Miku Martineau on ‘Bet’ | The Social

Welcome back everybody. Our next guest is the lead actress of the manga-inspired Netflix series, Bad, where students gamble for power and social status. Well, that series follows Yumeko, a mysterious transfer student who aims to upend the school system while on a personal quest for revenge. So here to tell us all about her cards and show us her cards is Yumeko herself, played by Miku Martineau. Miku, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. I have a gift for you too. Every girl deserves flowers. Oh my gosh, thank you. Oh my gosh, we already loved you. Oh my gosh, thank you so much. This is a first. This is lovely. I don't know what to do with myself. It's like I got a birthday. Okay, so let's talk about Bad because it's inspired by Japanese manga and you're going to say Kakegurui. Kakegurui. You did a good job. All right, so explain to people what that means. Kakegurui means compulsive gambler and that is exactly Yumeko is. She is a teenage gambling addict who is vengeful. She is so animated and eccentric and she's just a complete wild card and she's also very charmingly magnetic. Oh, I love that. I just learned a new fancy word and I'm going to use it. Well, a lot of people know that anime characters are known to have really distinct voice acting and expressions. So, did you adapt a similar performance for Bad? It's inspired by the manga so it was definitely important for me to incorporate that manga energy and bring that to life even though, you know, we are creating a whole new world. She is so iconic because of her, you know, voice inflictions and her physicality and the way she moves and speaks and so, you know, that is what makes Yumeko iconic and I definitely wanted to do her justice by including that in her performance. I'm sure the fans are going to love it. Well, live action adaptations are typically critiqued for not completely following the original anime or manga. So, is Bad a live action adaptation or is it more of an original spin-on? So, it's inspired by the manga and that's what's so beautiful about creating something that's inspired by something. I mean, you get to take the most wonderful themes that makes that show and you also get creative liberty to create this whole new world and that's what we've really done with Bad and for the first time, we get to truly see what drives Yumeko's madness and if you've read the manga, you would know that in the 17th volume, it is revealed that her parents were murdered and so that's that sense of vengeance and I'm really excited to teach the manga fans more about Yumeko and continue her iconic character. We love that. We love that. So, Miku, what do you think that Bad does differently that's going to make it a success? You know, Bad definitely brings that manga energy to life. It's so visually beautiful and it's almost edited in a comic-y, like comic book way and the editors did a great job with that and, you know, we have a little bit of everything. It's funny and it's drama and it's thrilling and there's a lot of action sequences and we also talk about pretty deep topics. You know, the core principles are about power dynamics and social status and wealth and the school is very cutthroat and Yumeko really shakes things up when she gets there. So, it turns out that in the series, there's a lot of fight scenes, which is so bad. Now, you are a trained martial artist yourself, so do you get a hand in some of this fight scene choreography? I love to do action and I was so excited when they told me that there was going to be a few action sequences and it was actually my idea. It was shown in the trailer where I do a one-handed cartwheel with swords in my hand and we were trying to figure out how to coordinate it in the stunt room and I was like, oh, why don't I do this? And it made it to the real thing and it's awesome. That's so cool. That's so cool. Well, speaking of martial arts, you recently worked with the icon Michelle Yeoh on Star Trek Section 31. Now, she's famously known for doing her own stunts. What did you learn from her? I mean, it was just such an honor to be a part of Section 31. The Star Trek legacy is absolutely amazing. Michelle Yeoh's legacy is completely amazing. She really is a beacon of, sorry, makes me emotional. She's a beacon of hope and opportunity for a lot of Asian actors and it's so cool that we have a female Asian lead doing kick-ass roles. I mean, that's exactly what I want to do. She's living, breathing proof. She's living, breathing proof. So, you're a mixed kid like me and you are of Japanese heritage as well. So, what does playing Yumeko actually mean to you? I mean, it means the world to me. I mean, my mom immigrated to Canada from Japan when she was 30 years old and though I grew up in Canada, I grew up in a culturally Japanese home and being a part of roles that allows me to embrace my culture, learn more about it and have more conversations with my mom about it and, you know, work with dialect coaches for Japanese. It's awesome. I mean, it's so special and sentimental to me. That's wonderful, that connection. All right. So, I don't know if a lot of people know this, but anime and manga have enormous fan bases that surpass the country of origin, which is Japan. So, what do you think differentiates this from other art forms and makes it so popular? I mean, manga is just unlike no other. They really push the boundaries and that's what our entire show is about. You never know how far the characters are going to go. We keep people on the edge of their seats. It gets crazier and crazier in each episode and, you know, you don't think it could get crazier and then they just push the limits and that's what I love about manga. Well, they got the right person to do it. Yes, they do. Congratulations. We wish you all the success in the world. Thank you. Truly, truly. Thank you again. I know. Thanks for the promise. I know. It's beautiful. I am so sweet. We want to tell everybody that Bette comes out this Thursday. That is May the 15th. Support her. Support Canadians. Yes. That's our girl. Yeah. Miki, thank you again so, so much. Thank you so much. Thank you.