateral . In the film, Jamie Foxx plays a Los Angeles cab driver forced to serve as a chauffeur to a contract killer (Cruise) on a string of hits. Ruffalo stars as a detective on the trail of Cruise’s character. He says the project is actually untitled at the moment and that Mann is “a great guy and he’s a great filmmaker. I’m really having a blast.”

After he finishes that pic, it’s back to the character of Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible 3 . He says that they are “still working on the script” for the third film in the franchise. Cruise also talked about the challenges involved in making a M:I movie. “‘Mission’ is always tough to do. That’s the challenge of it and I hope I can [do it] because I like producing those movies. They’re just fun to produce. But if I can’t figure it out, then I won’t be able to figure it out.”

The Last Samurai , which is getting sneak previews this Saturday (check your local listings), opens on December 5.

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Screen Rant

“this is how he wins”: tom cruise’s subtle acting elevates last samurai fight scene, expert reveals.

A stuntman explains how one fight scene in The Last Samurai perfectly encapsulates Tom Cruise's physical performance in the period epic.

• Tom Cruise's physical performance in The Last Samurai is perfectly captured in a battle scene with the master swordsman Ujio.
• Cruise's character in the film, Captain Nathan Algren, goes through a significant moral transformation, grappling with issues of identity, loyalty, and honor.
• The Last Samurai represented a departure from Cruise's typical action-packed roles, requiring him to delve more into the emotional and psychological aspects of his character.

A stuntman explains how one scene in The Last Samurai perfectly captures Tom Cruise's performance. Directed by Edward Zwick, the film follows Cruise as an American soldier who is sent to Japan during the late 19th century to eliminate the last samurai, Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe), but after being captured in battle, he begins to embrace the samurai culture and eventually joins them in their fight. The Last Samurai was a big box office success, became the sixth highest-grossing film of 2003, and was nominated for four Academy Awards.

In the latest episode of Corridor Crew 's "Stuntmen React" series, stuntman Gui DaSilva-Greene appeared to react to one scene in The Last Samurai , which perfectly captures Cruise's physical performance.

DaSilva-Greene, who called The Last Samurai one of his favorite movies, reacted to the scene in which Cruise's character battles the master swordsman Ujio (Hiroyuki Sanada). The stuntman went on to explain how the scene perfectly captures Cruise's performance. Read a portion of his commentary below:

He's supposed to be a soldier, so he shows that he's in pain, but then he has to show that he is going to overcome it, so you show the, "Oh that hurt," and then the "I can't show you that hurt though." So it's the same with feeling of anger or emotion and not being allowed to show it. Most people when they cry they, don't want you to see them cry, like they immediately wipe it away. They don't just let the one tear drop like we see in all the movies. It's like, "I'm vunerable," so immediately I'm going show it for a moment, but then I have to get back into my strength, not show that. You hint at it, you don't go full Jackie though. You have to go like quarter Jackie and then pull it away from everybody. Ways that you do it without showing like the facial expression is through body language which we see when he goes for the ribs for the first time, you see that aspect. That's where he pulls our heartstrings here. This is how he wins over everybody, including the audience as this man who is fighting these demons along with having to be a captive and earn the respect of the people around them, and that's like one of the biggest things that I care about when it comes to seeing a fight scene is how does it push us forward in the story or make us care about the character.

Is The Last Samurai Real At All? True Story Explained

The last samurai was a different type of performance for tom cruise.

The Last Samurai was a departure from typical Tom Cruise movies up until that point. At the time, the actor was (and still is) best known for his association with action-packed franchises like Mission: Impossible and sci-fi films like Minority Report and Vanilla Sky . However, The Last Samurai represented a slight detour in Cruise's career as he took on a more dramatic role in an epic historical drama . While his previous roles focused more on action and stunts, The Last Samurai required Cruise to delve more into the emotional and psychological aspects of his character.

Cruise's character, Captain Nathan Algren, is a disillusioned American soldier grappling with issues involving identity, loyalty, and honor who undergoes a significant moral transformation. Even though The Last Samurai required a slightly different type of performance from Cruise, he approached it with the same level of physical and technical training he applies to his other roles. To play a soldier-turned-samurai, Cruise underwent extensive physical and technical training in sword fighting and the martial arts . Cruise's usual dedication to authenticity, combined with the more dramatic demands of the role, is perfectly captured by Algren's battle with Ujio in The Last Samurai.

Source: Corridor Crew

The Last Samurai

Tom Cruise’s Historical War Epic Remains Controversial — and Underrated

The Last Samurai may be a product of its time, but it was also a step forward for representation.

Discussions of The Last Samurai often focus on the obvious incongruity of a movie where Tom Cruise dons samurai armor to become the steward of traditional Japanese culture. The picture of Cruise’s bearded, American-Jesus-like face, writ large on a movie poster under the word “samurai,” was more a symbol of Hollywood tradition when the film appeared in theaters on December 5, 2003. Yes, this is a white-savior narrative — Cruise’s cosplaying can’t disguise it — but the first face onscreen is Ken Watanabe, who received an Oscar nomination for his role as Katsumoto, the samurai leader. What the actors represent offscreen, culturally, is the reciprocal of their characters and the film’s central conflict between tradition and modernization.

The Last Samurai follows Cruise’s character, Captain Nathan Algren, a guilt-ridden, mercenary veteran of the American Indian Wars who enters Japan to train the Emperor’s army so they can quell a samurai revolt. Set early in the Meiji era, when Japan opened to the West after 200-plus years of isolationism, the film pits Katsumoto and the country’s old, sword-wielding, feudal ways against new American technologies like the Winchester rifle and the dreaded howitzer. That these are weapons is almost incidental to the plot; the old and new are vying for dominion.

In the opening scene, Katsumoto realizes something’s amiss when his idyllic mountain meditation is interrupted by a vision of a white tiger. This is a premonition of Algren, who inhabits a more industrial milieu when we meet him at a San Francisco trade show. There, “railroads, cannons, and Western clothing,” as Emperor Meiji (Shichinosuke Nakamura) later puts it, are ready to be exported to Japan. Trotted onstage with brass fanfare as a sham war hero, Algren raises his rifle in a drunken stupor and tells the audience, “My thanks on behalf of those who died in the name of better mechanical amusements and commercial opportunities.”

These words, a eulogy for the innocent Cheyenne village he helped massacre, could apply equally to Katsumoto’s samurai generation as it rides in through the mists of time, clashing with contemporary, mechanized forces on the battlefield in Japan. Even before that, Timothy Spall’s British narrator notes how “the ancient and the modern are at war” for the country’s soul.

In telling the story of Japan’s Westernization (really, its Americanization, transposed from post-World War II in a turn-of-the-millennium historical epic), director Edward Zwick relies on cinematic convention. He even repeats a scene from his own Civil War movie, Glory , where the commanding officer in dark blue deliberately rattles the non-white soldier-in-training to prove he’s not ready to hit a target under pressure. At the same time, the Japanese actors who surround Cruise in prominent roles show they’re more than capable of holding their own against the international movie star.

Cruise may be the headliner, but Watanabe is the movie’s soul.

Hiroyuki Sanada plays Katusmoto’s second-in-command, Ujio, and like Watanabe, he’s another actor who’s remained in the limelight (though perhaps not enough so ) 20 years after The Last Samurai . By introducing global audiences to such talents, the film arguably did more to move the needle, representation-wise, than other 2003 releases like Lost in Translation and Kill Bill, Vol. 1 (both set in Japan, but with fewer top-billed Japanese names).

In this way, The Last Samurai managed to plant one foot in the future despite being stuck in the Eurocentric past, with Zwick and co-screenwriters John Logan and Marshall Herskovitz framing the narrative. Even Algren’s love interest, Taka (the mononymous Koyuki, fresh off Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Pulse ), isn’t thrilled about playing house with the unwashed foreigner who killed her husband.

In the third act, Cruise predictably wears his plot armor as the movie goes full Braveheart (with the same cinematographer, John Toll). These internal tensions somewhat reflect the story’s underlying concern with the double-edged sword of progress. If nothing else, The Last Samurai was, as Watanabe alluded in The Guardian last year, a crossroads away from the kind of offensive yellowface caricatures seen in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

“Before The Last Samurai ,” Watanabe said, “there was this stereotype of Asian people with glasses, bucked teeth and a camera. It was stupid, but after [ The Last Samurai ] came out, Hollywood tried to be more authentic when it came to Asian stories.”

While not above reproach, The Last Samurai was a landmark in more authentic Hollywood representation.

