February 28, 2004
Wowow  76^th Annual Academy Awards   http://www.wowow.co.jp/76/report/day4/
Interview - Hiroyuki Sanada
(The Foreign Language Movie Symposium press conference on the day before the main Oscar presentation event)


Q:  How did you feel when “The Twilight Samurai” was nominated?
- It was like a dream.

Q:  Are you planning to extend your work to Hollywood using this as a trigger?
- I consider it as one of the fields.  There are good movies and theaters in Japan.  So for me Hollywood is just another option.
- I would like to correct the image of Japan, which tends to be full of misunderstanding and stereotypes.  This recognition of “TTS” outside of Japan makes me reconfirm that there is no border in entertainment.
- I wanted to challenge the popular image of “chanbara” (sword fighting) by this movie.  I wanted to make it more realistic.
- I believe that I could clear this theme with “TTS” and “The Last Samurai”.


Q:  Your English is very good.
- Not so much.  I was communicating in English while shooting “TLS”.


Q:  What do you think of Academy Awards site?
- My impression is that the whole town is celebrating.  I envy this environment because the movie has a firm root as an important cultural element here.


Q:  Why was this movie nominated, in your opinion?
- I think the new type of hero looked fresh to foreign viewers.
- To be honest, I felt a big pressure to join “TLS”.  It was tricky to play a samurai in a US movie.
- I believe that a movie has to be easy to understand even for the people in other cultures, if I consider the worldwide market.
-  I wanted to correct the misunderstanding about Japanese.  That was the motivation for me.  I could not give up just because of the legacy system.

<At the end, both Dir. Yamada and Sanada-san had their picture taken side-by-side with a huge Oscar statue.>

Sanada:  I cannot believe I am having my picture taken with Dir. Yamada standing by the Oscar!
Yamada:  I feel the same.
Sanada:  (To camera crew)  I want my picture, too.  Can someone send me this picture, blowing up to a large size!?  (laugh)