INTERVISTE/ARTICOLI

Translation Cinema Café Interview

Before starting the interview, and even before the shooting, he said hi, and gave us a handshake. While we were rapidly giving our hand in return, he hold our hand with more strength that we have ever expected. And while we were thinking that this was really the conduct of a prince he smiled and said "I'm not a prince or anything like that". Nevertheless, we couldn't tell exactly if those eyes were smiling, having a hard time, or thinking about something else... That's the mysterious man called GACKT who built himself as an artist and actor. This time, he appears as a "prince of dreams" in "Akumu chan The Movie" and we couldn't let this esoteric man escape from us.

There is no doubt he is an artist, but as an actor we didn't expect we had that many opportunities to see him. He played the role of Uesugi Kenshin in the NHK Taika Dorama "Furinkazan" ('07), also he appeared as Kimura Takuya in "MR.BRAIN" ('09). With his sexy voice he appeared in the series "Arthur and the Invisibles", and as a costar, he appeared with his voice in "Dragon Ace". He also took part with Josh Hartnett in the Hollywood movie "BUNRAKU" with lots of action scenes.

GACKT then, gets to play the part as a costar of Kitagawa Keiko, but this time, the drama series lead to a special movie of "Akumu chan". This movie was an adaptation of the Onda Riku's novel "Yumetachi" which talks about a young lady called Yuiko that goes to 5th grade, who has the ability to connect with the unconsciousness of people and who has also the power to see the future and the events that were to happen. Kimura is the one who knows how to figure out the meaning of the dreams while Ayami, the teacher of Yuiko, is the one solving the problems of the dreams in this fantasy drama.

Q: In this mysterious world GACKT plays the role of the man that rides in a white horse in the dreams of Ayami, the so called "Prince of the dreams" and also the person who decipher the dreams as well. So 2 characters: the father of Yuiko and the one that opens her eyes. We were thinking about how did you prepared these 2 characters?
A: The prince of the dreams is completely my image. From the beginning the nature of the character was developed as visual so they told me to "act like GACKT". But the director had this image of Shiki Takashi that was different, so we built him together.
While we were building him I asked how different he was supposed to be (laugh), I also asked "When he wants something, does he hide the negative parts of it?" or "how dark is his heart?". We used lots of time with this kind of conversations.

Q: If we compare that with the ideal man that was the Prince of Dreams, Takashi has a very difficult inside that you have to play with. What do you have to say about this?
A: To play this character I had to think carefully about some things. Is not that he has bad intentions, he is just so bad in expressing himself. He is like a child. He has this dreams about what he wants to do, and though he does his best to fulfill them, he is seemed like he is just so bad expressing himself. Well, for me I express lots of things while I'm on stage but probably my level of expressing myself outside that is too low too (laugh). This is just some part of that. While playing Takashi's role, I felt like it was also a part of me. Because I'm expressing my inside. And though I realize that while doing this character, it's not that I played that part just for that reason, it's just that I found out that it was part of me.

Q: Listening to this, I conclude that is a hard task to express our own feelings. But he has also these scenes in which, while studying the dreams, he smiles sarcastically and uses lots of explanations as a researcher too.
A: This is because he has no problems when he has to talk about dreams (laugh). I think that people that saw it though "What the hell is this guy saying...". I was fast remembering his lines about emotions. But this time the lines were about explanations and there were almost no lines about emotions... it was just like idiomatic expressions in a list full with kanjis... (big laugh)
So I had lots of times while reading the script in which I couldn't understand well the meaning of the explanations of the dreams or the equipment. And I thought "What does this mean?" or "could an elementary student understand this while watching the TV?" so while playing I asked the director if I could say those lines on a milder way but he said "no, please say that as it is" so, I realized that kids will be able to understand just the essence of the explanations.
After all, scientist talk in a difficult manner, and they also talk in a high speed. Kids won't understand, but maybe adults can't either (laugh). I just think that it's not that important to explain those things as that is not the only thing we want to express. We are also saying just that Takashi speaks usually in that scientific way.

Q: Listening to you I find that you might have lots of episodes to tell but we have to talk about one more. And it's about your co-star Kitagawa Keiko. It's said that she is shy but... you seem to be different and yet you get along.
A: I'm also pretty shy. But wouldn't be bad if I keep on being shy at my age? (laugh). That's why I worked on that. As I'm always surrounded by cameras. So I get to talk about almost everything non stop. But maybe when our lines were long we tend to take some time. Though we then started those scenes with "this scene is so difficult right?" (laugh)
But that was not only with Keiko Chan, when I were with Ohinata san too I asked "Ohinata san, are you OK with this?" and he will reply with a "I really don't know the lines. So I'll say what it comes". In those times we took some time too.
Also the locations had harsh conditions. More than acting, people over there were suffering (laugh).
We were under an environment in which it was extraordinary cold or hot. So for starters the locations were difficult.
To shoot the last scene, we shoot it in an extreme cold that was not understandable, and more than that we did it with our barefoot, and besides that there were no heaters... That was hard.

Q: So just like the drama it seems that you experienced a bad dream. With that theme, we ask about your future dreams.
A: For me, wherever I go I'm a musician. In my work as musician I have to do my study, and I'll start appearing in those stories I find interesting. If I'm interested, I'll appear in dramas and in movies. Besides I won't hesitate to work in a play I feel I need to play. So if I feel it will be a plus for me and I'll learn from it, I'll do it. Because I'm working on both sides (music and acting). As a musician I have to act a lot and I believe that all my performances will have an impact in my music on stage.

As we were talking to him, we could feel this unique aura he has and he even told us some interesting stories. You can see this cool and mysterious prince on screens.

Translation GACKT ITALIA team

© GACKT ITALIA

by Erika