Anna Sawai explains how she changed a key Shogun scene to avoid playing into the sexualized tropes of Japanese women. Often times when you hear a Japanese woman, you think, oh, they’re obedient, they’re sexy, or they can do action somehow. And for me, it’s like, that’s not who... we are. We’re so much more complex. And even if we do appear obedient, it’s because society has made us that way… When I read it was my character going into a bath with the white pilot, I was like, okay, this is going to be the same thing. And I played it in that way, and they didn’t call me back. And then I had a conversation with our showrunner and he explained that it wasn’t that kind of scene. Like, he wanted it to be the connection that they have with their background… So I taped again and I played it like she wasn’t really taking off her kimono and it was just equals. And they liked me. So once that happened, I was like, okay, this is the type of women that we haven’t been able to see.show more

Married to a Japanese woman. The "obedience" think is a total western misnomer. They run the house with an iron fist. You will obey.

Anna understood that representation isn't just about putting Japanese women on screen; it's about allowing them to be portrayed with depth and individuality. She challenged an interpretation that felt familiar and pushed for a scene built around equality and human connection instead. That kind of creative input can make a character so much more meaningful

she refused to let the scene reduce her character to a stereotype

Yeah, exactly

Interesting perspective, thoughtful approach

日本から見るとニコール、ジェニファー、ジュディー フォスターらの顔ぶれに驚きます。

Ft: Anna Sawai x The Hollywood Reporter

Funny how she is the perpetrator of the stereotype she doesn’t want to be stereotyped. Instead of being someone who fights for her values she just assumed the show runners wanted the stereotype and played it that way.

So SHE didn't change it

アラブもインドも中国も日本も、すべてオリエンタルで同一処理されてきただけですよ。

Good message, wrong audience

Soma, clipping thingy yeah?

Anna Sawai is a modern woman "cosplaying" a woman in feudal Japan. *Shōgun* is not about modern Japanese women. While the oppression of that era is lamented, such portrayals simultaneously render these women invisible—thereby obscuring the progress that has already been achieved.

this western misconception is why the January show I’m curating at my gallery in Brooklyn is only Asian Women Artists and it’s entitled “FIERCE”

She's never seen a complex, in depth female portrayed in western media? Um ok.

She was amazing in that role.