JUNON 2019.03 - Arata Mackenyu × Kitamura Takumi

 

Extracted from: JUNON — March 2019 volume; published 22nd January
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These two are, special.
If these close friends were to act together, surely, it would produce a great film.
"If I gave my 100%, Takumi would surely accept all of it.", "Macken's stillness and motion in drama is amazing".
They, who share a strong bond of trust and love, co-star in the movie, "Twelve Children Who Want to Die (十二人の死にたい子どもたち)".
JUNON embraces these two diligent actors who exchange innocent smiles as they speak.
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Arata Mackenyu
Born on 16 November 1996, Los Angeles. Blood type B. Started his career in Japan in 2014. Won the Japan Academy Best New Actor Award for "Chihayafuru" in 2016. Acted in "Funouhan", "Pacific Rim: Uprising", "OVER DRIVE", and "Code Blue: Doctor Heli Emergency Rescue" in 2018. Releasing his first photobook, "UP THE ROAD" on 1st February.
Q: Which part of you do you think is child-like?
When I try talking about my worries to senior actors, and find out that they've had the same worries long before I did. However, knowing this gives me hope that I can solve my problems.
Q: Which part of Kitamura Takumi do you think is child-like or mature?
I don't think there's anything child-like in Takumi. I think that his calm and quiet nature is rather mature.
Q: If there's something that happens to you which makes you think you want to die, what would you do?
Switch over, switch over! When I'm alone, I'll get even worse, so I'll meet up with people at the very least. I get power from people.
Q: When would you feel like, "I'm alive!"?
When I'm acting. To the point where apart from that, nothing really matters. (laughs) And also I'm the happiest when I'm sleeping.
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Kitamura Takumi
Born on 3rd November 1997, in Tokyo. Blood type B. Debuted as an actor in 2008. Acted in drama series, "Tonari no Kazoku wa Aoku Mieru" and movie, "OVER DRIVE" in 2018. Acted as a lawyer for the first time in drama series, "Good Wife", broadcasting in January. Acted as the main character in the movie, "Kimi wa Tsukiyo ni Hikari Kagayaku", releasing on 15th March.
Q: Which part of you do you think is child-like?
I'm weak against sleep. (laughs) I really can't win against sleep, I get really sleepy as it gets late, and my eyes would turn obviously red.
Q: Which part of Arata Mackenyu do you think is child-like or mature?
Macken has too many cute points. (laughs) His expressions show a lot on his face, so sometimes I'd wonder, "Ah, he's probably pretty busy now. Is he okay?" His work attitude is really professional, he has a very stoic personality and I really respect that, and I feel like he is very mature.
Q: If there's something that happens to you which makes you think you want to die, what would you do?
Meet with people, and just try to put my feelings into words I guess. If I'm alone, I'll get negative thoughts. In any way, if there's friends who would accept me, I would really be saved.
Q: When would you feel like, "I'm alive!"?
When I'm sleeping. "Ah, I'm blessed. I've lived through today too, huh. Let's live through tomorrow too!" is what I would think.
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I'm pretty sure the two of us would start talking about how much we love each other again (laughs)
ARATA: I love Takumi's face when he isn't saying his lines.
KITAMURA: Thanks. (laughs)
ARATA: Because it's the hardest without lines.
KITAMURA: Right, I think so too.
ARATA: That play, give it to me. (laughs)
KITAMURA: Sure sure. (laughs) Macken properly watches the parts where I treasure the most when I'm acting. Even though lines play a huge part in telling the story, parts without lines matter a lot too. He watches the small little details to the vague scenes and also the important parts as well.
ARATA: Yep.
KITAMURA: On the other hand, I can feel the level of his talent through his stillness and motion. He can both give and accept. Acting together made me think once again that, "This kind of high-potential actors do exist, huh". We were supposed to see each others' growth, but the time we got to act together was so short that we just ended up thinking, "Ah, how relieving". (laughs)
ARATA: I too, know that Takumi would fully accept me, so I can give my 100% without any worries, and he would also reciprocate with something even more than that, which made me think again that, "He's really amazing".
KITAMURA: Macken's way of acting is very straight-forward, which makes it really easy to respond to.
ARATA: Fufufu. When we found out that we were going both to be in "Twelve Children Who Want to Die", we called each other and talked about how "we'll be together again, huh". And how we'd end up praising each other in interviews like this again. (laughs)
KITAMURA: Right, right. We immediately imagined, "I'm pretty sure the two of us would start talking about how much we love each other again". (laughs)
ARATA: I was happy, y'know.
