‘Shogun’ Star Anna Sawai Says She Was Forced to Turn Down an Audition for ‘Suicide Squad’ While in a J-Pop Group (Exclusive)

Anna Sawai attends the Los Angeles premiere of FX’s Shogun at the Academy of Motion Picture Museum on February 13, 2024 in Los Angeles.

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

It turns out that Anna Sawai is the rising star of the hit FX series ShogunShe might have broken out sooner had she not been denied an audition for her dream project.

The 31-year-old former J-Pop singer speaks with Hollywood Reporter‘s Awards talks Podcast revealed that she was forced to turn down an audition for the role of Katana in the 2016 film Suicide squad — who is eventually played by Karen Fukuhara — because the company behind FAKY, the girl group she belonged to at the time, forbids it.

In 2006, Sawai auditioned and was signed by Avex, one of Japan’s major entertainment companies, which runs a music and dance training camp in the hopes of churning out Japanese pop stars. “After training – several years of training – you either get lucky and join a group, debut as a solo singer, or you leave,” she explained.

During her training, she was exempted from playing a role in the 2009 film Ninja killerWhich she says led her to fall in love with acting. She says her management assured her, before she joined four other young women in FAKY in 2013, that being part of a successful girl group would help her break into acting further – but soon afterwards she found that acting extracurricular would not, in fact, be the case. , Allow.

At the “big test” of an American film [Suicide Squad] Sawai recalls that the filmmakers “were looking for a Japanese girl, and I thought, ‘This is my chance!’” Then I went to my manager and he said, “You can’t audition.” They basically told me that if I was gone for more than a month, the girls would leave [the other members of FAKY] We wouldn’t have anything to do.” She protested that the group would be helped if she got the role, but the answer was final. “I felt like they were really restricting me, and because of my contract, I couldn’t leave until the time I actually left,” she said. [in 2018]”.

Despite the heartache of years ago, Sawai has nothing but love for Fukuhara (Boys), the actress who ended up landing a role in the comic book adaptation: “She did an amazing job, and I respect her so much, and I love her,” Sawai said. “But I also wanted to get tested.”

Shogun The finale aired on April 23. Sawai said she watched the final episode alone in her hotel room in Los Angeles, and it was “very emotional” for her. “It was almost like saying goodbye to your son and sending him off to college.”

For more Sawai conversation about Shogun And other projects – incl F9 And Pachinko – Listen to the latest episode of Chat Awardsr and subscribe.