The film is loosely based on real Japanese history, with Katsumoto standing in for Saigo Takamori (1828–1877), who led the Satsuma Rebellion and has been called the “last true samurai.” Starting the action in 1876 aligns it with America’s centennial as it reconfigures around Algren, who’s only out for capitalist gain until he sees the beauty of the cultural paradigm he’s worked to obliterate. That’s what The Last Samurai is really about, but it’s easy to lose sight of its broader theme when the movie is so very specific about the story it’s telling (and who’s telling it).

Katsumoto mourns the loss of traditions, something Cruise and other real-life proponents of the theatrical experience might find relatable now more than ever. These days, The Last Samurai’s widescreen visuals are relegated to your typical streaming service, Paramount+. Before it landed there, the film’s supporting cast helped prime the Academy Awards for homegrown Asian films like Parasite and Japan’s own Drive My Car . Nothing can stop progress.

• Cast & crew
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The Last Samurai

Nathan Algren, a US army veteran, is hired by the Japanese emperor to train his army in the modern warfare techniques. Nathan finds himself trapped in a struggle between two eras and two wor... Read all Nathan Algren, a US army veteran, is hired by the Japanese emperor to train his army in the modern warfare techniques. Nathan finds himself trapped in a struggle between two eras and two worlds. Nathan Algren, a US army veteran, is hired by the Japanese emperor to train his army in the modern warfare techniques. Nathan finds himself trapped in a struggle between two eras and two worlds.

• Edward Zwick
• Marshall Herskovitz
• Ken Watanabe
• Billy Connolly
• 1K User reviews
• 125 Critic reviews
• 55 Metascore
• 20 wins & 67 nominations total

• Nathan Algren

• Zebulon Gant

• Winchester Rep

• Winchester Rep Assistant
• Convention Hall Attendee

• Colonel Bagley

• Omura's Companion

• Omura's Bodyguard

• Simon Graham

• Emperor Meiji

• General Hasegawa
• Young Recruit

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Tom Cruise spent almost two years in preparation for this movie, including swordplay instruction and Japanese-language lessons.
• Goofs After Katsumoto and Algren meet with Colonel Bagley and Omura before the final battle, Algren rides back into the Samurai front lines. When he dismounts his horse, the horse kicks back and hits one of the Samurai who then stumbles backwards unsure of what just happened.

Katsumoto : The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life.

• Crazy credits The opening Warner Bros. logo is light blue on a solid black background.
• Connections Featured in Siskel & Ebert: 21 Grams/The Singing Detective/Looney Tunes: Back in Action/Gothika/Tupac Resurrection (2003)
• Soundtracks Kagura-No-Netori Performed by Tokyo Gakuso Courtesy of Columbia Music Entertainment, Inc.

User reviews 1K

• Dec 14, 2003
• What is 'The Last Samurai' about?
• Is 'The Last Samurai' based on a book?
• In what year is the story set?
• December 5, 2003 (United States)
• United States
• New Zealand
• Official site
• Setfilmizle
• Nijo Castle, Kyoto-shi, Kyoto, Japan
• Warner Bros.
• The Bedford Falls Company
• Cruise/Wagner Productions
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $140,000,000 (estimated)
• $111,127,263
• $24,271,354
• Dec 7, 2003
• $454,627,263

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 34 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Ken Watanabe Defends ‘Last Samurai’ Against White Savior Criticism of Tom Cruise: ‘I Didn’t Think of It Like That’

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Ken Watanabe is having the last word on “The Last Samurai.”

After the 2003 film, inspired by a true story, was criticized for perpetuating the white savior stereotype with Tom Cruise ‘s U.S. Army captain character Nathan Algren in the lead, Watanabe is now reflecting on the film almost two decades later.

“I didn’t think of it like that,” Watanabe told The Guardian . “I just thought we had the opportunity to depict Japan in a way that we were never able to before. So we thought we were making something special.”

Watanabe earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Samurai leader Katsumoto who fights alongside Cruise’s prisoner of war to curb the Westernization of 19th century Japan. “The Last Samurai” is directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick, and is still one of Japan’s most successful box office hits to date landing $8.4 million in its opening weekend.

“Before ‘The Last Samurai,’ there was this stereotype of Asian people with glasses, bucked teeth and a camera,” Watanabe continued, seeming to cite Mickey Rooney’s racist performance as Mr. Yunioshi in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

The “Tokyo Vice” star added, “It was stupid, but after [‘The Last Samurai’] came out, Hollywood tried to be more authentic when it came to Asian stories.”

Watanabe went on to make history as the fourth man of Japanese heritage to be Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actor. “Then I realized it’s only five people every year, in all of Hollywood, that get nominated,” he said. “It was an amazing honor.”

Watanabe’s “Last Samurai” co-star Cruise was given an honorary Palme d’Or during the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, following the premiere of the highly anticipated sequel “Top Gun: Maverick.”

Following “The Last Samurai,” Watanabe portrayed a false Ra’s al Ghul in “Batman Begins” and starred in “Memoirs of a Geisha.” Watanabe teamed up again with director Christopher Nolan for “Inception” and led the musical “The King and I,” solidifying his international marketability stateside.

“I consider myself really lucky to have had all these opportunities,” Watanabe told The Guardian, reflecting on his 30-plus year career.

Up next, Watanabe is paired with writer-director Gareth Edwards for the star-studded “True Love” opposite John David Washington, Gemma Chan, Allison Janney, Ralph Ineson, and Sturgill Simpson. Meanwhile, “Tokyo Vice” is currently streaming on HBO Max.

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The True Story Behind 'The Last Samurai'

Tom Cruise plays an American fighting alongside the Samurai. But how much of this story is based on real history?

The Big Picture

• The Last Samurai is a fictionalized account of Japan's past, blending entertainment with historical events.
• The film follows an American military officer who embraces the Samurai culture he was hired to destroy.
• While loosely based on real characters and events, the movie takes creative liberties and isn't entirely historically accurate.

When you see a movie poster that says the film is "based on a true story," it's fairly understood that there are going to be at least some Hollywood changes made, rendering the film less than 100% historically accurate. However, before it was easy to research on the internet what was fact from fiction, it was tough to know whether you were watching an accurate history lesson or a blend of Hollywood and an encyclopedia. One film that left many moviegoers wondering was 2003's The Last Samurai . Although this movie was constructed to resemble a first-hand account of Japan's past, the truth was that plenty of it was created for entertainment purposes . This leads to the question of what was the real story behind The Last Samurai.

The Last Samurai

An American military advisor embraces the Samurai culture he was hired to destroy after he is captured in battle.

What Happens in 'The Last Samurai'?

The depiction of the Samurai is nothing new in TV and film. This Edward Zwick -directed movie starred Tom Cruise as an American military officer who was hired by the Japanese government to train their army to combat the rising rebellion led by a group of outcast Samurai warriors . These warriors fought to resist Japan's rapidly growing modernization, which had been influenced by Western cultures. Cruise's character, Captain Nathan Algren, is there for a paycheck with no allegiance to the Japanese government whatsoever. In fact, Algren is facing his own demons with his involvement in the American-Indian wars.

The leader of the Samurai warriors is Katsumoto ( Ken Watanabe ), a compassionate yet deadly swordsman who heads the rebellion. In the first battle between the Algren-led Japanese forces and the Samurai, the American leader defeats a prominent warrior, resulting in him avoiding execution when captured. However, during his time with the Samurai, Algren learns to not only respect and understand the reasons for this rebellion but also how to fight like a Japanese warrior. Eventually, he joins the rebels to fight alongside them against the Imperial army. All of this makes for a highly entertaining film, yet it only somewhat borrows from the actual events that occurred during that time period.

The Samurai Helped Unify Japan

History, as well as many old and new Samurai productions, like FX's Shōgun , has taught us that the Samurai were highly skilled warriors from Japan , emerging during the Heian period, which fell between the years of 794 to 1185 AD. Following a strict code of conduct and ethics called Bushido , the leading warrior faction at the time focused on loyalty, self-discipline, and especially honor. Contrary to what many might believe, the Samurai were not only swordsmen but also served as protectors and guards, possessing many other skills such as archery and horse riding. There is no doubt that the Samurai were a force to be reckoned with.

By the mid-1300s, the Samurai had become a well-established military elite culture separate from the commoners. They grew so powerful that they began to obtain political influence during Japan's period of government instability. Somewhere between 1400 and 1600, known as the Sengoku period , the Samurai reached the peak of their political and physical strength, possessing significant influence over the country. Their will and discipline helped unify Japan and brought stability to the nation.

Where Was 'Shōgun' Filmed?

With this new stability, the Samurai became more involved in government and civil issues as battles became less frequent. The combination of politicians and Samurai brought about a period of more cultural and intellectual pursuits. However, in the late 19th century, Japan underwent rapid modernization under the influence of Western powers . Intensely focused on preserving their culture and heritage, The Samurai rejected this expansion and change, resulting in them becoming outcasts of rebellion and ultimately leading to the Boshin War. This type of conflict is nothing new, as there have been plenty of Japanese stories depicting wars and battles .

