Machiko Soga: "This Is My World"

The offer came because Toki Shiozawa, who played the witch Iguana in Ai no Senshi Rainbowman, got fed up with the heavy wrinkle makeup she had to wear to turn into an old woman. The part came to me, and it was my first villain in a tokusatsu show. Whenever I say "first," the fans correct me and bring up Kappa no Sanpei. But I took that job only because it sounded like fun. I never set out to specialize in that kind of role. What attracted me was the idea that an actor does everything. There was no plan to build a brand along the lines of "a queen or a witch, call Machiko Soga." When Toki Shiozawa left, I thought it would be interesting to try, and that's how the witch God Iguana came about. I thought seriously about how to build the part so I could enter that world. I was doing a lot of theater at the time, and I realized all I had to do was play it the way you play a Shakespeare classic, with a full voice. A villain in that kind of show is different from a regular drama: it demands exaggeration, stage diction and stage movement. I went into Rainbowman amused by the name "Shine Shine Dan" [the villain organization of the series], but I'll admit the acting in general didn't appeal to me. I still did my best with my own part. After that, for personal reasons, I took a long trip through the Middle East, and when I came back I felt I had to transform myself into something. The first transformation was a witch, in 5-nen 3-kumi Mahogumi. Playing the witch was a delight. I thought, "This is my world!" Toei was pleased too, because the ratings stayed in double digits from beginning to end, and they even went to the sponsor, the toy company, to try to keep the series going. The answer was that they wanted to sell new toys and needed a different show. So it was decided they would do something in a new format. One day they showed me the proposal for Denjiman. There were plenty of places in it where the image of witch and queen I wanted to create could grow. I thought, "I can do this, and I'm going to think up ideas together with them." So when the design for Queen Hedrian arrived, I pointed out that the exposed ears killed the elegance, and I made the piece myself. Theater works the same way: you rent the kimono, but when it suits the character to look fuller, the actress prepares the costume and the accessories herself. Since I have that habit, I think now that I should have billed them for it. A lot of pieces came out of my own pocket (laughs).

Skimping on that kind of thing looks stingy. If you want to make an impact, that's where you don't hold back on money. Whatever the script specifies, the wardrobe department provides. Whatever it doesn't specify, I thought it was natural to provide myself. If someone said "fake nails here," I'd go straight to the store and buy several identical sets in case one fell off. And I'd buy glittery lame in bulk, all at once.

The disguises for walking around town, for example, were all mine.

Yes, because the studio's clothes were generic pieces. When she disguises herself as a secretary and walks down the street, nothing in the stock really fits. It looks tacky, forgive my bluntness. At the Toei costume fitting I'd put it on out of obligation, then say "I'd like to go in this direction," make a quick sketch of the clothes I had at home, mark the colors and ask what they thought. The answer was always "Then do it that way, Soga."

I was happy with it, and the result was better than any random outfit.

An ordinary person doing that has too many restrictions and is scared to death. With me it's the opposite: there are no restrictions at all. An actress from a conventional drama, dressed like that, can't strike a grand pose or let out a scream. And doing what nobody else can is exactly what I enjoy. On stage I know how to do the ordinary too. That fun is related to the "crazy" of the villain in The Pink Panther. I like the chaotic, the messy. But being a queen, you need a bit of dignity as well.

Exactly. She's the boss of the villains, so she can't be screaming all the time. What I call "chaotic" is when the character does everything properly and then suddenly slips up. That's comedy. I wasn't trying to do comedy. I played the queen, but inside her there had to be something human.

It had to come through. When something mechanical shows up, the tendency is to imagine a robot's delivery, halting and stiff. Nobody can sit through that, it just wastes time. So she talks normally, she's still a queen, but there's always something funny in there.

Deep down, I wanted to show several sides at once. I wanted a performance that each viewer could read however they liked.

And some found her scatterbrained. That's what I love about Sentai shows: the freedom to do whatever you want.

Yes, that's where you can be free. The leading man has to be a leading man, and if he stumbles without the acting to back it up, it's embarrassing. Our side can relax. That's why the feeling was that I couldn't stop. I didn't expect it to last forever, but somewhere in my heart there was the wish to keep going. After the success of Oba-Q, I wanted to hit the bull's-eye as a witch and a queen. But that can't show on your face. The audience has to like it on their own, and the production, Toei, has to come to the conclusion to call me again by itself. I can't ask for anything. My job was to express myself, to have fun freely and to enjoy the moment. Recognition I decided to treat as a bonus (laughs).

Hedrian was my first real queen.

Until then, God Iguana was more witch than queen, Mahogumi was a witch, and in Kappa no Sanpei I played a kind of monster. A queen requires a queenly air. That's why I traveled the world, saw the treasures of queens, tasted a little of the elegant life in castles and breathed that air. Since I'd already read books about queens from various countries, I was prepared. But playing a queen is hard, and normally nobody can pull it off. Women with a queen's bearing usually have a model's body, slender, and in exchange they can't stumble, because they can't act. There are plenty of people who look like queens.

