Aya Ueto: “My Eldest Daughter’s Amazing Words” Encouraged Her to Start Acting Again

On that day, 70 extras dressed in autumnal attire gathered in a building in front of Tokyo Station, along with vehicles loaded with filming equipment. The entrance to the building was blocked with colored cones and the escalators were stopped, but only Aya Ueto (36) was surrounded by a warm atmosphere.

They were filming a scene in which Yuta Tamamori (31) of “Kis-My-Ft2” in a suit came running up to Ueto, who was scurrying beside the escalator. Whenever they cut to a scene, Kamito quickly puts on his mask and moves to a monitor at the bottom of the escalator to check with Tamamori and the staff.

“Ueto’s stance is that her family comes first and she wants to be around her children as much as possible. It is said that she took on the role of “Hanzawa Naoki” under certain conditions, such as filming one or two days a week and not in the evening. In 2007, her second child, a son, was born. It was thought that she would continue to save her work for a while, but now there are reports that in addition to filming this movie, she has been offered a role in a serial drama starting next January.

What drove Ueto to become an actress? It was one word from her child. As she has said in interviews, her six-year-old daughter pushed her to do more work. I asked her, “Is it okay if I’m not at home? (laughs).

(laughs)” (production company executive) Behind the smiling restart was the slightly complicated but happy growth of their eldest daughter.

From the October 15, 2021issue of FRIDAY