The actor, martial artist and now producer talks about playing a calculating, complex warlord in the epic FX series
Hiroyuki Sanada’s first Hollywood moment came in the pouring rain. As a fearsome majordomo in Edward Zwick’s 2003 war epic The Last Samurai, he challenges Tom Cruise’s captive American soldier to a wooden-sword duel in front of gawking onlookers in a small Japanese village. With just a few violent swings, he knocks Cruise flat on his back, and then repeats the humiliation each time his stubborn counterpart refuses to concede. It might be the movie’s most stirring moment, a soaking-wet testament to Cruise’s character’s physical and spiritual resilience. But it’s Sanada, reflecting simultaneous shades of menace, respect, and disbelief, who leaves the lasting impression.
“That scene was hard—two days shooting, fighting in the mud,” Sanada tells GQ. “We spent a long time training together. It was an amazing experience.”
Over the course of a few minutes of screen time, Sanada provided audiences with a glimpse at his diverse skill set—namely, turning generic warriors into gravitational forces capable of stealing scenes from the world’s biggest movie stars. Since then, he has been filmmakers’ go-to Japanese martial artist, slicing and dicing his way through hardcore action flicks, comic book spectacles, and prestige television. That’s included turns in 47 Ronin, Avengers: Endgame, and Westworld, and most recently Mortal Kombat, Bullet Train, and John Wick 4, films in which he spars and teams up with the likes of Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt, and Hong Kong legend Donnie Yen.
Now, more than 20 years after his fearsome introduction, Sanada has achieved a personal milestone, earning his first producing credit—and a leading role—in FX’s new 10-part series Shogun, an ambitious historical drama based on James Clavell’s 1975 novel. Sharing the size, scope and palace intrigue of Game of Thrones, it tells the story of John Blackthorne, an English sailor who lands in feudal Japan at the beginning of the 17th century in search of riches before adopting the ways of the samurai. Though the book was first adapted in 1980, creators Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo have supplemented this Shogun with more Japanese perspectives, specifically foregrounding Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Sanada), who uses Blackthorne’s arrival to divide his political enemies and keep his family and allies alive.
The role isn’t exactly vintage action-star Sanada. As Toranaga, the 63-year-old actor mostly trades in his sword for back-room dealmaking, exhibiting his tactical expertise and vulnerabilities inside castle walls and on the island’s serene, rocky shores. “He’s mysterious and a strategist, powerful but also a human being, a family man showing his weakness—not the typical samurai,” Sanada says in a deep, gravelly voice. In his eagerness to blend east and west and share a more authentic depiction of his home country and its customs, Sanada relished the opportunity to be a producer, a position he believes came at a perfect time in his career. “I thought it would be a good chance to make a cultural drama correctly,” he says. “I was so happy about that.”
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Throughout his extensive Hollywood career, Sanada has often acted as an uncredited cultural consultant, offering his counsel on Japanese traditions and details—like the proper ways to wear a kimono, wield weapons, or walk with a specific gait. On various sets, however, he felt increasingly hesitant about addressing department heads with corrections or adjustments, because “they have pride, and it’s hard to say too much,” he says. On Shogun, Sanada never had to worry about hurt feelings. Over several years of pre-production, and then a 10-month shooting schedule in Vancouver, Sanada helped plot the script with Marks before hiring experienced Japanese crews and costuming specialists who had previously worked on period samurai movies and television. “The responsibilities were on my shoulders, but there wasn’t as much pressure,” he says. “Because I had a team.”
Contrary to other actors with multi-hyphenate roles, Sanada says his delegatory duties gave him more freedom as an actor. Without worrying about the accuracy of props and gestures in each scene, “I could just concentrate on my role,” he says. “The acting part was a reward.” It also helped that his daily chores around the set overlapped with Toranaga’s own role as a political and wartime strategist, overseeing his assistants and dispensing wisdom and information when necessary. “It was easy to jump in [to character] after preparing everything,” he says. “I never felt that kind of feeling before. Maybe producing and acting is a good balance for me.”
