NINO - December MORE 2008 interview (part 3)
This was the third part of an article that I had translated earlier on in the year.
Go here for part 1 and there for part 2.
Nino shares his thoughts on getting inside his character's head.
Everytime I take on a new role, I can’t bring myself to list out the qualities of my character.
Everytime I take on a new project, I dread this question: “What kind of person is this character like?”
Well you see, it’s hard to label a person with this or that quality. Even the same person, depending on what situation he’s in and the people he’s dealing with, would change his response and emotions accordingly, right? [For example,] when I’m carrying out an exchange with my manager, it’s different from when I’m being interviewed like this. I really think it depends on the relationship between the two parties.
This applies to Kouichi in Ryuusei no Kizuna as well. I can’t aptly describe the kind of person he is. He wants to protect his beloved younger sister and gets irritated at his frivolous younger brother. In a way, Kouichi adopts different personas when dealing with his siblings. In the curry shop that he works in, he becomes another person altogether. And this [adoption of various personas] doesn’t just come from the script’s setting, but also feeds off the lines from each character.
Of course, there are others who don’t follow this method [of acting]. There are many actors who go, “Well, since my character is up against his character, I’ll take an aggressive and silent stance towards that character.” Although I don’t particularly think that that’s wrong, it’s different for me. Firstly, I would consider why my character is hostile [towards another particular character]. For someone to become unlikeable, there needs to be a reason. Since it takes energy to hate someone, if there weren’t a particular reason, I think hatred shouldn’t exist.
Once I’ve taught that through, I’ll go on set to mingle with my co-actor. If I can’t have a “face-off” with that person, I wouldn’t know what kind of emotion to expect realistically. I really can’t tick off a list of characteristics, and it’s important to me that my characters portray a sense of realism and a facet of human nature.
Go here for part 1 and there for part 2.
Nino shares his thoughts on getting inside his character's head.
Everytime I take on a new role, I can’t bring myself to list out the qualities of my character.
Everytime I take on a new project, I dread this question: “What kind of person is this character like?”
Well you see, it’s hard to label a person with this or that quality. Even the same person, depending on what situation he’s in and the people he’s dealing with, would change his response and emotions accordingly, right? [For example,] when I’m carrying out an exchange with my manager, it’s different from when I’m being interviewed like this. I really think it depends on the relationship between the two parties.
This applies to Kouichi in Ryuusei no Kizuna as well. I can’t aptly describe the kind of person he is. He wants to protect his beloved younger sister and gets irritated at his frivolous younger brother. In a way, Kouichi adopts different personas when dealing with his siblings. In the curry shop that he works in, he becomes another person altogether. And this [adoption of various personas] doesn’t just come from the script’s setting, but also feeds off the lines from each character.
Of course, there are others who don’t follow this method [of acting]. There are many actors who go, “Well, since my character is up against his character, I’ll take an aggressive and silent stance towards that character.” Although I don’t particularly think that that’s wrong, it’s different for me. Firstly, I would consider why my character is hostile [towards another particular character]. For someone to become unlikeable, there needs to be a reason. Since it takes energy to hate someone, if there weren’t a particular reason, I think hatred shouldn’t exist.
Once I’ve taught that through, I’ll go on set to mingle with my co-actor. If I can’t have a “face-off” with that person, I wouldn’t know what kind of emotion to expect realistically. I really can’t tick off a list of characteristics, and it’s important to me that my characters portray a sense of realism and a facet of human nature.