Ayara Shida to star in two serial dramas in the January cool season, “I want to do my best so that people will say I’ve made a full-fledged breakthrough.

Actress Ayara Shida (24), who was named in the “Next Breakthrough Actress” roundtable discussion, cited the Sunday drama “Dragon Zakura” (TBS) in 2009 as the turning point in her career as an entertainer. Her role as an honor student who is subjected to domestic violence by her father, but cries and defends her father, shook the hearts of the audience.

Since appearing in “Dragon Zakura,” I have been approached by more and more people on the street. I have also been told on the set, “I saw your movie! I got a response from people close to me for the first time.

Shida’s career is surprisingly long. She was scouted and entered the entertainment industry when she was in the sixth grade of elementary school. For two years starting in 2001, she worked as a model for the fashion magazine “Pichilemon” (Gakken Plus). However, she says she was interested in acting work from the time she joined the agency. Her acting debut came in 2002. She won the lead role in the short film “Salvia” through an audition.

It was my first audition in my life,” she said. I practiced a lot with the manager, from how to introduce myself to how to create the right atmosphere. After I was selected, the director said, “I knew I was the right girl the moment I walked in. The director knew that this was my first time acting in a film, so he kindly taught me how to do it. In the scene where the sister and brother are in a train accident and she reaches out to her dead brother next to her, he gave me detailed instructions such as, “Since you were also injured in the accident, you should reach out a little more slowly. I never remember feeling any pain, and I was thrilled to realize how much fun acting could be.

While working hard as an actress, she also went to junior high and high school in her hometown of Kanagawa, and managed to balance her studies.

I went to a general high school that had nothing to do with the performing arts,” she said. It was a high school in the countryside, so my friends and I would ride our bicycles along rice paddy roads or go to the beach with watermelons we bought at the supermarket. No one treated me like a celebrity (laughs). (Laughs.) Thanks to that, I was able to enjoy my youth.

After completing her high school years, Shida faced a decision.

She decided whether to go on to college or to pursue acting as her sole career. There was no doubt in my mind. It was the first moment when I clearly realized that acting would be my career for the rest of my life.

However, soon after Shida decided to focus on her acting career, the entertainment industry was hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis.

She said, “Following the declaration of the state of emergency, the film in which I play the lead role, ‘Kasokeki Sankayo,’ had to be postponed just before the filming was to be cranked. But I didn’t look down on myself because of that. I wanted more time to think about the role, so I considered it a blessing in disguise. I played the role of a high school girl who suddenly has a step-sister because her father remarried.

Right around that time, I had to live with a relative’s baby. I was able to simulate the role by doing the housework and taking care of the baby. Thanks to that experience, I received compliments on my cooking scenes, saying, ‘You are very good with your hands’ (laughs).

Hard work does not betray you. Not discouraged by the COVID-19 crisis, he took the positive aspects of his career as a positive force, and his reputation continued to grow. After “Dragon Cherry Blossom,” he starred in two serial dramas in January of this year: “Keshinai ‘I’ – Revengeful Chain” (Nippon TV) and “Konojite Urakiri Gohan” (Nippon TV/Chukyo TV).

In “Keshinai”, I played the role of a protagonist whose life was ruined, and he takes revenge. It was a very difficult role, but it was a crazy role that I had wanted to try for a long time, so it was a good experience for me, including the time I spent worrying about it. I am both happy and frustrated, but I have been told for years that I am the ‘next breakthrough’ actor, so I will do my best to use my first starring role in a series of dramas as an opportunity to say that it is time for me to have a real breakthrough.”

When she was a teenager, she had said that her goal was to become a heroine in morning dramas. With that straightforward determination, she is sure to go straight ahead.

From the April 19, 2024 issue of FRIDAY