Alicia Vikander on Learning Japanese

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I am a big fan of Alicia Vikander, who came to everyone’s attention through Ex Machina. But it was through her acting in European movies such as A Royal Affair that I recognized her talents and marked her as someone whose works, Hollywood or not, should always deserve my attention.

So, she was cast in an adaptation of a book the story of which is set in Japan. Already my interest is piqued. In this video she reveals a good portion of the movie involves Japanese dialogue and it is fascinating to hear how the production adapted to the language differences for the performer. I think this is a great way for Japanese productions or foreign productions hoping to shoot in Japan to approach foreign-language dialogue. It is important to recognize how the actor wants to say or how the dialogue should feel in their native tongue (or in this case adopted tongue) and marry this with the language which they would be speaking. Doing so retains an authenticity both in the feelings behind the words and the very words themselves.

Hello all. For some reason Netflix took down the interview they themselves produced and uploaded to promote Earthquake Bird.

So, what she basically related was during the early phase of the production, when she read the script and/or recited lines in English as the character (I assume during rehearsals or read through), the writers were keying into the way she was saying certain words and were making adjustments to the Japanese in order to fit with the way she performed the dialogue. In so doing, the Japanese she spoke was more in tune with her performance rather than making her emote with Japanese language in a way counter to how she was reacting as the character which would be typical in most cases.
Wish you could have heard her say it herself. It was an interesting video.