Naoko Mori Interview

Interview with Torchwood star Naoko Mori


"One minute I'm running around chasing aliens, the next minute I'm singing to puppets!" Here's a New Year Quiz: What's the link between Miss Saigon, Absolutely Fabulous and new science fiction hit Torchwood? The answer - talented actor and singer Naoko Mori, who has appeared in all three shows. Before heading off to the Noël Coward Theatre in London's West End where she is appearing as Christmas Eve in Avenue Q, she chats to Carole Gordon about her life on the stage and screen, filming Torchwood, and her enduring love for Kermit . . .
Japanese-born Naoko Mori is something of a nomad, having moved to the USA when she was a toddler, before returning to Japan at the age of 10 and then going to the UK two years later. With a family who were always going to the movies, plays and concerts, she started taking classical singing lessons at the age of 12 before her school drama teacher persuaded her to take dance and drama classes as well. She then joined the National Youth Music Theatre, whose former stars include a young Jude Law, before an audition for Miss Saigon led to her winning the leading role of Kim, following Lea Salonga. This role Mori cites as one of the highlights of her career, although she is reluctant to choose a favourite.
"Every job is really different and special," she says. "If I had to choose, the highlights were obviously Miss Saigon because it was my first job and I loved the character. AbFab was really special too. Topsy Turvy - it's been one of my biggest dreams to work with Mike Leigh and that was just an amazing experience. And of course Torchwood for me has been a brilliant experience! Torchwood was very special. I mean we had such a ball. It's just ridiculous!"
Mori laughs when she talks about the fun of filming Torchwood. "You know, I think a lot of people say that - you hear time and time again, 'Oh we had such a great time!' but I would put it in capital letters if I could - really it was ridiculous how well we got on. We are all quite different people, but we just really gelled as a team and I hope that comes across on-screen."
And here's another link - Mori played Kim in Miss Saigon opposite Torchwood star, John Barrowman - though she's not entirely sure when!
"We were trying to work this out. I was in it when John came in the first time, because I left and came back and so did John. I went into [British hospital drama series] Casualty and Absolutely Fabulous so I was in and out, but there was a time we were together. I think we said the first time we ever met was when he first came into the show. I've known John a long time - I just adore him. I actually said to him when we were filming, 'Oh my god, I really fancy you today!' and we had a laugh about it!"
Mori's character in Torchwood, Toshiko Sato, first appeared in the Doctor Who season 1 episode, 'Aliens of London'. Having moved to Torchwood, Tosh has her emotions laid bare in the episode 'Greeks Bearing Gifts', in which she develops a relationship with an alien, Mary. The storyline takes the vulnerable Tosh into dangerous territory when she is given a necklace that enables her to hear people's thoughts.
"I think Tosh, out of the rest of the team, is the most guarded and private person and she's not particularly good at expressing herself at the best of times. She can be frank and honest, but she's quite shy because she's a private person. So for her that episode probably turned her world upside down. It was a big learning curve for her - I think she's learnt that it's okay to feel these things and show emotions."
Mori is often asked about the sexual content of the episode. She feels that Mary was a friend first - and the sexual relationship developed from that.
"Mary was like a really good friend, an ally, someone she can talk to," she insists, "and if anything the sexual thing came as an afterthought. She didn't even realise it was happening."
In filming these scenes, Mori and Daniela Denby-Ashe, who played Mary, worked with the experienced director Colin Teague, who Mori says is "amazing".
"We were made to feel very safe, he's a real actor's director, and very open and communicative. We had a good couple of days of rehearsal beforehand because we wanted to make sure we pitched it right. That it didn't just become, oh a girl's kissing a girl. Because I think a lot of it is a deeper thing."
While some of the characters have been forming sexual relationships both within and outside the team, Mori agrees that there is some irony that Jack Harkness, who first appeared in the final five episodes of Doctor Who's first season as an omnisexual conman, seemed to be the only member of the crew who was celibate! But she has an explanation.
"I think everyone fancies Jack really, but Jack is probably being quite sensible, keeping it very professional. I think everyone's fond of him and he's fond of everyone. He has a very different relationship with every single character. For example with Tosh, I feel we have a very silent bond, full of respect. She's probably the most frank member of them all, she's quite honest with Jack; they are both mutually respecting each other."
Tosh's feisty side was brought out in the episode 'Countrycide', when the team were stalked by crazed Welsh cannibals - and Mori had to spend a lot of time running around the Brecon Beacons.
"She's a very practical person, she loves problem-solving. With 'Countrycide' I think it really shook her because it was so horrific. What can you do? Run?! I think I'm fairly fit but it was freezing, it was so cold. I'd sprained my ankle really badly about a month before that when we were filming Ianto's big episode. I tore a ligament, my tendon in my right ankle. So I was like 'Oh my god I have to run!' But it was all right."