Tom Cruise’s Character in 'The Last Samurai' Is Based on Jules Brunet

It's important to point out that the story of The Last Samurai was mostly fictionalized, and, although they did play a part in Western influence accessing Japan and what led to this story, America played little part in this chapter. While Tom Cruise's character, Captain Nathan Algren, is based on a real person named Jules Brunet , he was a member of the French military that came over to Japan during the Boshin War . The Boshin War was a clash between the Japanese government and the Samurai rebellion in response to the West's influence on modernizing Japan. The Tokugawa Shogunate, who'd previously held a centuries-long grip on Japanese rule, needed assistance in combating the Meiji Emperor. Having a positive relationship with the French and Napolean III , the Shogunate reached out to their allies, leading them to acquire Brunet, a highly decorated artillery expert, to help arm and advise their military.

Much like other characters featured in other Samurai films, there are often as many untruths as there are facts. For example, true is the fact that Brunet developed sympathy for the Samurai’s cause and eventually sided with them to fight against the imperial Japanese forces. However, despite the epic conclusion of the film’s last stand, the alignment of the fates of Algren and Brunet is hit-and-miss. Brunet fought alongside the Samurai through the Battle of Hakodate, where the Samurai, led by Saigao Takamori, made their last stand, but he fled back to France with some comrades following their defeat . The Japanese Empire, having re-established their power, sought to have him pay for opposing them. Still, Brunet was protected by the French government and put back in their military, where he continued his tenure through the Franco-Prussian War and the French Commune of 1871.

Ken Watanabe’s ’The Last Samurai’s Character Is Based on a True Samurai Leader

As for the leader of the Samurai rebellion, Ken Watanabe portrayed the character Mortisugu Katsumoto, who held a significant role in both the movie and history. Similarly to Algren, this character was also loosely based on a real Samurai warrior. Katsumoto can be directly linked to the iconic Japanese Samurai Saigō Takamori . Takamori strongly opposed and resisted the Japanese government's sudden transition from traditional culture and feudalism to Western-like modernization. His vocal opposition was a major wedge between the traditional faction and the Meiji government. Like the film's character, Takamori wouldn't budge from his commitment to traditional Samurai culture, values, and an intense sense of honor. He and the rest of the rebels believed that preserving Japan's traditional culture was paramount , even over the growing influence of Western powers on the country's government.

Katsumodo's eventual demise at the end of The Last Samurai was that of a leader fighting to a dramatic death to defend his people and his beliefs. However, in reality, Takamori's death took place long after the events the film depicts. Following the Battle of Hakodate, Takamori joined the Meiji government, where he rose to lead their military as a general by 1873 . This wouldn't last as he'd retire in protest of the Meiji government . According to Mark Ravina's work in his book "The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori," Saigo returned to his hometown of Kagoshima and opened schools called Shi-Gakko, where he trained former Samurai. After leaving his position, the political pressure dissolving the Samurai class continued, causing a desire to rebel among his students. As a result of the mounting pressure and actions taken by the Meiji, Saigo was forced to declare war, taking 15,000 soldiers into a final stand during 1877's Satsuma Rebellion. Although the specifics of his death aren't clear, by the end of this brutal battle , Saigo was critically wounded and committed Seppukku .

While Not Completely Accurate, ‘ The Last Samurai ’ Has Historical Merit

When comparing the real-life main characters of The Last Samurai to actual history, it's also interesting to examine the reality of the Japanese conflict itself. The Meiji Restoration , which occurred from roughly 1868 to 1912, marked the collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the rise of imperial control under Emperor Meiji. The government, previously connected with the Samurai and their traditional values, was replaced by military rule focused on modernization. With increasing Western influence in the Meiji Empire , the Samurai felt they had no choice but to separate and form a rebellion to reclaim their rapidly changing countr y. In contrast to what The Last Samurai portrayed, the clash between the government and the rebels lasted longer than a few uneven battles.

Despite the efforts of the Samurai, they were eventually defeated by the Meiji Imperial forces , and the focus on modernization and industrial progress continued to shape Japan's government. The real Samurai rebellion was much more complex than what The Last Samurai depicts. The rebels were not just warriors who broke away from the Japanese imperial government; they were also advocates for preserving the country's centuries-old values and culture. Focusing back on the film, The Last Samurai has faced criticism due to it being racially insensitive and a historically inaccurate film . However, Watanabe, himself, has come out in defense of it , saying "I just thought we had the opportunity to depict Japan in a way that we were never able to before. So we thought we were making something special." Regardless of the side one argues, it's unfortunate that the movie doesn't make much light of the history it's based on and instead casts Cruise as its Great White hero.

The Last Samurai is currently available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S.

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The director of Civil War Oscar-winner Glory, Gulf War drama Courage Under Fire and underrated terrorist thriller The Siege, Ed Zwick's latest is The Last Samurai. He tells you about Cruise, culture and "men to men" chemistry.

Why was Tom Cruise your first choice for this role?

He's an adventurous actor. He is a movie star but he also takes risks in parts. You think of him in Magnolia, Born On The Fourth of July, Interview With The Vampire. He's willing to go to these places and I think he constantly wants to push himself in every way, physically and emotionally.

And you pushed him physically in this, didn't you?

I did. I did. You know, I learned very early on that he'd been a wrestler as a boy and that's a very particular mentality. It shows a willingness to take punishment, so I knew I would be able to push him just as far as I needed.

Ken Watanabe gives a terrific performance as Katsumoto. How did you find him?

This is what I do for a living. I take pride in how I cast movies. I met a lot of actors, wonderful actors, but none of them inhabited the qualities I wanted this character to have. Suddenly Ken walked in and I knew in a heartbeat that he was the person to do the movie. He had this extraordinary humanity and spirituality and soulfulness that I couldn't deny.

How did you work on bringing their relationship to life on screen?

Chemistry is a hard thing to talk about. It's often talked about in terms of men and women, but it's about men and men too. I think the fact that they each have such power and confidence helped. It was almost as if I felt the character of Katsumoto had been lonely and the character of Algren had been alone and they finally found someone who understood the other and would understand what they were talking about. They found something kindred.

The attention to detail in this film is incredible. How did you ensure the Japan we are seeing is authentic?

The camera had been introduced into Japan about five years before this film is set and they went crazy for it. Everything was photographed: the streets, the costumes, the armour, every bit of it. So we were able to partake of this research and recreate it exactly because we had such extraordinary craftsmen and artists and designers. We were able to do what we saw had happened, that combination of the old and the new, the images of the rickshaw with the steam engine and the bowler hat next to the geisha. It was all there. All we had to do was reproduce it.

How was it being a director surrounded by a huge cast of Japanese actors, some of whom didn't speak any English?

You know, it's funny. There's great respect paid to a director in Japanese film. We were in a little town in New Zealand and there were often 500 men on the street. I would have to walk down the street to get my dry cleaning and grow accustomed to people actually bowing. I would bow back and it became quite common and understood. I quite missed it once I got back to Santa Monica and found nobody was bowing to me!

How do you sum up the heart of the film?

The kernel of the film is this idea that only when one can embrace the possibility of death, and understand that it is imminent to us all, can one truly and fully live. I think that's an idea I first conjured with when I encountered this culture at 17. I think it's something that's actually quite good to be reminded of. I also think for America and for the world, this understanding that cultures other than one's own are rich and complex and valuable is a very important one to have.

The Last Samurai - Tom Cruise Interview

• 12 years ago

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TOM CRUISE is a global cultural icon who has made an immeasurable impact on cinema by creating some of the most memorable characters of all time. Having achieved extraordinary success as an actor, producer and philanthropist in a career spanning over three decades, Cruise is a three-time Oscar® nominee and three-time Golden Globe Award® winner whose films have earned over $10 billion in worldwide box office—an incomparable accomplishment. Eighteen of Cruise’s films have grossed over $100 million domestically, and a record 23 have made more than $200 million globally. His latest film, Mission: Impossible – Fallout has made over $775 million worldwide becoming Cruise’s most successful film to date.

Cruise has starred in numerous legendary films such as Top Gun, Jerry Maguire, Risky Business, Minority Report, Interview with the Vampire, A Few Good Men, The Firm, Rain Man, Collateral, The Last Samurai, Edge of Tomorrow, The Color of Money and the Mission: Impossible series, among many others. Combined, the Mission: Impossible franchise has brought in over $3.5 billion since Cruise conceived the idea for a film adaptation of the classic television series and produced the first in 1996. He is currently in production on the long-awaited sequel to Top Gun.

