'Shōgun' Stars Hiroyuki Sanada & Anna Sawai Wore 7 Layers Of Authentic Japanese Costumes

Tracey, meet Tracey. We're just meeting now. Okay, meeting now. Bringing people together. Thank you. So, I'm going to start here. So you were born in Japan, right? Yeah. But you love New York, right? I love New York. Yeah. When I was 20, first time I came to New York and since then I came to New York once a year or more. Yeah. To show. Yeah, for culture, right? Yeah. You're so funny. And you were raised in Japan as well. And I didn't know this, like watching you on TV, but you're a J-pop singer as well. You have this whole singing background. I, yes, sort of. So, I'm a 90s baby and I was one of the millions of girls who wanted to be Britney Spears. Oh, I love that. Yes. Okay. And I was lucky enough to be a part of a girl group for a while, but I just wanted to mention that we would listen to your albums and we would practice your songs. So, you've been such a big inspiration. Oh my gosh. Well, thank you. The show actually celebrates Japanese culture and you wanted to make sure it was very authentic, right? Yeah, we tried. Yeah. And also, this time I've done produce as well. Yeah. So, as a producer, we could hire the Japanese samurai drama making specialist. Yeah. For the wig, costume, props, master of gesture. Now, all department had a consultant. So, I'm not from Japan, but could y'all put me on the show? No, no. She's gonna be a black dude from Brooklyn on the show. Oh my God. Come out of nowhere. Watchers. It's set, I believe, in the 1600s. So, Brooklyn didn't exist. So, that would be weird. I am from the future. I got watchers. Yeah, yeah. Set in a different time. Well, wait, speaking of the time, first of all, for people that haven't seen it, explain kind of the premise of the show. Yes, it's an epic human drama set in Japan, 1600. And I played Toranaga, Lord Toranaga, inspired by real Shogun Ieyasu. Yeah. And yeah, that's my role. I love that. Who's your character? Explain your character. So, I play Todamariko, who is inspired by Hosokawa Grecia. She is from a disgraced family line. She is saved by Catholicism and eventually is assigned to become an interpreter between his role, Lord Toranaga-sama, and Blackthorn, an English pilot. Yeah. The costume, like whoever does your costumes, they're beautiful. I love it, I love it. But is that, were you sweating to death? It looks hot. It was a lot of layers, like seven layers at times. Look at, that is a lot. Like, and it's so cool. That's me. Jesus. And you make sure, you make sure that all of that is authentic, right? Everything was, you wanted to make sure it was authentic as possible, which I think is so important, because then it really explains the culture to people that are watching. Yes. It's a way to like, educate. Yeah. The designer Carlos came from Europe, so it was a great collaboration between Western crew and cast, and Japanese crew and cast. Like East meets West dream team, we had. Yeah, and most of the dialogue is in Japanese, right? Yes, 70% maybe? Yeah. With the subtitles. Sometimes, the acting is so well done, you know, that you don't even need, you know what's going on in the scene just by their body language, how they're emoting like through their eyes, like everything. But it's also, I think, a very cool thing to keep, you know, most of it in Japanese, because it's expressing the culture, but it's also showing the world. I think it's important. Like, I like that my kids are growing up in a society that like, even kids in their class speak so many different languages, and I didn't grow up like that, and I think it's so beautiful, and I love that y'all did that on purpose. I think it's important. I love the show, but I just can't do all that reading. You have to. I dropped out of high school. Oh my God, I love you so much. Let's do a commercial break, everybody. The season finale, FX's Shogun, airs tomorrow.