This post contains spoilers about the eighth episode of Shōgun, “The Abyss of Life.”
“I’m ready.” It’s about as straightforward as dialogue gets. Yet in the world of Shōgun, it’s a line overflowing with meaning, power, and anticipation. The eighth episode of FX’s hit 17th-century epic, now streaming on Hulu, finds Anna Sawai’s Lady Mariko, a woman with a traumatic past who’s been thrust to the center of a seismic power struggle in feudal Japan, asserting her commitment to serving Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) on the front lines of battle in Osaka. Sawai plays the moment with enormous weight, the culmination of eight hours in which Mariko strives to determine her own fate.
“In that scene, she gains clarity. Up until then, we see her giving up and asking permission to take her own life, because she doesn’t feel that she’s living up to the person that she should be,” Sawai says on this week’s Little Gold Men (listen or read below). “But she knows exactly what she needs to do, and that is what she wants to do. She gets to serve her lord…and she gets to free herself. We’ll see this huge transformation from that moment forward.”
Sawai knows all about extraordinary transformations. The 31-year old actor, previously best known for a small part in the critically acclaimed Pachinko and leading the MonsterVerse series Monarch, is revelatory in Shōgun, from the delicate physicality and linguistic command that comes with playing a savvy translator to the dry humor and emotional intensity with which she makes the part her own.
We meet Mariko as the go-between for Toranaga, a leader in Japan fighting for survival while isolated from his fellow regents, and John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), an English sailor taken in by the lord after he’s shipwrecked. We watch Mariko fall for Blackthorne while appeasing her jealous husband, Buntaro (Shinnosuke Abe). We observe her brilliantly, subtly maneuvering a political landscape in which women’s agency is severely limited. And we come to understand her unique perspective on what it means to live, and to die, on her own terms—a distinctive worldview that culminates in her resolve to reach the front lines on Toranaga’s behalf. What comes next, we can’t yet say. But fittingly, Sawai has proven she’s ready.
Vanity Fair: This project has been in development for a long time. I’m actually just curious, to start, when you were first cast in this show.
Anna Sawai: It was 2021. On my birthday I got a call saying that they wanted me to play Mariko. I really wanted to do it, but I also felt a lot of pressure because it was going to be my first jidaigeki, which is the Japanese period piece. I knew that I was going to have to take a lot of lessons. I would have to learn how to speak. I remember going into these classes and them putting me in a kimono, and being introduced to the character in a physical way. Whenever I would wear it, I’d feel like I was now entering 1600.
You’ve said you didn’t anticipate how much it would affect you, playing this part. Can you talk a little bit about what this has meant to you personally, both playing the role and, I would imagine, talking about it and experiencing it?
It’s interesting to talk about it now, because I think when I was playing her, I was so focused on what I had to do that day. I wasn’t really understanding what I was mentally going through. Whereas now, I can see how deeply it has affected me. Elements like Hosokawa Gracia-san, who is the inspiration for Mariko, actually existed. Then being involved with people like [cocreators] Justin [Marks] and Rachel [Kondo] and Hiro-san and all the crew—they were putting their all into it. I have been on many sets, but I feel like it was really extreme to the point that I couldn’t enjoy it as much. But it was that much more meaningful.