A consummate filmmaker involved in all aspects of production, Cruise has proven his versatility with the films and roles he chooses. He has made 43 films, contributing in a producing role on many of them, and collaborated with a remarkable list of celebrated film directors including Francis Ford Coppola, Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Martin Scorsese, Barry Levinson, Oliver Stone, Ron Howard, Rob Reiner, Sydney Pollack, Neil Jordan, Brian De Palma, Cameron Crowe, Stanley Kubrick, Paul Thomas Anderson, Ed Zwick, Steven Spielberg, Michael Mann, J.J. Abrams, Robert Redford, Brad Bird, Doug Liman and Christopher McQuarrie.

Cruise received Academy Award® nominations for Best Actor for Born on the Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire. He was a Best Supporting Actor nominee for Magnolia and won Golden Globes (Best Actor) for Born on the Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire, in addition to a Best Supporting Actor prize for Magnolia. He also received Golden Globe nominations for his roles in Risky Business, A Few Good Men and The Last Samurai. Cruise has earned acting nominations and awards from BAFTA, the Screen Actors Guild, the Chicago Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review.

Cruise’s previous few films include the critically acclaimed American Made, The Mummy, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Oblivion and the suspense thriller Jack Reacher, which earned $218 million worldwide. Prior to that, he made a memorable appearance in Ben Stiller’s comedy smash Tropic Thunder, as the foul-mouthed Hollywood movie mogul Les Grossman. This performance, based on a character Cruise created, earned him praise from critics and audiences as well as his seventh Golden Globe nomination.

Cruise has been honored with tributes ranging from Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Man of the Year Award to the John Huston Award from the Artists Rights Foundation and the American Cinematheque Award for Distinguished Achievement in Film. In addition to his artistic contributions, Cruise has used his professional success as a vehicle for positive change, becoming an international advocate, activist and philanthropist in the fields of health, education and human rights. He has been honored by the Mentor LA organization for his work on behalf of the children of Los Angeles and around the world. In 2011 Cruise received the Simon Wiesenthal Humanitarian Award and the following year he received the Entertainment Icon Award from the Friars Club for his outstanding accomplishments in the entertainment industry and in the humanities. He is the fourth person to receive this honor after Douglas Fairbanks, Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra. Empire magazine awarded Cruise its Legend of Our Lifetime Award in 2014. Most recently, Cruise was the first actor to receive The Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation’s Pioneer of the Year Award in 2018.

• Top Gun: Maverick (2021)
• Mission: Impossible Fallout (2018)
• American Made (2017)
• The Mummy (2017)
• Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)
• Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (2015)
• Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
• Oblivion (2013)
• Jack Reacher (2012)
• Rock of Ages (2012)
• Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
• Knight and Day (2010)
• Valkyrie (2008)
• Tropic Thunder (2008)
• Lions for Lambs (2007)
• Mission: Impossible 3 (2006)
• War of the Worlds (2005)
• Collateral (2004)
• The Last Samurai (2003)
• Minority Report (2002)
• Vanilla Sky (2002)
• Mission: Impossible 2 (2001)
• Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
• Magnolia (1999)
• Jerry Maguire (1996)
• Mission: Impossible (1996)
• Interview with the Vampire (1994)
• The Firm (1993)
• A Few Good Men (1992)
• Far and Away (1992)
• Days of Thunder (1990)
• Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
• Rain Man (1988)
• Cocktail (1988)
• The Color of Money (1986)
• Top Gun (1986)
• Legend (1985)
• Risky Business (1983)
• All the Right Moves (1983)
• The Outsiders (1983)
• Losin’ It (1983)
• Taps (1981)
• Endless Love (1981)

Den of Geek

Shogun Fixes The Last Samurai’s Greatest Weakness

The Last Samurai and Shogun act as strange companion pieces about the West’s relationship with feudal Japan, but one does it a lot better.

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This article contains mild spoilers for Shōgun and major ones for The Last Samurai.

A lonely Westerner who seems lost before he even steps off his ship; a strange land filled with ritualized grace and deadly niceties; and a culture shock that is both intoxicating and intimidating—even before our stranger sees the samurai masks and katana blades come out. This could very well be a description of the odyssey which English seaman John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) finds himself on in FX’s astonishing new limited series, Shōgun . Yet I’m actually describing a popular Tom Cruise vehicle loosely set in the same aesthetic: The Last Samurai .

Released in December 2003 to positive reviews and impressive box office (back when adult-skewing dramas could regularly net $454 million at the world box office), director Edward Zwick’s The Last Samurai was applauded in its time for its pensive soulfulness and kinetic action sequences. It also, of course, was embraced because it featured one of the most popular movie stars on the planet in an exotic locale and even more exoticized attire. For while a charitable reading of the movie’s title is to suggest it’s about the truly great performance of the film— Ken Watanabe as a rogue samurai attempting to thwart the Westernization of his homeland—it is still Cruise in crimson red armor beneath “The Last Samurai” lettering on the poster.

The Last Samurai is, indeed, a thoughtful, excellently crafted, and superbly made variation on a particular trope of cinema we now typically call the “white savior movie,” although it’s debatable who, if anyone, is saved in The Last Samurai . But however you slice it, the film sits comfortably alongside Dances with Wolves , Avatar , and other stories about a white man losing himself to a “native” culture that he comes to idealize and lead.

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Which is what makes revisiting the otherwise entertaining The Last Samurai in the wake of Shōgun ’s popularity such a curious contrast. The new TV series is itself adapted from James Clavell’s 1975 novel of the same (and which was previously adapted for the small screen in a 1980 miniseries). And by virtue of its premise where we’re introduced to the customs of feudal Japan through a Western lens—Clavell was himself a British citizen who wound up in a Japanese POW camp in World War II— Shōgun could have played out much the same way: as a tale of Western apprehension and awe at the Bushidō morality code. And yet, the 21st century TV series that has come out of Clavell’s more archetypal text has proven so much richer and more complex. In the new series, Blackthorne is not our natural protagonist but rather a sympathetic piece of a far greater ensemble. That canny transition of perspectives hints at Shōgun ’s larger grandeur. It also creates a fascinating contrast with a still fairly beloved Tom Cruise movie that came out in this century.

What is the name of John Blackthorne's beloved ship?

• The Erasmus
• The Queen Elizabeth
• The Black Ship

Who of the following is NOT on the Council or Regents?

What title does john blackthorne receive from lord toranaga, what's the code name of lord toranaga's final plan.

• Crimson Sky
• Scarlet Sky

What is Lady Ochiba-no-kata's real name?

Which of the following languages is spoken on shogun.

• Mandarin Chinese

What real life figure is Lord Toranaga based on?

• Tokugawa Ieyasu
• William Adams
• Ishida Mitsunari
• Yodo-no-kata

Who is the Lord of Izu?

What does "anjin" mean, according to the shogun podcast, what is the real life name of the falcon that appears on the show, a story about japan versus a story about the west.

It is probably no accident that between Shōgun and The Last Samurai , we have two projects which bookend the West’s relationship with feudal Japan. In Shōgun , viewers are asked to witness a fictionalized account of the first time an Englishman stepped foot on Japanese soil in 1600—the real-life counterpart to Blackthorne being a British pilot named William Adams—and in The Last Samurai , we follow an entirely fictional American U.S. Army captain, Nathan Algren (Cruise), as he bears witness to a romanticized depiction of the upheaval which occurred after the Meiji Restoration in the 1860s and 1870s—which is to say when the West came back with a vengeance to Japan.

It’s even fun to realize that the events of Shōgun directly influence The Last Samurai since the series is about the birth of the Tokugawa shogunate, which essentially banned Western culture and (eventually) Westerners for the next 200 years. This did not end until the American Navy showed up in Tokyo Bay in 1853 and threatened Japan to open for trade with the West at literal gun and cannon point.

Still, the subtlest and most profound difference between the two American productions, then, is that while Shōgun (2024) is about feudal Japan as understood from a Western gaze, The Last Samurai is about the West looking at itself in a Japanese mirror. It’s a minute distinction, but one with profound effects on both projects.

While Shōgun admittedly begins with Blackthorne realizing he and the remainder of his crew are about to be marooned on the mysterious island of Japan, the series is ultimately about the complex and confounding world he finds himself in as Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada, who also appears in The Last Samurai ) plays a shrouded game of thrones with Japan’s other great clan leaders on the cusp of civil war. The series is not about Blackthorne, but this larger chessboard on which the Englishman has made himself (and his cannons) a highly valued piece.

