Translator: Alina Siluyanova Reviewer: Denise RQ
What would you do if you had only till 6 o'clock tomorrow morning to live?
This is the kind of question I would ask my young Japanese actors
who are going to play Kamikaze pilots
in a play I directed called "The Winds of God".
They would look inside, and think about what is dear to them,
and they would have to make some choices and act on it.
This is the kind of work that I would be asking actors to do.
Sometimes, actors have to go
to places that are a little dark, or that could hurt,
but in a way, the regular people, we, cannot sometimes go there,
so we ask the actor to go there for us and express things that we can't express,
express things we want to, but we can't.
And that's probably why actors can get a lot of money.
But this is the kind of work that I've been involved with.
With "The Winds of God" I traveled with them,
- Australia, New Zealand - we toured a lot, we went to London,
Actors Studio, and we were also invited to the United Nations.
There, there was one lady who I met after the show,
and she said, "My father taught me to hate the Japanese,
but when I saw this play I thought they were like my own sons."
It was a beautiful comment,
and it made it all the more meaningful that I could work the way I do.
And so, today, I want to share
the love for drama, and this amazing work
on how we try with artists to create maybe just one moment
where we can move people and inspire people.
I also want to talk to you about my international work
which has led me to casting.
And again, that's an amazing, wonderful thing I want to share with you,
because when you think about casting,
you have a script, you have words in the script,
and that's all you really have.
You have the director's vision, you have your idea as well,
but you have this,
and then you have to find actual actors who can fit this role.
But you have to use your imagination
and to get insight on what they can do.
And then you put them together,
and sometimes an amazing thing happens,
because it's like magic:
the role becomes more charismatic,
the actor becomes even more charismatic.
Here are some of the films I was involved with.
I did want to show you the Kamikaze pilots,
that's the one that I worked on.
And I worked on "The Last Samurai" fully for two years.
It was really amazing.
Ken Watanabe was the actor that auditioned,
there were, you know, many more, almost 400 Japanese actors.
"Memoirs of a Geisha".
The little girl who played Sayuri, I looked at her picture,
and I thought, "Ah, this is the young one."
And I kind of chose her through a picture.
And Rinko Kikuchi in "Babel", she [was] among other Japanese actors,
but she stood out because of her amazing intensity.
And there are several others I'm doing
including "Unbroken" which has not been released yet in Japan.
There was an amazing performer, Miyavi, who was in there.
And this one, "The Emperor",
is a film that I produced along with Gary, and Eugene, my son.
I just really believe that there was meaning in to produce this
and show it to as many people as possible.
So apart from casting,
just my work [is] in teaching, directing, coaching and casting,
I've kind of brought down the elements of drama
into three things, three pillars, possibly.
But these are the things I look for in actors,
these are the things I work with in trying to get better acting.
The first pillar is the truth of oneself.
It's not so easy really,
because we all think that we want to look good,
we don't want to show our bad [sides],
but the actor has to really use all of himself
because the power will not be there to present.
So he has to be able to accept all the parts of himself
that might not be so good, that he wants to hide, maybe.
It's like a pie, like an apple pie,
and you can't try to get rid of a part of the pie
because it is a part of you.
And so you try to accept all the parts of yourself,
and once you do, it becomes a little bit easier,
because you're truthful, you're working on truth.
This is what I believe is so important,
especially in Japan right now with young people.
I tell them, "There is only one DNA,
there is only one fingerprint, there is only one you.
So, in a way, you are perfect."
And so, for the actor,
instead of comparing oneself to somebody else,
"That person is a better actor than I... " or whatever,
they can use whatever they have to try to fulfill their role.
I have a quote from Elia Kazan,
who's a legendary film director who worked with James Dean,
and he wrote an actor's creed, a code:
"I will have my heart open, I will be vulnerable...
The one thing I want most is to be myself."
So that's really important.
The second pillar
is what I would call purposeful action.
