Honami Suzuki “″Freedom″ is a word I like very much” 40th anniversary of her performing career, and she is expanding the range of roles she plays.

I want to be on stage.

Please!”

Her supple voice echoes. In contrast to her cool image, actor Honami Suzuki, 59, appeared at the interview location with light steps.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of her career as an entertainer. While boasting a career that makes her a veteran actress, she has been expanding the range of her activities and roles in recent years. In the drama “Private Banker” (TV Asahi), in which he appeared last year, he played a naive dumpling shop owner who falls victim to an investment scam, and in “Hitoshi no Hitomi” (Fuji TV), he played an indecisive personnel manager. In “Scandal Eve,” an ABEMA original drama, he gives a terrifying performance as the president of a major entertainment agency who tries to destroy the weak entertainment agency of the main character played by Kou Shibasaki (44) by any means necessary.

He is also scheduled to appear in the drama “Confrontation” (NHK BS), which will start airing on April 5. On the other hand, he has recently been working on stage productions as well as video productions.

I’ve been watching more and more stage productions for the past 10 years, and I’ve always wanted to try my hand at it,” he said. When I told people that I wanted to perform on stage, they would say, ‘I thought you didn’t like it. I never said I didn’t like it, I just didn’t have many opportunities. I thought that things in the industry were driven by image, so I thought, ‘Why don’t I just say, ‘That’s not true,’ and destroy that image,’ so I’ve been actively speaking out lately.

He continues to express his passion for the stage, and on April 3, he will open the season of “Just Sweat in My Eyes,” a play in which he plays the lead role. Beginning with the Tokyo performance, he will tour five locations throughout Japan, including Hiroshima, Osaka, Toyama, and Yamagata. In the hugely entertaining “funeral comedy,” Suzuki plays the role of a family mother who has become a ghost.

Suzuki will play the role of the ghost mother of a family in this “funeral comedy.-This is my second play with Tomisaka Tomo (40), who wrote and directed the play. When we finished the previous production, we talked about how we would like to do it again together, and it has come to fruition on this stage.

Funerals are something that everyone experiences, and I think it is a subject that can be used for many different things. There is also a famous movie by Juzo Itami (64 years old) called “Funeral”. I trust that what Mr. Tomisaka writes will definitely be interesting.

Aiming for Freedom

Recently, Suzuki has been taking on a wide variety of roles, giving the impression that he is moving more and more freely. When we asked him about this, he responded with some surprising words.

I like the word “free” very much. I want to be free. I am very happy that they wanted me to play the villain in “Scandal Eve. I have played various roles one at a time, and I am glad that there are people who find it interesting. I always do my best to respond to such approaches.

I enjoyed playing the bad guys,” she said with a grin.

She says she has loved TV dramas since she was a child. “Under my mother’s influence, I often watched NHK’s morning dramas and TBS’s daytime drama series, ‘Paula TV Shosetsu’ (’78),” she says. I loved Kanako Higuchi (67), who was in the Paula TV novel (“Koorogibashi” broadcast in 1978), because she was so wonderful.

When she was a junior in high school, she applied for the “Horipro Talent Scout Caravan” and won the judges’ special award out of 120,000 applicants. However, she recalls that she was not prepared for the challenge of “definitely going into show business.

In my high school days, audition magazines were circulating and were very popular. So I took it rather easy. I never expected to pass the audition and be able to continue working for a long time. I also took the college entrance exam, so it wasn’t like I was going to go to …… with a strong will.”

Forty years have passed since the beginning of her career. The veteran actress is now flapping her wings most freely.

In the March 26 issue of “FRIDAY April 10” and the paid version of “FRIDAY GOLD,” she also reveals her changing values after her absence and the books that have recently influenced her.

For more details and multiple photos, click here↓.

From the April 10, 2026 issue of FRIDAY