While filming the episode, the cast and crew stayed in a hotel - which of course turned out to be haunted! Mori says that she doesn't tend to see ghosts; rather she feels them, especially when she is back in Japan. But she still had some eerie moments at the Welsh hotel, involving late nights, a rush of cold air and doors opening and closing. In fact, Mori says, the entire cast were somewhat spooked that night - to such an extent that Eve Myles spent the night in John Barrowman's room!
With Torchwood recently renewed for a second season, Mori will continue to be busy - not that she's stopped working since the show wrapped in early November. She can currently be seen in the huge Broadway and West End, Avenue Q, a show described as "Sesame Street for adults". Or, as Mori puts it "Sesame Street meets South Park meets Friends" - a musical comedy with puppets.
What's the attraction of doing a show like this after angsty science fiction?
"It's great to be doing something so different," says Mori. "We finished filming Torchwood on the 4th of November and I came back to London on 5th and on the Monday I was singing to puppets! One minute I'm running around chasing aliens, the next minute I'm singing to puppets. It's one of things when you stop and go 'What am I doing?'!"
Mori would like to do more theatre in the future, which she describes as her first love, but she hasn't found it easy as a non-Caucasian actor. Though, she says, she is careful not only to play parts written specifically for Japanese characters.
"There's not a lot of parts written for Japanese/oriental people but my biggest thing has always been not to just play parts that were written for Japanese people. Tosh was not written specifically for a Japanese person. Nor was AbFab."
So, is the theatre and TV becoming more diverse? Mori thinks it is, but is wary of tokenism.
"It shouldn't matter at the end of the day whether someone is black, white, yellow or brown or blue," she says, "so I think it is changing a lot in theatre and in TV and film which is great. It's been a long time coming. You don't want people to do United Colours of Benetton just for the sake of it - it's more about who we are."
One role in which Mori did play a Japanese character was in the BBC docudrama Hiroshima, which was recently awarded an International Emmy. This project, she says, was the one that affected her the most.
"It was such a challenge mentally and physically and psychologically," she says earnestly. "I was playing a real-life character who had a horrific life after being bombed and it really kind of changed my views on life and humanity. It just made me stop and realise how horrific things could be. Out of respect to Shige Hiratsuka, who is the person I portrayed, I wanted to do a really good job to tell her story. On a personal note, I think it really hit me hard and it kind of exhausted me mentally - it just really made me think about life."
As a Japanese Buddhist, Mori says she tries not to let things bother her, including the egos and personality clashes that occur in the acting profession.
"I've never had a really bad experience. Maybe I'm too philosophical about it. People have reasons for why they do things and why they say things and I live in the hope that people are essentially good. There's a saying in Japanese - everyone's the same but different, everyone's together but separate. Everyone has a different story to tell, everyone has a different history, everyone has different thoughts and that's why I love acting. I love people - people should be different."
Mori clearly loves what she does, and the people she works with, and has particularly warm things to say about Torchwood star, John Barrowman.
"The lovely thing about John is 'what you see is what you get!' she says with a laugh. He's so down to earth and I can truly, truly say he is one of the funniest and the most caring people I've known. He's just him - very warm and caring and very generous and funny. When you see him on TV, that's really who he is. Which is the great thing about John, because there's no airs and graces."
The other star Mori adores is the green-skinned one - Kermit the Frog. Mori giggles as she explains that she grew up watching Sesame Street, but has moved around so much she has never had a permanent base. While filming Torchwood, she splits her time between Cardiff, LA and Japan, living out of a suitcase. The one permanent feature of her life is her Kermit. Why, though, she is not quite sure.
"I don't know why," she says with a laugh. "To me he's real - he's not a frog, he's not a puppet. There's something about this particular Kermit; I've had him for nearly 12 years, I think. I had exactly the same one before. Then I left him, I think, on a train platform in Japan. I was devastated. I'd been looking around for the same one all over and I found the same one about 12 years ago. I was in Chicago in an airport lounge. In a shop, there he was, and I'm like 'Oh my god!' He's kind of a symbol - not only is he funny, he's intelligent and witty. And he just sits - he's sitting on top of my TV right now!"
And, of course, like Mori, Kermit sings. Would she like to do Torchwood the Musical? Apparently, between filming scenes, the cast have been coming up with some ideas.
"He'd probably do it!" she says of Russell T Davies, Torchwood writer and producer. "We were composing songs and talking about 'Shall we do Torchwood the album? Write songs about the Weevil?!' That would be hilarious!"