For example, when we see drama,
we root for the person that really fights all these obstacles
to try and get what they want.
This is what drama is all about:
that there is one amazing purpose, the heart, yearning, wanting something,
and the actor goes through all these difficulties to try to get there.
And that's what the actor also has to find in himself,
his need, his purpose.
And he has to really -
Because he's going to fail several times, but it's OK,
because he has that passion and that purpose to get there.
For example, in my case, I wanted to get a song from Stevie Wonder.
I write lyrics, and I kind of thought,
for this musical I've been writing, I want to have his music.
And, of course, it is difficult, it took me 5 years,
and this con artist, really, you know, lots of problems.
But I met Yoko Ono on the way, so it was kind of nice.
But after 5 years,
Stevie Wonder came out of his hotel room
with his brother, who led him to the piano, and set beside me,
and he started to play the song, and I was so moved,
and I got tears in my eyes, but obviously they were silent tears.
Yet, he heard them,
because he stopped part-way
to wipe my tears with those big hands he has.
So, if you believe in it, and you really want it, you can get it.
And that's what I want to qualify, the purpose:
first, it has to be very positive.
You can't act on something that is negative,
you can't say, "I want to get out of here."
It's a little difficult.
But you can say, "I want to go there,"
and that's where the action comes.
So, it's got to be positive, and at the same time,
the biggest thing is to have belief in what you want to do,
as I'd believed in wanting to get that song from Stevie,
or in wanting to make a movie, or whatever.
There is a Tony award-winning dramatist,
Simon Stephens, who said something that I thought was really wonderful.
"It is the job of the dramatist
to release universes of thought and feeling through action."
For example, he mentioned this one word, OK,
and that was the funniest word in the whole play.
It means that it's not just the word alone,
but it's the behavior and the action.
Now I want to come to the third pillar
which is so easy to say, and yet so difficult to achieve.
It is to talk, really to talk, and really to listen.
I think that it is an art to be able to really listen.
We so often talk and think that we are transmitting something,
but we have something else on our mind,
the other person has something else on his mind.
It's not a real moment
where it is really true, and full, and alive, and real.
This is the kind of a moment I've been privileged to see many times,
and that I strive for in the work I want to do.
Here are some moments with my students,
and I believe that little moments like that
of a real talk and listening -
Very quickly. Patric? Are you here?
Can I have your help for one second? Oops!
(Man voice)
Oh, really? What? OK.
Patrick: Sure.
Yoko Narahashi: Is that too late?
Patrick: No, that's all right. YN: It's all right? OK.
I'm just going to ask him to -
Patrick: What role am I casting for here?
YN: The next movie. The big one. Patrick: OK, the big one.
Let's go! I'm ready.
YN: Say whatever word you'd like to say. Whatever word.
Patrick: Flow. YN: Flow. OK, just say it to me.
Patrick: Flow.
YN: OK, there was something there, right?
OK, here we're just passing the word.
OK, this time, can you look at me,
and you can see what kind of a situation I am in, right,
feel where I am,
and then can you say it to me with, you know,
try to say something with that word to me.
Is there something you want to relate to me through that word?
Patrick: Flow.
YN: Oh, (Laughter) flow. That's nice. Thank you. (Applause)
That was beautiful, thank you.
Patrick: And the word was "love". YN: Oh, my goodness!
What he was trying to say underneath was love.
I really felt that. Thank you very much.
But that's what it's all about.
So, I would like to -
Oh! Here is just one more, another one of those moments.
A giraffe and an ostrich.
I would like to end with another final quote,
because I can't say it any better than this amazing person,
a Spanish cheloist who was always for peace.
And whatever work I'm doing with drama,
I think this is closest to my heart, so,
"Yes, you're a marvel.
And when you grow, can you then harm another
who is, like you, a marvel?
You must work, we must all work,
to make the world worthy of its children."
By Pablo Casals.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)