Conversely, The Last Samurai eschews nuance in favor of broad Hollywood sentimentality and movie star necessities. While we first glimpse Watanabe’s brilliant portrayal of Lord Katsumoto (a fictionalized version of the real-life rebellious samurai Saigō Takamori) during the film’s prologue, that opening is actually narrated by an alien (and English) voice which insists, “Japan was made by a handful of brave men. Warriors willing to give their lives for what seems to have become a forgotten word: honor.”

Right off the bat, The Last Samurai asks us to romanticize and reduce samurai culture as not a thousand-plus year-old profession and class in a medieval system of governance, but rather as an ideal impossible for American culture (either in the 19th century or implicitly today) to attain. The prologue’s narrator is asking us to compare Watanabe’s visual sense of Zen and honor (as he is literally meditating) with where we next find our true protagonist, Cruise’s Capt. Algren: at the bottom of a bottle, with the retired cavalry officer drunk and hungover as he sits in a dark room decorated by American flags left to wrinkle on the ground.

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Like Kevin Costner’s Civil War veteran Lt. Dunbar in Dances with Wolves , Cruise’s Algren is weighed down by the guilt and atrocities he witnessed while riding beneath the American flag. Samurai even takes it one step further since Algren’s trauma stems from the horrors he saw committed by both sides—including himself—during the various American Indian wars on the frontier. While we eventually learn of Katsumoto’s grievances with imperial Japan’s rush toward modernization, it is told mostly in broad strokes and with a single, caricatured villainous bureaucrat he must overcome: a Japanese railroad baron (Masato Harada) who whispers poison in a young emperor’s ear. By comparison, Algren’s shame and disdain for his former commanding officer—a fellow by the name of Custer who got 211 fellow cavalrymen massacred—is much more acute and inescapable.

The Last Samurai is not the story of an American encountering the last days of the samurai, but rather how the samurai helped an American put to bed the demons of his experiences in the American West. As such, the samurai are themselves only understood through those rose-tinted glasses that the film’s opening narration instructs us to use: warriors willing to give their lives for that “forgotten word” of honor.

It’s a classic, if better intentioned and articulated, replay of the “noble savage” trope in Dances with Wolves . As such, the only dimensionality offered to that lifestyle is by the performances, which include future Shōgun producer and star Sanada, as well as a magnificent Watanabe who gave an Oscar-nominated turn as the samurai rebel who takes a curious interest in Cruise’s bewildered American prisoner—a bit like how a gifted veterinarian might adopt and nurse a wounded stray dog. Screenwriter John Logan provides enough nuance to that relationship that Watanabe can flesh it out to haunting effect. Still, at the end of the day, the samurai culture is merely a frame in which Cruise’s protagonist can stare at his own reflection—and eventually shave off the trauma of his past by donning a kimono and katanas.

Meanwhile in Shōgun Blackthorne does eventually transition into wearing Japanese attire, including the katanas because he is told to by his captors/hosts/maybe pseudo-friends. However, the show never feels the need to depict the Englishman “going native” as an act of either salvation or heroism. There is, indeed, something faintly comical about Jarvis’ stranger stumbling through high Japanese society with blades he doesn’t know how to use and bouncing off folks who view him a bit like their court jester.

The culture clash likewise becomes a much richer source of drama and tragedy when it is not only about how it affects Blackthorne’s well-being. In fact, it is arguable the true star of the show is neither the Westerner nor the would-be shōgun of its title, Sanada’s commanding Toranaga. Instead its Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai) who walks away with the series. She’s a woman of an ancient house which has fallen into recent disgrace due to the actions of her father. As a consequence, Mariko yearns to redeem her honor by committing seppuku (ritualized suicide). Yet her lord Toranaga forces her to endure, including as Blackthorne’s translator (having converted to Catholicism, Mariko is well-studied in Western languages).

It is how Mariko chooses to interpret Blackthorne’s brutish European sailor outbursts (or not) that becomes the source of humor , horror, and sometimes despair in the series. Theirs is a complex romance, and much like the relationship the Westerner also has with Toranaga and the other members of the ensemble, it is not only in service to his betterment. The longer the series goes on, the more Blackthorne adopts positive aspects of Japanese culture including (humorously) learning to take a bath everyday. Yet a running theme is how everyone in the show refers to the other cultures as barbaric—be they English, Japanese, or Roman Catholic Portuguese—while all sharing the capacity to commit atrocities in their own way.

Blackthorne does not see “honor” he hopes to emulate in Toranaga, Mariko, or the wily and untrustworthy Yabushige (Tadanobu Asano). But he does witness with immense skepticism things that are as troubling to our modern worldview as Blackthorne’s early modern English one. His disgust with Mariko’s thirst for suicide, as well as how other people he meets are so willing to throw away their lives to win a political argument, is treated as an equally valid counterpoint to any romanticization of the Bushidō code.

By avoiding the ethnocentric view that most Western fiction pursues in regard to feudal Japan, Shōgun becomes an actual exploration of  feudal Japan, if from a Western POV.

Who Does and Does Not Need to Be Saved

There of course remains the aspect of The Last Samurai which comes into sharpest criticism these days: its standing as a white savior movie. The film undeniably and intentionally checks many of the boxes found in this cliché: a white man meets a native people he comes to admire while also simultaneously slotting into the role of a leader amongst them.

While Watanabe’s Katsumoto is the true clan leader in the movie who redeems Algren, the film rather incredulously sees the Tom Cruise character ride ahead of Katsumoto and all the other samurai as they leave for battle at the end of the film, and later while riding slightly behind Katsumoto into the final battle, Cruise is still allowed to dominate the shot over Watanabe and be in a greater pride of place than Katsumoto’s actual lifelong right-hand man, Ujio (Sanada).  It is also the American’s counsel Katsumoto seeks before they ride to glory and doom against modern weapons of war.

However, it should be noted that as a brilliant screenwriter, The Last Samurai ’s John Logan seems aware of the loaded connotations he’s playing with and at least tries to sidestep them more gracefully than films with similar narratives. The samurai culture, again, fixes the white man (the point of the film), but you could also say they are the ones who therefore save him. Furthermore, he doesn’t actually lead them to victory. After witnessing how the American cavalry ultimately decimated various Indigenous tribes of the American West, Algren is aware that Katsumoto’s cause is doomed when he rides beside him—and indeed they are massacred almost to a man.

Still, the story is about how the native culture fixes the white man’s soul, and the white man at least guides them to the most brilliant defeat possible against cannons and rifles. (Also amusing fact: to even further simplify its glorified image of the samurai, the film ignores that samurai had actually been using gunpowder for more than a century up to this point, including Katsumoto’s real-life counterpart in the failed 1877 uprising.)

Comparatively, Blackthorne makes himself useful to the budding shogunate in the new TV series—but only to a point. He and Toranaga have a slow-boiling bromance that heightens when the Briton teaches the man who would be king how to dive, or instructs his men how to properly use cannonfire in battle. However, Toranaga is always acutely aware that Blackthorne, or “the Anjin,” is a foreigner of malleable allegiances. He does not directly rely on him to win his chess match against his enemies. And in the penultimate episode of the show, he even predicts Blackthorne’s limited loyalties and set them against other members of his clan who are not-so-honorable, like the duplicitous Yabushige. There is likewise an ambiguous reading in the warlord’s decision to exploit Mariko’s suicidal impulses to create a political crisis in Osaka that will be advantageous to Tokanaga’s maneuvering.

There is a moral and ethical opaqueness to Shōgun that is all the more impressive when one considers how Western fiction has often depicted feudal Japan as a simple land of sacrifice and honor, which perhaps only needed a bit of Tom Cruise movie charisma to save the Bushido code for the 20th century—which if you stop and think about did not serve anyone well by 1945!

None of this is a damning criticism of The Last Samurai . The film is immensely watchable, filled with great performances, a sincere gracefulness, amazing production design with Zwick’s familiar eye for period detail, and some top notch action sequences. There may never be a better cinematic rendering of samurai versus ninjas than that one scene! However, it is a product of its time, which in only 20 years feels surprisingly remote to the sophistication and depth achieved by Shōgun . The contrast has become its own kind of culture shock.

David Crow | @DCrowsNest

David Crow is the movies editor at Den of Geek. He has long been proud of his geek credentials. Raised on cinema classics that ranged from…

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Tom Cruise Creates His Own ‘Trafalgar Square’ Tube Station Filming Mission: Impossible in London

The actor was pictured filming scenes for the eighth 'Mission: Impossible' movie in the British capital on April 28

Raw Image / Goff / Splash / SplashNews

Tom Cruise has taken over the streets of London!

On Sunday, April 28, the actor, 61, was photographed filming scenes for the next Mission: Impossible movie in the British capital outside an invented Tube station called 'Trafalgar Square.'

Cruise shut down the real Trafalgar Square for the shoot as he was seen coming in and out of the London Underground station while surrounded by crowds of extras.

