Ever since his Oscar-nominated Hollywood debut as Lord Katsumoto in 2003’s The Last Samurai, Ken Watanabe has been the best-known Japanese actor in the world.

Along with other memorable screen roles in Memoirs of a Geisha and Batman Begins (both 2005), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) and Inception (2010), he also ventured into Broadway’s unforgiving spotlight in the hit 2015 musical The King and I — with his portrayal of the King of Siam earning him a best lead actor nomination at the Tony Awards, the first-ever for a Japanese performer.

Recently, however, Watanabe has been busy in Tokyo preparing to play the title role of a Spanish conquistador in Pizarro — an adaptation of 1964’s The Royal Hunt of the Sun by the English playwright Sir Peter Shaffer.

This production, which marks the reopening of Shibuya’s Parco Theatre after reconstruction work that began in 2016, is actually the actor’s second appearance in Pizarro at the same venue. Back in 1985, though, it wasn’t the victorious Spaniard he played, but — in a performance that’s become the stuff of legend — the role of the trusting and ill-fated last Inca ruler, Atahualpa.

Speaking to The Japan Times at his rehearsal studio in Tokyo, Watanabe, 60, modestly sidesteps that triumph, saying just, “Theater is a wondrous art, as it only exists in the moment. That’s why plays require different direction and inspiration, and also actors, to make the most vivid production each time.”

However, even as a novice actor in those days, the intense gaze for which he is now famous added a crackling intensity to Watanabe’s role that put him squarely on par with the renowned Tsutomu Yamazaki, who played Pizarro in 1985, and propelled him straight to stardom in Japan.

In this two-act play, based roughly on the story of Francisco Pizarro’s 1532 conquest of the Inca Empire in what is now Peru with a reputed 168 soldiers, the first act depicts his force’s trek with guns and 30 horses — both unknown and terrifying to the Inca — high into the hostile Andes in search of gold and converts to Catholicism. There, at a place called Cajamarca, Pizarro invites Atahualpa (played now by Hio Miyazawa) to a feast in his honor — only to slaughter thousands of his followers and take the emperor prisoner.

The second act follows the two sides’ fledgling cultural exchanges as a close relationship begins to form between Pizarro and Atahualpa. Despite this, when a tribunal orders the emperor’s execution, the best a tearful Pizzaro can do is offer him a choice between being burned at the stake or garroted. As he opts for the latter, the doomed ruler tells Pizzaro not to worry unduly because he, Atahualpa, is descended from the sun and will revive the next day, just as the celestial body does time and again.

Revisiting history: Ken Watanabe, who plays the title role in Pizarro, first appeared in the play in Tokyo in 1985 in the role of the Inca ruler Atahualpa.

For this production, along with an almost 30-strong Japanese cast, Parco invited the English choreographer, director, and former Royal Ballet soloist Will Tuckett to stage the grand-scale historical drama for which he has commissioned a massive staircase set on which to present tumultuous battles and crowd scenes.

Compared with his sheer enjoyment playing Atahualpa before, Watanabe admits to feeling more responsibility for the play’s success this time, now that he’s in the title role. Nonetheless, he says he’s confident in his experience.

“I believe The King and I involves a Western view of Asia that, to some extent, chimes with that of Spain toward the Inca in Pizarro. But an American playing the King of Siam would probably be seen as over-caricatured,” he says. “Instead, with a non-Christian Japanese actor like me in that role, it connected better with the original 1951 musical’s world, and audiences could focus on the important themes of social diversity and respect for other cultures.”

Watanabe says that role allowed him to take a better approach going forward.

“Through that experience, I can understand the dynamics of Pizarro and the gap between Christian values and the more shamanistic ones of the Inca more deeply,” he says.

And in continuing to get into the mind of his character, as any actor must, Watanabe has encountered something of himself.

“The way I understand it is that Pizarro was an outsider because he was quite low class, with little education, and he wasn’t really comfortable with Spain’s strict Catholic society,” he says, “Always seeking to pursue his own course, he found a way to escape on expeditions to Colombia and Ecuador. Although these brought him a certain amount of fame and fortune, he was still searching for his own personal sense of worth. Then he returned again from Spain and sailed down to Peru. And that was when he met Atahualpa and some entirely different values.”

Watanabe goes on to describe the similarities he sees.

“I don’t think I am an outsider like Pizarro,” the actor says, “but I understand his feelings because I challenged myself to work outside Japan. Like him, I think, I didn’t just want to stay in a closed society with rigid values.”

Watanabe says he also sees parallels between Pizzaro’s life and his own as he is getting older. For instance, it has given him pause to wonder how long he will be able to do this work he loves — and what his career target actually is.

“During the rehearsals, discoveries I’ve made have shown me that our approach (to the play) last time was far too sentimental,” Watanabe says, getting back to the nuts and bolts of the production. “Hence in discussions with Will, we agreed not to put too much of a slant on Pizarro’s motives, or the Incas’ beliefs, because both were of their time and it was better to play it straight and not try to provide any clever conclusions.

“So the ending ought to be more realistic and not as loaded with emotion over the death of the last Inca emperor.”

To make such changes, Watanabe says it’s important that he and Tuckett can talk together in English along with Miyazawa, who was educated overseas and is effectively fluent. As a result, they’ve been able to revise the translation, try out changes and update words for today’s audiences when necessary.

“Actually, it has reminded me of working in the United States, where I’ve generally felt more comfortable than here,” Watanabe says. “There, rather than the pressure to conform you find in group-minded Japan, all sorts of people are on set or in rehearsals, and disputes and discussions are daily events. Even so, everyone is generally ready to listen to others’ opinions, which allows me to behave in an unrestrained manner that suits my nature.”

Such flexibility proved especially useful when Watanabe started to work in the U.S. before his English was very good. Then, rather than trying to convey his ideas in words, he says he would demonstrate them through impromptu performances — and if others didn’t look convinced, he’d act out alternatives until both sides agreed.

Indeed, he believes that cooperating with fellow artists in creative processes like that is a special aspect of theater that sets it apart.

“I think being an actor is a unique occupation that’s so different from being a salaryman in a typical seniority-based company. For instance, I have almost 40 years’ experience and Miyazawa has about three, but that doesn’t mean my opinions are more important than his or necessarily better,” Watanabe says.

“In fact, I sometimes realize I’ve been tempted to lean on my experience and make familiar choices that were easier for me. That’s a risky thing, but also a challenging part of being an actor. Hence I always try to approach my roles with a fresh and open mind.”

Finally, Watanabe relates Pizarro to today’s world.

“I think our politicians and leaders are, like Pizarro was at first, unable to see their opponents as they are,” he says, “They assume they know them but actually they don’t look into their eyes or have the imagination to see more than appearances.”

He says that, even though people now talk about globalism, things are actually becoming more fragmented.

“Consequently, I think it’s getting more and more important to look beyond ideologies and big ideas, and get more personal so issues are resolved between individuals,” he says, “And of course theater can play a role in that because it is essentially an inter-personal medium.”

This article was originally posted at www.japantimes.co.jp on March 13th, 2020, and has been reposted with permission. To read the original article, click here.

This post was written by the author in their personal capacity.The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of The Theatre Times, their staff or collaborators.

This post was written by Nobuko Tanaka.

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