Anne Nakamura at 10 Years in Acting: A Confession About Freedom and Letting Go

What did you feel empathy for a role that is completely different from your own type?

Anne Nakamura / Born in Tokyo. After graduating from university, she began her entertainment career as a model and made a full-fledged entry into acting in 2015. In the July drama series Good Evening, This is the Asayama Family, she plays the role of a sharp-tongued wife who is also the capable president of the agency her husband belongs to.

“I’m really not good with people interfering in either my work or my private life (laughs).”

So says actress Anne Nakamura (37). Hearing such words from someone as cheerful and friendly as she is comes across as a bit unexpected.

“When people are overly considerate, it wears me out. If the back-and-forth keeps going like, ‘Are you okay?’ ‘What do you think?’ I start to feel exhausted.”

Right now, the person she’s facing in her work is a woman completely different from herself. The drama Good Evening, This is the Asayama Family (TV Asahi), which began airing in July, is a family struggle comedy about a hot-tempered wife, played by Nakamura, and a disappointing husband, played by Yukiyoshi Ozawa (51). Nakamura plays Asako Asayama, a sharp and capable president of the agency where her screenwriter husband belongs.

“Asako is the kind of woman who would even start her own company to support her husband Kenta’s dream of debuting as a film director. She’s proactive, tough, and I really respect her. But if you ask me whether I have that much drive, I think I’m a bit more modest in comparison (laughs).”

Back in high school, she was the captain of the cheerleading squad and carried a strong sense of “If I don’t say it, no one will.” But looking back now, she reflects, “These days I tend to take a more step-back approach.”

“On set, I make it a point to accept things first. Sometimes I take a step back thinking, ‘Ah, I see, that’s the way it’s going.’ Even when I have doubts about a director’s direction or the delivery of lines, I try it out once. If I still feel it’s not right, then I’ll speak up.”

As she faced Asako, she naturally became drawn to her straightforwardness and found herself resonating with it.

“At first, I thought Asako was a completely different type from me. But as I kept playing her, I had more and more moments of, ‘Huh? Maybe I actually get this.’ I have a younger brother and sister, so I naturally ended up taking on the supporting role in my family. That’s why I could really empathize with Asako’s pure love for her family. That frustration when you can’t put feelings into words, or when you sense they’re not getting through to someone—that’s something I often experience myself. In my case, though, I tend to just give up on expressing it.”

Changes I felt at the age of 35

A role she once thought was completely different from her own personality gradually began to overlap with her in subtle ways. Perhaps the reason she started to feel more empathy was because her own heart had been changing little by little.

“Until now, I had absolutely no interest in marriage. Being alone felt easy, and I strongly wanted to focus on doing my work properly first. I vaguely thought marriage would come after that. But in the past two years or so, I’ve started to feel that while the strength to be alone is important, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to have a little ‘space to share’ with someone.”

She speaks about her idea of an “ideal relationship”:

“I think it would be nice if it felt like a friendship. Both people independent, but still able to face each other properly. If the distance is too close, I start worrying too much about the other person’s gaze, and that gets exhausting. You see, I really can’t handle interference or dependency (laughs).”

When asked about Kenta (her husband in the drama)—who is prideful, obsessed with searching his own name online, and constantly asking questions—Nakamura bursts out laughing.

“No way. No! (laughs). Around episodes 1–2 I thought, ‘Oh, he’s kind of cute,’ but if that kept going forever… I don’t think so. He just asks too many questions (laughs). I prefer someone who stands firm, someone manly. I also want a reasonable amount of space between us.”

While she’s drawn to strong men like that, she doesn’t hold on to an ideal image for herself.

“I’m not good with ‘shoulds.’ For me, just focusing on who I am at the moment and steadily stacking up what I should do—that’s enough. The present matters more than the future.”

After graduating from university, Nakamura began her career as a model. In 2015, she fully entered the acting world, and this year marks her 10th anniversary. With well-received performances in dramas like Grand Maison Tokyo and DCU: Divers with Handcuffs (both on TBS), she has secured her place as a popular actress.

“Ten years, it hasn’t been short. For an ordinary girl in her 20s, completely unknown, finding a place in this industry was just a series of challenges. The hardest time was probably between ages 25 and 27. That was when I started appearing on variety shows, and since I wasn’t good at talking, it was mentally tough. I even thought, ‘Can I really keep doing this?’”

Rather than setting a clear goal, it was going with the flow that ultimately gave her the strength to continue. And now, after those 10 years, what she values most is not being too bound by the feeling of “I have to do everything properly.”

“By playing a woman who is both straightforward and quick to anger in this drama, I’ve started to feel, ‘Maybe it’s okay to be freer.’ Of course, doing things properly is important, but if you cling to that too much, it just wears you out. It’s the same with irritation and anger. I hate it when I find myself irritated, and it feels like I’m wasting energy that only makes my personality worse.”

After spending her 20s desperately searching for her place, she now spends her days with a lighter touch.

“My strength as an actress? Hmm, what would it be… maybe ‘not giving up’ (laughs). Anyway, since I started acting, I’m having the most fun now.”

Having stopped stretching herself and embraced freedom, she is now enjoying the pure joy of acting.

“With this role, I’m always angry and my head feels overheated, so the first thing I do when I get home is cool down in the bath (laughs),” she said with a smile.

Unpublished cut Anne Nakamura Interview: “Maybe it’s okay to be less bound and a bit freer”