Off camera, the action star appeared in happier spirits as he chatted to members of the crew in between takes. 

The eighth installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise is set for a May 23, 2025 release. According to Deadline , the release was delayed by a year due to the SAG-AFTRA strike , which ended in November 2023.

Cruise returns to the franchise as protagonist Ethan Hunt, along with director and longtime collaborative partner Christopher McQuarrie. 

The actor was spotted filming more adrenaline-fueled scenes for the action movie in London last month. 

On March 24, the American Made star was photographed sprinting down a street in the capital wearing a black suit with an unbuttoned white shirt covered in fake blood.

Last summer, Cruise returned to the big screen in the seventh film in the franchise, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning .

The film made $172 million at the domestic box office and earned the franchise its first Oscars nominations for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound at the 96th Academy Awards earlier this year.

Never miss a story — sign up for  PEOPLE's free daily newsletter  to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Meanwhile, Cruise is reportedly set to appear in another sequel of his movies for the third Top Gun film , following the huge success of the second installment, Top Gun: Maverick , released in 2022. 

In January, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Paramount is developing the sequel with co-writer Ehren Kruger, with Joe Kosinski set to direct. According to the outlet, the film will see Cruise return in his role as Pete Mitchell, alongside his Maverick costars Glen Powell and Miles Teller .

Love Bites in ‘Interview With the Vampire’

I t’s a tale as old as time. Boy meets vampire. Boy becomes vampire. Vampires become a messy couple, adopt a teen vampire who grows to hate them, and someone ends up getting their throat slashed during a gory, garish 1939 Mardi Gras party. Well, maybe not as old as time, but definitely as old as Anne Rice ’s seminal 1976 gothic bestseller, Interview With the Vampire . And in AMC ’s luscious, pitch-perfect adaptation, which is returning for its second season, Rice’s iconic characters—New Orleans scion Louis de Pointe du Lac ( Jacob Anderson ); the cruel, sexually voracious, centuries-old bloodsucker who turned him, Lestat de Lioncourt ( Sam Reid ); and their perpetual-adolescent “daughter” Claudia ( Delainey Hayles )—are heading abroad to tackle the novel’s brutal second half.

“I’d say actually Part 2 is even more faithful to the book than the first season in many ways,” previews Game of Thrones alum Anderson. As a reluctant killer desperate to maintain his humanity—and a free Black man living in the 1900s South—Anderson’s stirring, melancholy turn has won over even book purists who may have been initially rattled by AMC’s move to race-change Louis.

That key alteration aside, the show diligently honors Rice’s work while allowing the writers to slyly tweak the literary classic just enough to keep readers familiar with the books and 1994 film starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt guessing and gobsmacked. “A lot that ended up in the show was kind of surprising to me,” Anderson says. “I was reading the scripts and was like, ‘What are you doing?! What are you doing to these characters?’ But I mean that in the best possible way.”

Paris is at the heart of what happened to Louis’ memory. Rolin Jones, Executive Producer

Last we saw the undead’s most dysfunctional family, we were asking the same things. At her wit’s end with the coldhearted Lestat’s abuse and manipulation, Claudia had poisoned her maker during a high-society Mardi Gras soiree turned Grand Guignol, but the kill she so craved (and solely attempted in the novel) was stolen from her when an equally broken Louis then slit Lestat’s throat. After disposing of his corpse, the two fled the Crescent City for Europe. This was all being recounted to Daniel Molloy ( Eric Bogosian ), the journalist to whom Louis first granted the titular interview back in the 1970s San Francisco of the source material. Decades after their ill-fated meeting, Louis has summoned the aging, sickly writer to his palatial home in 2022 Dubai to give him the real story of his life, under the watchful eye of his assistant, Rashid ( Assad Zaman ). In the season’s final moments, it was revealed that Rashid was actually Armand , the wickedly powerful 514-year-old vampire with an unexpected tie to Molloy…and the love of Louis’ life.

Picking up shortly after this jaw-dropper, the interview resumes with Louis recounting the story of life with an increasingly discontented Claudia. Not only are they miles away from the well-heeled glamour they’d grown accustomed to in New Orleans, but they are literally living underground. “We start the first episode of Season 2 [with them] in war-torn Europe searching for vampires,” explains Mark Johnson , the executive producer tasked with overseeing AMC’s Immortal Universe of Vampire and Mayfair Witches . “In their pursuit, they go to Paris.” While it becomes clear that Louis’ recollections of this time are compromised, either by trauma or trickery, readers of Rice’s books know this is where it all goes down. “Paris is at the heart of what happened to Louis’ memory,” notes Johnson’s co-EP Rolin Jones . “The business that happened there is the thing that shattered him. Whether he’s putting it back together or whether he’s digging it out, it all happened in Paris.”

Settling into their new home—actually Prague standing in for the early 1940s City of Light—the isolated pair finally begin to sort out their familial issues (immortal teens can be so moody!). A tricky feat, given that relative newcomer Hayles (who replaced Season 1’s Bailey Bass ) was stepping into a role that required her to already have that love-hate vibe with Anderson’s over-protective paternal figure. “I’m so thankful that my first month was just kind of me and him, because we got to learn a bit about each other, how we liked to work, and that gave us the bonding time to try things in the scenes that might not be in the script,” raves Hayles, who delivers a fascinating mix of teen petulance and simmering ferocity. “Some of my favorite scenes and memories are with Jacob in the first month of filming.”

Before long, the duo fall in with the Théâtre des Vampires, a baroque coven of vampiric actors led by (surprise!) Armand and the troupe’s sinister leading man, Santiago ( Ben Daniels , Foundation ). There, surrounded by a colorfully entertaining cast of international performers who have tricked audiences into thinking their onstage savagery is all an act, perpetual-child Claudia finds community. “In the beginning, she’s observing it all and likes what’s happening,” offers Hayles. “They all have their own personalities, but I would say I think she’s found a bond with them.”

Not so much her traveling companion. “Louis doesn’t like theater, much less hanging out with theater people,” cracks Anderson. “He’s more introverted and they’re very loud and very extroverted. I think that immediately gets his hackles up and he’s like, ‘No, I don’t like these people.’ They’re a lot .” Adding to his discomfort are the lingering grief, guilt and sins of his past. Turns out the theater troupe’s revered, absentee founder was Lestat, which proves to be an ever-present reminder of his first love—often a very intrusive one that refuses to leave Louis alone. “We call him Dream-stat,” Reid tells us. Aside from discussing flashbacks that illuminate Lestat’s French roots, the enthralling Australian actor is supernaturally skilled at avoiding any spoilers as to how he remains on the canvas following his Season 1 fate. “There was a lot of negotiation about what we were going to show of [Lestat], pre-Louis,” he admits. “Before he became a vampire, he was an actor onstage in Paris. I suppose everyone’s seen the trailer now, so you do get the idea that there’s going to be some 1700s Paris plot that turns up.”

“Once he starts getting vampiric powers,” Reid goes on, “he realizes there’s a whole other world out there that he wants to go and explore. And he is pretty fickle, so whether or not he lasts as an actor very long after becoming a vampire is a longer story. But at the start, he has very specific reasons for starting that theater company. Very, very specific reasons.”

In addition to Dream-stat, there is the nightmare awaiting Louis and Claudia should word get out that they have another vampire’s blood on their hands. By coven law, the two would face the ultimate punishment for slaughtering Lestat, meaning the metaphorical stakes have never been higher. “I think for them it’s a journey of discovering how much they really need each other or don’t need each other, and what their dynamic actually is,” says Anderson. “Is it father- daughter? Is it brother-sister? Do they need each other at all?”

“It is an origin story,” Johnson asserts. “Season 1 was pretty much a pure love story between Lestat and Louis, and then the introduction of a daughter. This is much more an origin story about a mature Louis.”

A Louis, Anderson continues, who, amid his Parisian angst, is drawn to the comfort of Armand, a sort of anti-Lestat. “There’s a tenderness to their relationship,” he says of the couple, before admitting with a laugh that 80 years later, Louis still hasn’t entirely figured out what he wants. “You really see a level of comfort between [them] that, I think, in real relationships can be both a plus and can also lead to ambivalence or resentment…. I mean, Louis loves a bit of drama. He’s not averse to a problematic relationship.”

That is made even more evident in both timelines. In the past, Santiago’s distrust of the new vamps in town causes chaos. “Louis comes in, he is a newcomer, he’s this incredibly gorgeous American and everybody wants a piece of him,” says Johnson. “That immediately puts Santiago on his heels.”