KITAMURA: I was happy too. (laughs)
12 of us were always in the same room and oxygen started running low
KITAMURA: However, even though we were all together while filming, there were a lot of times when we were alone.
ARATA: Right, we were alone.
KITAMURA: In a film where all the cast were around the same age, apart from filming, you could see that we really got along as we went for meals together and talked a lot. Since all our 12 characters are ones that have no family nor friend connections. For Sugisaki Hana-chan, I suppose she spent a lot of time alone building up her character. Looking at her character, I built my ve~ry quiet character of Nobuo.
ARATA: For me, I wasn't really alone so I acted quite naturally but with purpose. There was a lot of planning that had to be done, so a lot of times during breaks I'd just close my eyes and try to envision the next scene.
KITAMURA: That's right, and the character that Macken played, Shinjirou, had a lot of lines too.
ARATA: But I still got to talk and have lunch with the rest of the cast too. When all of us gathered, Bandou Ryouta, who played Seigo, was really noisy. (laughs)
KITAMURA: He was the mood-maker of the group, but I think he was the one who was the most worried about his role.
ARATA: He was really nervous. (laughs)
KITAMURA: He's always asking, "How was it? How was my acting?". (laughs)
ARATA: He's full of sunshine. (laughs)
KITAMURA: I feel like I was able to portray Nobuo very freely according to how I wanted to. At first glance, one might think he's a normal teenage boy who doesn't question, "Why am I here?". I wanted Nobuo to give off a feeling like, "Ah, a really calm guy is here too". He's somewhat of a cowardly person. I was really glad I had the opportunity to play a character with such depth.
ARATA: I wonder how many hundreds of words my character had said in this hospital room.
KITAMURA: Shinjirou is kind of like a story-teller character, so he has a lot of lines, right.
ARATA: Don't you feel like sometimes when you write words too many times, you'll feel like you don't know what you're writing anymore?
KITAMURA: Gestaltzerfall, right. (laughs)
ARATA: That happened, in my mind. (laughs) I think this was the most I've spoken in a drama, and it was also the most difficult character I've played by far.
KITAMURA: Indeed, there were a lot of painful aspects. The atmosphere while filming was good, but being in the same space with only the 12 "Children Who Want to Die" all the time, the oxygen level started running low and it was a really harsh experience.
This charisma is nearly a physical attraction
ARATA: I think the most amazing thing is what goes on in Director Tsutsumi Yukihiko's head. There were 5 cameras rolling to film, and to think that he knows what goes on in each of the shots is really amazing.
KITAMURA: Yep, he probably also saw to the little details of the story's time axis.
ARATA: Especially in the long span of 40 minutes, we just had to keep continue standing and acting, even I had lost track of what I was doing halfway through. But either ways, I was desperate to just finish up that scene.
KITAMURA: It was almost like a stage play. It really connected to our sense of tension. In that long filming session, each and every one of us had to tell each other why we were there. I feel like there's isn't a more polite way to delve deep into each of the characters.
ARATA: There's no one who's useless.
KITAMURA: Yep. I think the beauty of this film is how carefully it is planned out, similar to an architectural layout. Things like, "Will the acting now link to the expressions shown in the ending?" If a bolt somewhere was loose, the outcome would have turned out very differently, so I think every one of us properly screwed those bolts tight. I also felt this when I was reading the original novel, but in the beginning, it progresses at a very quick pace, and it was consistent even towards the end, and I can say that this charisma is nearly a physical attraction. (laughs)
ARATA: I know right. (laughs) I feel like this opportunity to act has been a very good experience. Although it was so tough that I wouldn't want to go through something like that again. (laughs)
KITAMURA: You're right. (laughs) Being a part of this film really made me think a lot about "life" and "death". I thought about how much could escalate from just the thought of, "I want to die". In the end, it made me see the importance of us as actors to make films like this. It also made me rethink the meaning of "death" as an actor.
ARATA: I also thought about facing "death" for around a month, and in fact, the idea of "death" in anyone is just their imagination, so I couldn't come to an answer either.
KITAMURA: Yep, it's difficult. But for now, the only things we can do now is to "live in the present" and to embrace "the feeling of holding something close to your heart" and to treasure those things.
ARATA: This filming left a lot of deep memories in various ways, and I think I would never forget this experience.