Meet the history-making stars of ‘Shogun’

Anna Sawai, the lead actress from FX’s historical drama “Shogun,” which just swept the Emmys with 18 wins on Sunday night, used to rock the stage as part of the girl group Faky. After making history as the first Asian actress to win outstanding lead actress in a drama, Sawai joked about celebrating by “drinking with her castmates” and trying to forget her problems for a while. Sounds like the perfect excuse to dive into her story!

Digging up Sawai’s past: Before Sawai became acting royalty, she was the OG leader of Faky, a former five-person J-pop girl group known for their singles “Better Without You” and “You.” She loved being part of the group but left in 2018 to chase her acting dreams, saying, “I had to quit to actually start [acting]. I loved the girls, but I was not in control of my own career.” And it paid off — she snagged a role in “F9” and hasn’t looked back. Now, you can see her on TV in shows like “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” and Emmy-winning Apple TV+ series “Pachinko,” where she plays a Harvard-educated, Japan-based businesswoman.
Where you’ve seen Hiroyuki Sanada: “Shogun” star Hiroyuki Sanada, who became the first Japanese actor to win an Emmy for best lead actor in a drama, has been killing it in Hollywood for a while. You might recognize him from the 1998 Japanese supernatural horror classic “The Ring” or in 2003’s “The Last Samurai” with Tom Cruise, but he really made his mark as Scorpion in 2021’s “Mortal Kombat,” a yakuza boss in Brad Pitt’s 2022 action comedy “Bullet Train” and the epic assassin Koji Shimazu in last year’s “John Wick: Chapter 4.” Oh, and don’t forget outstanding supporting actor Emmy nominee Tadanobu Asano, who played the ultimate frenemy in “Shogun” — he’s also known for kicking it in the MCU as Thor’s buddy Hogun and as Raiden in “Mortal Kombat.”

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