“As soon as he lays eyes on Louis and starts to talk to him, it takes one to know one,” posits Daniels, an old friend of Jones from the TV series The Exorcist . “He knows that there’s a lot of bulls–t going on.” A pompous, relatively new vampire with startling abilities, the scene-stealing Santiago does, however, take a shine to Claudia. Not only for her interest in the stage, but also for her ties to Louis and whatever the two of them are hiding. “It’s kind of a manipulation,” says Daniels. “He lures in Claudia to get information, but he loves her. He thinks she is totally admirable as a vampire.” Daniels took an online quiz in character to measure Santiago’s level of Machiavellian intent and “scored, like, 98” out of 100. “He’s truly conniving,” Johnson states ominously. “And he becomes incredibly more important as the season goes on.”

In the Dubai present, Louis is just as troubled by the prickly dynamic emerging between his beau and interviewer. Armand “has revealed himself in the last episode of Season 1, so there’s already something shady going on [with him],” Zaman explains of the tension. “This person has been masquerading as a servant yet it’s obvious he’s been pretty influential in the way Louis conducted that first season interview. We’re not going to trust him right from the get-go.” It will take much of the season before Molloy, or viewers, get to the bottom of Armand’s intentions, but Zaman promises that those questions will be answered thanks to “Molloy’s tactical prowess as a reporter.”

Portraits With The Vampires

Helping fill in those blanks is the trove of resources left by Rice (her son, author Christopher Rice , is a credited executive producer). “If you’re telling a relationship between Armand and Louis, I have a full book on Armand now,” points out Jones of The Vampire Armand , the sixth entry in the author’s 13-book Vampire Chronicles series. “If they’re walking and talking along the Seine, I got things to say that I could not have said from the first book.” Likewise, Johnson, Jones and Co. have pulled elements from Interview ’s Lestat-centric sequels The Vampire Lestat , The Queen of the Damned and The Tale of the Body Thief , including some Easter eggs that pop up early in the season. “If I was a hardcore fan of these books and Episode 3 came up, I would be very pleased at the end 52 minutes later.”

But will they be pleased with the show’s central romance between Louis and Lestat being upended by Armand? Should diehards be ready to ship “Loumand,” or is there hope for “Loustat”? Anderson agrees that “inevitably, you’re going to have comparisons, but I’d say that we made a very conscious decision in the beginning, Assad and I, that there’s just no point in trying to re-create the dynamic between Louis and Lestat. It has to be a different thing.” For Reid, it’s not so much about Lestat finding love or getting the guy as much as it is taking all of these characters on the journey Anne Rice has determined for them. Just maybe with some unexpected turns. “If you’ve read the books, if you know that we’re following the books, and are really excited to see specific beats that we’re going to show in this season, I would like to send out a word of caution and just say: Stick with us.”

Fangs for the warning!

Interview With the Vampire , Season 2 Premiere, Sunday, May 12, 9/8c, AMC and AMC+

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Get Hot and Bothered With Interview With the Vampire

We get it: There’s an overwhelming number of television shows right now. The streaming landscape is an impractical maze, and the good stuff easily gets lost in the shuffle. But most of us can still find one show that cuts through the noise. We call this “appointment viewing” — or the time you carve out in your busy schedule to watch the show you’ll want to unpack the next day with your friends while it’s still on your mind. Tune in here each month to read what writer Michel Ghanem, a.k.a. @ tvscholar , deems worthy of a group-chat deep dive.

So far this year, we’ve covered prestige-TV hits like Shōgun and True Detective , and we moved into lighter fare to have some fun with The Girls on the Bus and Big Mood . This month, we recommend catching up on AMC’s Interview With the Vampire , one of the best dramas currently airing on TV, which returns with another excellent season on May 12.

What’s this horny vampire show I keep hearing about?

Interview With the Vampire is a television gothic-horror adaptation of Anne Rice’s 1976 novel , which picks up the queer tones of the book that were mostly left out of the 1994 film starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt . The first season follows Louis (Jacob Anderson), a 145-year-old vampire who recounts his life’s story to Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian), a human journalist at the end of his career who gets the unique opportunity to hear Louis’s unvarnished story. The show is told through flashbacks, beginning with Louis’s “birth” as a vampire by his “maker” Lestat (Sam Reid) back in the 1910s. Eventually, they both care for Claudia (Bailey Bass), a 14-year-old girl who joins their unconventional vampire family.

The first season — an exhilaratingly bloody, romantic, and lyrical tale told through knockout performances — aired to critical acclaim and various award nods but still managed to fly under the radar. Critics were given six season-two episodes (there are eight in total), and I can say with confidence that this sexy vampire show is as bold and propulsive as ever, despite moving to a different setting and shooting location. In the premiere episode, we find Claudia (who has been recast with Delainey Hayles) dragging Louis around Eastern Europe during World War II in search of more of their kind after Lestat’s assumed death. Finally settling in Paris after their wandering, Louis and Claudia meet a coven of vampires and theatrical troupe led by Armand (Assad Zaman), Louis’s mysterious partner in the present-day timeline whom we finally get to know properly throughout the season.

Where can I watch it?

The vampires return to the small screen on May 12, with single episodes airing every following Sunday. If you’re not caught up, the first season that originally aired in 2022 is a delicious binge on AMC+. Since gaining the rights to various sets of Anne Rice fantasy-novel series, AMC has made a concerted programming push to build out the “Immortal Universe,” which includes Mayfair Witches , about a neurosurgeon learning about how she inherited her witch powers , and a third series in development. AMC has teased future crossover episodes between the series, which take place in a shared universe.

Interview With the Vampire is a major shift in strategy for AMC, a network that spent the last decade putting most of its development power behind half a dozen The Walking Dead spinoffs that didn’t always recapture the magic of the early days of the zombie series. Interview , created by Rolin Jones (who produced Friday Night Lights and Weeds ), is somewhere between this newer supernatural iteration of the network and its older programming slate that contained more slow-burn, character-driven series like Mad Men and Halt and Catch Fire .

So, is it anything like True Blood ?

While the Louisiana-based True Blood leaned on supernatural clichés and sex appeal to win over an audience on HBO, Interview With the Vampire is more interested in intimacy and existential explorations and the complexities of navigating superhuman relationships. The show’s characters are constantly pondering philosophical questions about themselves and each other. In this way, it’s less overtly campy than Alan Ball’s True Blood — but both shows are delightfully and unapologetically queer.

Some episodes in Interview With the Vampire ’s second season dial down the blood and gore in favor of thoughtful character development. Don’t expect the show to leave behind its roots as a gothic horror, but the mid-season pace will remind viewers that this is primarily a character-focused drama. We get yet another showcase of powerful emotional range from Anderson as Louis while he processes the loss of one lover to be open to the next. And despite having big shoes to fill, Delainey Hayles’s debut as Claudia is just as masterful, peeling back the layers beyond Claudia’s youthful ferocity to find her agency as a young vampire — in Paris, no less.

The show probably has more in common with Fellow Travelers and Foundation than True Blood or Buffy the Vampire Slayer , telling an intricate multi-decade story of survival, self-discovery, and love — all through the lens of sometimes unreliable narrators riddled with biases. You won’t want to miss the steamy cinematic sex scenes, either! They’re less prevalent in the second season, and not so raunchy that you can’t watch these new episodes with your mom, but you should know that this show has inspired GIF sets across the internet of vampires levitating mid-coitus. Often, just the act of penetrating a neck is framed in a sensual way. Here’s hoping Interview With the Vampire , which is powerfully performed and lavishly produced, catches on culturally for some well-deserved Emmy nominations this time around.

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How ‘the sympathizer’ cast represents a portrait of the modern vietnamese diaspora.

Several Vietnamese members of the cast personally experienced the fall of Saigon. For others, the HBO limited series was a learning opportunity, and chance to help their families and communities heal from trauma.

By Rebecca Sun

Rebecca Sun

Senior Editor, Diversity & Inclusion

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Projects about the Vietnam War and its aftermath are so plentiful as to be practically their own genre, and they’ve starred a who’s who of Hollywood icons, including John Wayne, Robert De Niro, Marlon Brando, Robin Williams, Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson and Christian Bale.

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The Hollywood Reporter spoke with eight of The Sympathizer ’s Vietnamese cast members in a group conversation below that revealed that, although they all share the same ethnicity, they are diverse in age, nationality and experience, together forming a living account of the modern Vietnamese diaspora — what it has been through, and what it is like now.

The assembled ensemble and their characters:

Hoa Xuande as protagonist The Captain, a biracial French-Vietnamese police captain for South Vietnam who is secretly a mole for the communist North Vietnamese side.

Fred Nguyen Khan as Bon, one of The Captain’s two best friends. Bon is fiercely loyal to his friends and to the South Vietnamese cause, having lost his family to the communists.

Duy Nguyen as Man, The Captain’s other best friend, who is also his North Vietnamese handler.

