Kento Hayashi, Takayuki Yamada, Hidetoshi Nishijima: Surprising similarities among breakout actors

Kento Hayashi (31), who is currently appearing in the Friday night drama “Ai no Uso: Yasashii Yami” (TV Asahi), is once again making his presence felt.

This time, he is playing a man named ……, who is perfect as a talented and handsome IT company president, but has a secret. Although Hayashi is only 31 years old, he is very good at playing quirky roles. He is still only 31 years old, but he is very good at playing quirky roles, and has earned the name of “actor of the year. In his private life, he married former AKB48 member Yuko Oshima (33) last year, and he is doing very well in both his public and private life.

After making his debut at the age of 16 in the film “Battery” (2007), he went on to play a diving swimmer in “DIVE! (2008), in which she played a diving swimmer, and the romance drama “Mioka: Days of My Life” (2010, NTV), in which she starred with Yuriko Yoshitaka. She became popular as an idol, but her shyness seems to have caused her stress. After that, her activities decreased drastically.

An employee of a TV station who is familiar with the situation of TV dramas says, “For example, Kento Yamazaki, who was a star in a TV drama, became a star.

For example, Kento Yamazaki (27) and Sota Fukushi (28), if they succeed in a romance drama, they can become top young actors. Mr. Hayashi, too, brought many women to tears with his role as a pure-hearted boy who loves a girl with an incurable disease in “Bika. The agency must have wanted to ride on that momentum and increase her exposure in major productions at once.

But perhaps Mr. Hayashi didn’t like this idol actor route. After that, he was no longer seen in commercial TV dramas, and he appeared in only a few supporting roles in movies, whereas he had mostly played leading roles before. When he finally came back to star in a drama after a two-year absence, he played the role of an eccentric sergeant who lives under a bridge with crazy people (“Arakawa Under the Bridge”, 2011, MBS). I was surprised when he showed a drastic change in his acting from the prince-like impression he used to have.

Hated the idolization route

After that, Hayashi took on a series of difficult roles, including a frivolous and ambitious freelancer in the movie “Yami Kan Ushijima-kun” (2012) and a homosexual student in the movie “The Scripture of Evil” (2012). This strategy worked perfectly, and he emerged as an actor with more than just a sweet image. His second breakthrough after “Osanzu Love” (TV Asahi, 2006) is well known to everyone.

In fact, there are other actors who, like Hayashi, refrained from becoming idol actors and became top actors by changing their image and re-exposing themselves. The first of these is Takayuki Yamada (38).

Yamada is still a bit of a shadow of his former self, but he was quite a handsome actor in his teens and early twenties. His acting ability was outstanding from the beginning of his career, and he became popular as an idol when he gave tear-jerking performances in romantic dramas such as “Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World” (2004, TBS) and “Songs of Taiyo” (2006, TBS). However, Yamada also lost her exposure at a time when she was just starting out.

The main reason for this was that the attention she received as an idol led to the fact that she had a child being exposed. Yamada had always been a strong actor and didn’t welcome the attention of idols, and this led to her private life being exposed. He must have been completely disgusted by it. He stopped appearing on TV for the next three years.

Then he reappeared in “Yami Kane Ushijima-kun” (2010, Mainichi Broadcasting System, TBS). He played the role of a crude and ruthless black-marketeer without a hint of idleness. This was so brilliant that it became one of his best works. This was the beginning of the second season of Takayuki Yamada’s career, including the “Yousha Yoshihiko” series (TV Tokyo, 2011-16) and “The Naked Director” (Netflix, 2007, 2009).

It takes a terrible amount of courage to be faced with a front of opportunity and not dare to seize it for what you really want to do. But that courage led to greater success for both of them in the end. In fact, it is said that there is a person who was the first to “not grab the bangs” before anyone else. Who is it?

It’s Hidetoshi Nishijima (50), a veteran actor who has become a force to be reckoned with. When he was 22 years old, he co-starred in the drama “Asunaro Hakusho” (1993, Fuji TV) with Takuya Kimura, and his beauty drew even more attention than Takuya Kimura’s, resulting in an explosion of popularity. However, as you can see from his current appearance, he intensely disliked the idea of becoming an idol actor. That’s why, to my surprise, he quit the agency he belonged to at the time.

Nowadays, there are fewer restrictions on your activities even if you quit your agency, but when Nishijima was young, there was a high risk of being hung out to dry in the entertainment industry if you did such a thing. In fact, he has hardly appeared on TV except for NHK for about five years. By the time he started to be active on TV again after a long misogi, he was already over 30 years old.

In the end, however, by not appearing too much when he was young, he was not bored and was able to prolong his acting career. A normal actor would have chosen to stay with the agency for fear of losing his career, but I think it was a great act of faith.

Perhaps this success of Nishijima’s is the reason for the current generation of “controversial actors. No matter when or where you are in the world, you are keenly aware of the importance of sticking to your convictions.