Just standing there, lots of people look like queens. But then the work has no fun in it (laughs). Playing witches and queens, every episode all I thought about was having fun and how to work pleasantly with everyone. I never bothered to get in good with the bosses, and I never flattered a producer. I preferred to team up with the lighting crew and the people around me. Those who acted badly may have thought I was a terrible person, because I'd get carried away and say "do it this way, it'll be better." People may tell me to mind my own business, but the Vader clan, in particular, had to be tight. One person acting well is not acting well. It takes unity and firmness. When I gave an order, everyone had to move at once. Without that initial tension, the scene falls flat. I started talking about the bosses and ended up on the underlings, but if I keep going it'll all turn into the same story, so I'll stop here (laughs).

I found out along the way that they were going to use Hedrian again. I was already planning to travel somewhere far as soon as Denjiman ended. I heard about it in winter, when shooting was wrapping up.

When there were only a few episodes left, they told me the idea was more or less that. I couldn't answer that it wasn't possible, let alone mention a trip. I asked whether it would be with Hedrian, and I assumed she'd appear in Sun Vulcan in the same costume from the start.

I thought that if it were the same, I'd keep the feeling I had then, but the surroundings were going to change, and I needed to understand how. I asked to see the design. Since the project was already starting, the drawings had to be ready. I was focused on Denjiman, so I asked them to explain Sun Vulcan to me from the illustrations. They told me she was resurrected from inside the ice and given an artificial heart. I understood it would be a completely different character, even with the name Hedrian. In that case, fine.

The design needed adjustments in places you don't notice at first glance.

Not that much. If I'd meddled too much, it would have been disrespectful to the person who did the design.

In a tight situation like that, I could still have asked for corrections if it had been earlier, but with the costume already made, I started using my own props.

They added up. If I'd been involved from the beginning, I would never have used my own things.

Yes, from inside the ice.

And she feels the new heart.

The kids called it "Marukome" [the bald mascot of a miso brand] (laughs).

In my case, the question of weight was long past. In summer it slid, in winter it was cold, and every costume is like that. It's tough. The girls who played the Zero Girls left everything off until it was time to shoot. I kept everything firmly in place, however heavy it was. When the lights were being adjusted, they'd take it all off without thinking about the shadows and the details.

That kind of laziness I didn't allow myself. They'd say it was their first time doing this, but on that point they were surprisingly relaxed. I never said anything, because telling them to put it on properly would have been meddling. When the acting was bad, then yes, I'd tell them to act properly. Laziness turns against the person herself later on. She has to notice it on her own. On the take a strange shadow appears, the cameraman complains and orders everything on from the start, and the actress obeys. You have to be embarrassed once to learn. I'm strict.

I don't remember them much (wry laugh). If you ask me that, I'm in trouble (laughs).

The leotard was in another series, Uchu Keiji Gavan, I'm almost sure.

(surprised) There is?

(very surprised) I'd completely forgotten that (laughs). Japanese dance? Well, I did do dance, all kinds.

How funny, just hearing it makes me want to laugh (laughs). I remembered some disguise or other, but not that.

That I do remember (roars with laughter). I was embarrassed by those thunder god pants at the costume fitting.

That's the only part I remember. I complained about the pants, but it was work, so I put them on. Of the Japanese dance and the leotard I remember nothing.

Really? So that's it, I really don't remember.

That's why it changed.

Let me tell you something. Back then I was too busy and almost never watched my own shows, but in the last two or three years I've watched some tapes that fans gave me. In Denjiman there's a scene where the underling Mirror measures my bust and waist to make a dress. In that scene I had a real fight with the actress Mikawa, who played Mirror, over her acting.

When they did it the way I improvised, it was funny, and I saw it had worked. I laughed out loud (laughs). I don't usually laugh at my own acting, but it had been so long since I'd watched that I laughed. Everyone was in sync in that scene.

At first Mirror played it in an affected way. She'd place the tape measure on my bust with great care, pause oddly and announce "98 centimeters" or "1 meter." It was "bust... 98, waist... 98," with her staring at my bust, and it took forever.

That killed the laugh. I wasn't trying to get a laugh, but I told her to stop measuring so seriously, without worrying about a millimeter. It was a crazy show, so all she had to do was rattle off "bust 98, waist 98, hips 98" without looking so closely. Measuring slowly eats up time. When she says "98, 98, 98" mechanically, it's Hedrian who gets annoyed. While she measures, I squirm and sulk. As an actress, I could have answered her "98" with a drawn-out "nine-ty-eight," but that would have been tasteless and heavy. It's funnier when she fires off the numbers and I react.

With the short timing, my growl gains force. When she finishes reading and I let out the growl, the viewers react with me. I explained that, she understood and started saying the numbers mechanically. General Hedrer, who was listening off to the side and about to enter the scene, started laughing. I told him to use that time to think about his next line, instead of measuring only his own part so carefully.