Toan Le as The General, ostensibly The Captain’s boss, who attempts to maintain morale among the exiled South Vietnamese in southern California.

Ky Duyen as Madame, The General’s wife, who may not have her husband’s official title but carries just as much authority among the community. (In a twist of life imitating art imitating life, the character of The General is at least partially inspired by Ky Duyen’s real-life father.)

Phanxinê as The Major, a friendly and enterprising former South Vietnamese officer on his way to building the American dream for his family when The Captain frames him as part of The General’s hunt for the North Vietnamese mole.

Kieu Chinh as The Major’s Mother, whom he continues to dote on from Vietnam to their new home in America.

While Kieu Chinh (already an established actress before continuing her career in the U.S., with credits like The Joy Luck Club ), Toan Le and Ky Duyen lived through the 1975 fall of Saigon and have their own memories of fleeing their homeland, Phanxinê, Nguyen and Vy Le were born and raised in postwar Vietnam. Meanwhile, Xuande and Nguyen Khan were born in Australia and Canada, respectively, to immigrants displaced by the conflict.

What was it like filming the fall of Saigon in the pilot episode, compared to either your direct experience or your understanding of it?

KY DUYEN Living in Vietnam when I was 9, I was not aware of what was going on. We left on the 29th. My mother the night before had given me a box of family photos that I was supposed to take with me, but someone just picked me up at three or four in the morning while I was asleep. So I left the treasure at home and went on the C-130. I don’t remember the bombs; the last thing I remember is my mom’s face as the belly of the plane was closing up. She was just looking out with a look of utter loss. She wasn’t even crying a lot; her face was very calm. But a silent tear just rolled down.

TOAN LE [Filming the evacuation sequence] was very surreal. Also, it was a night shoot so it was extra surreal. But it took me back. I left on April 28, 1975, when I was 15. My family and I hopped on a bus to the airport, drove right up to a C-130, went up on a ramp and flew to Guam. It was a day or so before things got really bad at the airport. I looked out the window on the bus and saw students in white áo dài riding their bicycles to school. It was business as usual, peaceful, the sun was shining, and here I was, boarding a plane that was going to take me away forever. I think the trauma of that is still very hidden for me, but I did feel that evening when we were filming, it just seemed very ominous to me, thick and dark.

HOA XUANDE I brought my parents to the premiere . I just wanted to get their take on what they were seeing on the screen, especially in the last 15 to 20 minutes of the first episode. I was watching them and I could feel them getting emotional and I saw sort of a tear forming in the corner of my mom’s eye. Afterwards when I was talking to them about it, they were like, it brought them back to that. So I think the depiction that we’d been able to create in the last 20 minutes of the first episode is actually very close to being accurate, and it’s a wonderful depiction of the struggles and raw survival of people trying to survive this devastation that often we don’t see.

VY LE My dad was born in ‘70 and my mom in ‘75, so they were very young when Saigon fell. It was never really a conversation in our family or a narrative that we were familiar with. Shooting the show was a huge learning experience. Sitting in classrooms in Vietnam, I learned about it through the communists’ point of view. I knew of it as the American War, and the liberation of the South. And then having come to America [for school] and learning about it, it was in a way very mechanical and through the lens of the American people, and so this was the first time that felt like it was the missing piece of the puzzle that really rounded me out.

How does the Vietnam you know or knew compare to the version typically depicted in Hollywood?

DUY NGUYEN I grew up in Hanoi. We didn’t watch a lot of war movies. I grew up decades after the war; my family has really moved on from it. So war movies, especially from the American perspective, are not very popular. But my family watched [some], and we often laughed about them. To see this from the South Vietnamese perspective and then the plane sequence and what happened afterwards, this is my first time getting exposed to it. Seeing it and hearing from my cast members that that actually happened kind of blew my mind. It’s really opened my mind up to what else happened back then.

What were your acting opportunities like before The Sympathizer ?

KIEU CHINH This year marks my 68th year in the industry. When I came here, I was lucky enough to land my very first job [in the U.S.] in M*A*S*H . Alan Alda wrote the episode for me, so I was very lucky that I landed in that. After that I kept busy with so many stories about Vietnam: China Beach , Hamburger Hill . And I’ve played all different Asian nationalities. In M*A*S*H I was a Korean, The Letter with Lee Remick I played a Chinese mistress, and I even worked in India playing an Indian princess.

Phanxinê, you are actually a working director in Vietnam. How did you come to make your acting debut in an American series?

PHANXINÊ I heard about the book, but I didn’t have a chance to read it because it never published in Vietnam. Viet Thanh Nguyen posted about the open casting on his Facebook and I wanted to submit an audition just to send a love letter to [co-showrunner] Park Chan-wook. In my tape, I wore a pin of one of his movies, Oldboy , and for the introduction I said, “I really admire your work, Director Park.” But I also planned to do kind of a prank on my friends, because the casting description said, “Nudity required,” so I’m thinking, I’m going to apply for this so when the show comes out, I will tell my friends, “You were supposed to see me naked onscreen, but unfortunately they didn’t pick me.” But then the plan went wrong.

You might be the first person who’s ever landed a big role after auditioning as a joke.

XUANDE Yeah, we killed ourselves auditioning for this, and he just did it as a joke!

NGUYEN KHAN We auditioned for nine months!

Given the political sensitivities to the material, do you have any concerns about your ability to continue to work in Vietnam as a result of participating in this project?

What kinds of responses to this story have you gotten from family members or other Vietnamese people who lived this experience?

NGUYEN KHAN My family didn’t really like to talk about the trauma that they endured. As a kid, all you know is the result of that trauma by the way that they are sometimes very absent, sometimes very strict. All they know is how to survive and get results in order to survive. And for their son to want to be an actor, it’s such a weird idea for people who went through all that.

XUANDE “We struggled and survived so you could do this?!”

NGUYEN KHAN Exactly. Now after the shoots I understand them more, because we basically played them. It was only after we wrapped that I was able to start talking about it. My grandmother felt like, “Ok, it’s time to tell the story about how we escaped.” And it was a really surreal moment because we never even thought about asking about this stuff before.

TOAN LE My parents never talked about it. After all these years, we barely uttered a word regarding what happened to us: what happened that day, what time did we leave, things like that. So everything is largely forgotten. Throughout all these years I felt the muffled-ness of the suffering, just watching them trying to go on after losing everything. It’s like war happens on the battlefield, and then it happens again in memory.

XUANDE The Vietnamese diaspora that’s spread across the world are predominantly people who fled the war from the South. These people had to make a new life for themselves all around the globe and they had to repress a lot of their trauma because they weren’t ever really given the medium or the ability to express that devastation, so they had to just move on. So I think the wider Vietnamese diaspora would be interested in seeing something like this that is finally capturing something that they have felt like has been treated as so insignificant when it comes to portraying the Vietnam War. I think they’re excited to see a Vietnamese cast telling their story back to them from their perspective, so that they can at least, like Fred said, deal with it in a cathartic way, to finally see that their trauma really does matter.

You shot in Thailand as a stand-in for Vietnam, but after production wrapped, a bunch of you went to Vietnam together on vacation. Who was on that trip?

XUANDE It was Duy, me, Fred, Vy, Alan [Trong, who plays the journalist Sonny], Phanxinê, Kayli [Tran], who plays the Communist spy in the beginning, and a few crew members as well. Speaking for myself, I thought I’d take the trip because we were so close – we were only in Thailand when we wrapped, and secondly in case the government decided not to let us in after the show, we thought we’d make a quick reconnaissance mission.

XUANDE Because I just wanted to torture these guys some more.

NGUYEN KHAN I went when I was around 19 years old, but I was there with my family and so I had to follow them around and do whatever they were doing. This time I thought, “This is really cool, I get to go there as an adult and just do what I want to.” I ended up having insomnia so I couldn’t do anything.

XUANDE We dragged him to a few things, though.

What are your hopes going forward for yourselves, or for other Vietnamese in this industry?

KY DUYEN I am still hosting [mega-popular diasporic Vietnamese variety series Paris By Night ] but I have been wanting to wind down from that — I’ve been doing that 30 years — and to segue into something else. Kieu Chinh was the one who introduced me to my agent, and then my agent’s the one who sent me the sides to read for The Sympathizer . I’m so lucky, it was the second project I tried out for, and I got the role. And yes, I hope that I can go into acting full-time.

TOAN LE I hope that dialogues will be generated. For myself, I hope that this will bring me more work, because as soon as I got this job, I quit my other job as a visual designer. I’m just a full-time actor now. So I hope there’ll be more opportunities for Vietnamese actors in general.

XUANDE The big takeaway is if we just treat auditions like they’re jokes, we’ll book all the roles.

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