Sanada practically grew up on movie sets. At the age of 5, he started working as an actor. The noise erupting from various sound stages—directors yelling, set workers drilling, lights buzzing—”was my lullaby,” he says. “I didn’t want to do any other job. I never thought about any other job. It was very simple and natural to me.” After a brief hiatus to focus on his studies, he joined Sonny Chiba’s Japan Action Club, where he learned to master martial arts and began growing as a physically-gifted actor. Over the next three decades, he performed in Hong Kong cinema, worked alongside Michelle Yeoh and Jackie Chan, and went on to star in popular movies such as The Twilight Samurai and Ring. But Sanada never forgot his mentor Chiba’s advice. “He was always focused on the world market in the future,” Sanada says. “He inspired me a lot, and I started thinking about how I could work with other great actors or directors in the future.”
His first international jump was to London, where Sanada landed a role in the 1998 Japanese stage production of “Hamlet.” After one of the shows, producer Nigel Hawthorne offered him a role in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of “King Lear,” which surprised the actor. He’d never expected to take an English-speaking stage role until the end of his career—or at least until he was confidently fluent. “I was scared, I had no experience in front of an audience,” Sanada says. “But the producers told me, ‘You are an actor before you are Japanese.’” Their message set off “a gong in my head,” he says. He considered what his career 10 years later might look like if he refused the offer. It wasn’t long before he embarked on “the biggest challenge of my life.”
“That experience taught me a lot about how important mixing culture was and making something new that no one had ever seen,” Sanada adds. “I decided to take on international projects like that for the future.”
Sanada estimates that if he hadn’t participated in “King Lear,” he probably wouldn’t have received an audition for The Last Samurai. The movie, which earned $454 million at the global box office, is told from the perspective of a white man, but Sanada felt portraying the warrior Ujio was his only chance to add a layer of authenticity to a rare Hollywood samurai project. “Even if it’s my first and last Hollywood movie, I needed to say something if I felt something was incorrect about our culture,” Sanada says. “That was my motivation at that time.” In his recently-published memoir, Zwick remembers the actor stepping up in a big way. “I came to count on Sanada’s vast experience in martial arts…to help me stage the many fighting scenes,” the director wrote.
Ultimately, the industry took notice. Ujio became Sanada’s blueprint for numerous future projects, intriguing filmmakers with his swordplay and ability to smuggle in an overpowering, stoic presence that few peers could replicate. To his credit, Sanada always approached each role with a discerning eye, making sure he was able to perform stunts that worked in tandem with his character and the drama. Even in brief appearances, like his role as hotel owner in John Wick 4, Sanada makes it easy to believe he and Wick are old friends, despite it being his first appearance in the series. “The trick is to cast someone that has so much gravitas,” director Chad Stahelski told me last year. “In life, Hiroyuki is a professor of Japanese studies. He loves his culture, loves his job, and he’s the most honorable human you’ll ever meet.”
In some senses, Shogun is a reminder that Sanada’s strengths as an actor don’t strictly rely on armor. During one sequence in the third episode, he and Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) establish a kinship when the British pilot teaches him how to dive off his ship into the bay, repeatedly plunging into the water until Toranaga relents and dives in after him. It’s a gesture that lifts the facade of his lordship and turns him into someone youthful again. “Luckily I only had to jump once,” Sanada says, recalling the cold temperatures during filming that day. “It’s a very important moment, the beginning of their buddy era.” It’s also a window into Sanada’s intentions for the series, highlighting the multiplexity of regal Japanese characters. “That’s what I wanted to show,” he says. “The human being.”
As he considers more acting roles and upcoming projects, Sanada hopes to chase more producing opportunities “and introduce Japanese talent and stories to the world.” He also wants to keep being an inspiration for younger actors, channeling Chiba’s wisdom by looking towards the future and building more incentives abroad. “Little by little, I’ve broken the wall and opened the door,” Sanada reflects. After two decades of living in Los Angeles, he hopes his new leadership role and lifelong dedication to cultural accuracy won’t go unnoticed. “Shogun is going to be a big step into the future, a big bridge between east and west,” Sanada says. “I want to make this bridge harder and stronger and smoother.”