In Sun Vulcan, since the look had changed completely and the heart was different too, repeating the same queen would have been no fun. It couldn't be the same Hedrian under another name. That's why I wanted something lighter, and the disguises bring that lightness.

From the somber she jumps to the light. That's what I wanted.

She went out all the time (laughs).

About underlings, I'll stop here. At most I'll talk about the Vader clan. In Sun Vulcan a lot happened, and I gave up on nagging the girls who played the underlings (wry laugh). With more people it got hard, and I got tired. So halfway through I passed the baton to Yukie Kagawa, the Amazon Killer, who joined later. I asked her to look after the Zero Girls for me (laughs). We're friends to this day and we talk all the time.

Zyuranger.

Bandora is a witch, and by then everything had to change, starting with the look. Besides my own part, I loved the design of Pleprechaun. Bookback and Totpat followed a sort of Wizard of Oz line, and I liked that.

The ideas for making it even better came right away. That's why I was friends with the JAC people, the suit actors inside the costumes. JAC gives them their acting direction, and it's impressive how precise the action comes out, even in a melancholy moment. But while the character is talking, a slight angle of the face subtly changes the cuteness, and there's a way of making the area around the nose look cute in an instant. I'd whisper that to whoever was inside, in secret.

Until around episode 5, the people upstairs said it was a problem that Bandora looked like the lead. The leads were all newcomers, and, sorry to say it, none of them could act. I went all out and it caused a stir. They decided to cut back my appearances so I'd act less, under the illusion that the five would shine that way. They were wrong, because there were five of them. I thought my intensity was just the right measure, but they concluded that from any angle Bandora carried more weight, and that for the five to live they had to cut her lines. After episode 5 they cut without mercy. There was one script in which I had a single line.

Yes. So I got stubborn and put everything into that one line: laughter, anger, joy and sadness, every emotion in one sentence. The film crew loved it and burst out laughing. But I was serious, because I only had that one line, and I had to get the most out of it, with pauses and everything. In the end they concluded it was better to let me talk a little more, because with a single line I drew too much attention.

I overdid it (laughs). It went back to a normal level, but even so the lines stayed few.

It was fun, wasn't it?

That was our intention.

Exactly. I thought we could put together something very good. But getting there involved friction with the writer. The turn toward the musical style also went through several stages, and my opinion ended up going in. By then I no longer wanted to make suggestions to the writer just to make the series more fun, but the thinking was so rigid that I actually intended to leave halfway through.

Yes. It was exactly six months into the series when, in a spell scene, they asked me to read the incantation backwards. I always created my spells myself, like "Atinie Power." When we went into shooting, the director said the production wanted the spell read a specific way. It was a string of syllables that, read backwards, spelled "itoshi no waga musuko" [my beloved son]. It was the riddle of the story, and at the end everyone would be surprised. I told them not to mess with me, that I was quitting the show right then. I said I was going to take off my makeup and that the director should tell everyone Soga had left. He asked me to wait and ran off to warn them that I was threatening to walk if I had to do it that way. The answer that came back was to do it as asked. So I explained that the writer's intention was predictable, that I had been acting seriously because I didn't want to let the audience down, and that I hadn't done all that for some dumb skit. I created my spells myself, with words from Arabic and other languages, each with a meaning. At the start the script had only loose vowels, and the director had told me that, since it was a spell, I could do it my way. Six months later they were back with loose vowels again. I wasn't going to do it, and it was no act. I took off my makeup and said there was still time to replace me, that six months into a series it was easy to invent a reason. They called the screenwriter on the spot, and he asked why I wouldn't do what he had written (laughs). I answered that it wasn't possible, that if the spell was a riddle with an obvious ending, I hadn't worked hard for six months to end in something so dull, and that if I was going to leave, the sooner the better. They asked me to wait for a phone call. The final answer was to do the spell as always, without removing my makeup. I said that if they let me do it my way, I'd stop talking about leaving. And we shot it. In the next episode, the writer, whose pride must have been wounded, came to the set to watch in secret (laughs). I noticed he was there and started saying out loud that a scene like that would be fun as a musical number. That's where Bandora's song came from (laughs).

It was fun. At the end, she sings while being launched into space (laughs).

I asked them to stop with the explosions and the repeated pattern. Everyone already knew how it would end. I told the writer that viewers watch because they want to know what's going to happen, and that predictable endings drive the audience away. It was basic, but he got so annoyed that he came to hear what I had to say. Then he invented Bandora's song, liked it so much that it came back several times (laughs).

I decided that at the end I was going to have fun, and I had a blast (laughs).

That's why I understand why the American producer wanted Bandora as the witch Rita in Power Rangers.

The idea is that the story continues.

Not strange at all (laughs).

The fun endings that feel like a to-be-continued are, as a rule, my idea.

The others I did as written.

In Zyuranger I made a point of leaving everything ready to continue.

Bandora was going to come back to Earth in high spirits (laughs).

And that parting line, "you'll remember me!" (laughs).

And I stuck my tongue out on top of it. That I added on my own (laughs).