Shogun: Where did you see Hiroguki Sanada, the most prolific Japanese actor in Hollywood?

For more than 20 years, he has been the most sought-after Japanese actor in Hollywood. A status that allows Hiroyuki Sanada to now enjoy great popularity with Western audiences. To the point where we can now tackle increasingly ambitious projects. Starting with the legacy of the legendary Toshiro Mifune in the new adaptation of Shogun, based on the novel by James Clavell.

Born in Tokyo in 1960, Hiroyuki Sanada lost his father when he was only 11 years old. However, he could already see it on the big screen after his son played his first character at the age of five, in Game of Chance starring the late Sonny Chiba.

Debut in action cinema

When his father died, he joined a Japanese action club led by Sonny Chiba himself, of whom he soon became a protégé. There he learned Kyokushin Kaikan, a violent and offensive form of karate whose motto is “one strike, one victory”.

After his studies, Sonny Chiba, whose disciple he still is, offered him his first real role in 1978 in Kinji Fukasaku’s Samurai and Shogun. Sanada then gained a reputation as an action movie star.

After a few years spent playing supporting characters and fighters, he really broke through in the industry in 1984 when Makoto Wada cast him as the lead in his first film, Mahjong Hourouki. He will then be a director in each feature film.

He met Michelle Yeoh on the set of David Chung’s Sensational Duty, with whom he developed a great friendship, as with Jackie Chan, although he did not act with the actor until Rush Hour 3 in 2007. He met again at Kinji Fukasaku’s house. Fire (1986) and Sure Death Revenge (1987), which established him as an action film actor.

The beginning of an international career

He married actress Satomi Tezuka in 1990, whom he divorced in 1997 after having two sons whom he had custody of. In 1999 and 2000, Hiroyuki joined the Royal Shakespeare Company for productions of King Lear, a performance that earned him an MBE (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) from Queen Elizabeth II.

This started his international career. He first came to prominence in The Ring, a Japanese version inspired by Gore Verbinski’s film, but it was Yohji Yamada’s The Twilight Samurai that opened the door to world cinema.

The following year, in 2003, he starred in The Last Samurai alongside Ken Watanabe and Tom Cruise. He followed up with James Ivory’s The White Countess in 2005. Hiroyuki Sanada had to learn Mandarin in the same year, Wu Ji, from Chen Kaige. He found Michelle Yeoh on the set of Danny Boyle’s Sunshine (2007).

He has appeared in several Marvel movies!

He continues to work with some of the decade’s great directors after landing a role in the Wachowskis’ Speed ​​​​Racer that same year. He returned to play with Elephant in The City of Your Final Destination (2009) before making his debut in Lost (season six), the actor’s first experience on American television.

Since then, her career has had no boundaries: she met Hugh Jackman in the Marvel film Wolverine: Battle for the Immortal (2013), then opposite Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth in The Paths of Destiny (2013). He also appears with Keanu Reeves in the film 47 Ronin.

In 2019, he marked his return to the Marvel Universe as a yakuza boss in Avengers: Endgame, the second-biggest box office hit of all time. A subscriber to big-budget action films, he is notably in the cast of Army of the Dead, John Wick 4 and Bullet Train. However, the success achieved in the cinema does not separate him from the world of television, on the contrary.

The actor is also in great demand on television!

From Season 2 of Westworld, which inaugurates the world of the samurai, he lends his features to Musashi, a character loosely inspired by the famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. In 2024, he will appear as the main headliner Shogunopposite the British Cosmo Jarvis (who replaces the iconic Richard Chamberlain as sailor John Blackthorne).

In this case, Hiroyuki Sanada lends his qualities to Lord Yoshi Toranaga, who battles rival clan leaders to secure the regency of the local shogunate. The latter will begin a complicated relationship with John Blackthorne, an English sailor, with curiosity and mutual admiration.

The Shogun miniseries can be seen every Tuesday exclusively on Disney+.

Discover the list of series currently available on the platform!