00:00Certainly in a sort of niche market of renting family members, yes, it's new to a Western or European audience and it does on the surface seem quite curious, even preposterous, but when you look a little bit deeper, you're going to see that it really fulfills a need for people.
00:25When did you two first meet?
00:26I was impressed because I was late to the meeting and I couldn't find parking anywhere in that neighborhood and she said, oh, just leave it with the guys up front and I'd already tried that.
00:34They're like, no, no, get out of here, but Hikari called so they're like, give me the car, give me the car.
00:38I was like, all right, she's got pull.
00:41I can do this.
00:43You know, it's interesting because I personally did not know about the business.
00:47There have been a business that you can rent a girlfriend, you can rent advisor, you can rent a man to just give you a life lesson, or you can rent a lab so you can put your head down, right?
00:59So there's a lot of business like that, but the family in particular was something that I was, I was shared by my co-writer who was randomly looking at the job for American to do in Tokyo or in Japan and English teacher, this and modeling and being this, the actor was one of them.
01:19And that's how we find out.
01:20And then we started doing all the research and we find out this article and it was like, oh my goodness, this is a whole thing that I didn't know anything about.
01:28And yeah, and then we just went in on deep research and we interviewed a lot of people who worked in the business as a sell get to the people who actually be somebody who rents those actors.
01:43I knew that in Tokyo, just about anything is possible.
01:47And so far as getting needs fulfilled, it's unique in that way.
01:52And the need to connect with what they didn't have.
01:56And if even someone's standing in for just a little while, it fulfills that.
02:01But the curious part and why we made a movie about it is because, well, what happens after?
02:06What happens when people catch the feels for each other?
02:10What happens when it's not such a ruse any longer and it's for real?
02:14Oh, so deconstructing that is what you see on screen.
02:18Yeah.
02:19Did you have anything in mind for what you wanted to do next?
02:21And especially like coming off of like the year you had with the whale and stuff like what were you?
02:25I was looking for a job.
02:27Yeah.
02:27Come on, you've got so many offers.
02:30I did not have a shiny little man in my possession at the time that I saw this material.
02:34It was an obscure script.
02:39I thought, well, this is.
02:40You're so humble.
02:41No, I'm telling the truth.
02:43Like this is the kind of thing that I know that typically Hollywood and agents are going,
02:46all right, and relegate it to this sort of niche filmmaking.
02:51That's what I wanted.
02:53I wanted it because it was unique.
02:54I wanted it because we haven't seen this before.
02:56And I wanted it because I'm very, very, well, I'm very selfish and I like to travel.
03:01Yeah.
03:02I knew he'd go to Japan.
03:05Did you have any questions for him that you needed answered to know he was going to do X,
03:09Y, or Z right or like you were sold immediately?
03:12I was, you know, I always go with my gut.
03:14That's how I just navigate my life, has been ever since I was a little kid.
03:18And when I saw him on this giant screen, he was like 35 feet tall or whatever the big size was.
03:26I just, I just knew it.
03:28I just, I was like, oh, there's his, there's my, there's my Philip.
03:31And you know, how charming and caring and he was to everybody.
03:36I really wanted him to learn Japanese, which he already says like, I want to learn Japanese.
03:40I was like, okay, great.
03:42Checkmark.
03:42And do you like to come to talk?
03:44I'm going to be there two months, whatever.
03:46I'll be there.
03:47Checkmark.
03:47And it was just like, it was just so easy, so easy.
03:51And so, I mean, he's so collaborative.
03:54And it just like, it was such a huge collaborating process that I just could not ask for any more greater actors and friends.
04:03She's very talented.
04:05I had great people to work with, surround all the other actors.
04:10Starting with Shannon Gorman, who plays my surrogate daughter.
04:15She's a real find.
04:16You'll be hearing more about this kid later.
04:17Akira Emoto, who is a living treasure in Japan.
04:23Takehirohira.
04:23Takehirohira.
04:24They were a family already, and they welcomed me into it.
04:28It didn't feel like going to work, per se.
04:30But he's always, he's the, we call it Hashira, the main person, and then we're to gravitate towards him.
04:39And then you just made everybody so easy on set and very kind.
04:42And then, yeah.
04:44Fabulous.
04:44Yeah.
04:45Shucks.
04:45Shucks.
04:46Well, thank you guys so much for answering the questions.
04:47Thank you so much.
04:48Bye-bye.
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