With director David Leitch’s fantastic new movie, Bullet Train, opening in theaters later this week, I recently got to speak with Hiroyuki Sanada about making the action-thriller. During the interview, he talked about why he wanted to be part of Bullet Train, how they filmed most of the movie on a soundstage on the Sony backlot (you won’t believe it after you see the film), what it was like working with Sonny Chiba early in his career, and his role and character in John Wick 4.
If you haven’t seen the trailers, Bullet Train was adapted from the Japanese mystery-fiction book Bullet Train written by Kōtarō Isaka, the Japanese best-selling and award-winning novelist. Just like the novel, the movie takes place in Japan on the titular bullet train on a trip from Tokyo to Morioka. On the train there are a number of assassins whose assignments are very much interconnected, though they don’t know this until things start to go haywire when the assassins start trying to kill each other.
Loaded with inventive action set pieces, a script that will keep you guessing, and fantastic performances from the entire cast, Bullet Train is absolutely worth seeing in a movie theater. The film stars Brad Pitt, Joey King, Andrew Koji, Brian Tyree Henry, Zazie Beetz, Michael Shannon, Logan Lerman, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hiroyuki Sanada, Masi Oka, Sandra Bullock, and Benito A Martínez Ocasio aka Bad Bunny.
Watch what Sanada had to say in the player above, and below is exactly what we talked about.
Hiroyuki Sanada
What was it like working with Sonny Chiba early in his career?
How the script keeps you guessing and off balance.
How they shot most of the movie on a soundstage on the Sony backlot in Los Angeles.
What can he tease about his role and character in John Wick 4?
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