SCAD TVFest 2024 Exclusive: Ansel Elgort, Rachel Keller, Ken Watanabe, Alan Poul, & J. T. Rogers talk Tokyo Vice Season 2
As we near the end of Season 2 of Max’s Toyko Vice, Blackfilmandtv.com had the opportunity to speak with cast members and executive of the series including Ansel Elgort (“Jake Adelstein,” EP), Ken Watanabe (“Hiroto Katagiri,” EP), Rachel Keller (hostess “Samantha Porter”), J.T. Rogers (Creator, Writer, EP), and Alan Poul (EP, Director 201 & 202) during their appearing at SCAD TVFest in Atlanta.
Created and written by Tony Award winner J.T. Rogers, the critically acclaimed Max Original drama series TOKYO VICE returned on February 8, 2024. The ten-episode second season debuted with two episodes and continues with one new episode weekly for eight weeks, concluding on April 4.
Loosely inspired by American journalist Jake Adelstein’s first-hand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat, season two of the series, filmed on location in Tokyo, takes us deeper into the city’s criminal underworld, as Adelstein (Ansel Elgort) comes to realize that his life, and the lives of those close to him, are in terrible danger.
The series stars Golden Globe nominee Ansel Elgort, Academy Award nominee Ken Watanabe, Academy Award nominee Rinko Kikuchi, Rachel Keller, Show Kasamatsu, Ayumi Ito, and new series regulars Yosuke Kubozuka and Miki Maya.
J.T. Rogers and Emmy winner Alan Poul are executive producers alongside Alex Boden, Josef Kubota Wladyka, Brad Caleb Kane, Adam Stein, Ken Watanabe, Emmy winner Emily Gerson Saines, Ansel Elgort, Jake Adelstein, Kayo Washio, Destin Daniel Cretton, Academy Award winner John Lesher, and four-time Academy Award® nominee and Emmy winner Michael Mann. From FIFTH SEASON and WOWOW, Japan’s premium pay TV broadcaster. FIFTH SEASON handles global distribution for the series outside of Max owned and operated platforms.
What are we looking forward to in Season 2?
J.T. Rogers: So by design, the first episode of season two is really the end of season one. So it was great to have Alan (Poul) direct the last episode of season one and the first episode of season two because they're really a piece. So there is a three month time jump after episode one that sort of resets the table. So But to answer your logic question, I would say, back going back in the day, when first designing the two seasons story, my plan was to set the table in season one. And now in season two we eat and everything that has been brewing, preparing is going to slowly and then very quickly explode and flecked the way our characters lives. And everyone's going to have to face very, very life and death convert dilemmas about who they are and what they're willing to do. What wrong are they willing to do for the greater good, that's for all the characters this table as well as the main characters.
Season one established your character with getting the club and making sure that you have finances. As we walk into this season, you're now established, but you're going to have some turmoil from the inside. What more are we getting?
Rachel Keller: And the point was that she saved your own money and opened her own club with her own money that she earned from having escaped some other kind of cage that she was in. So she worked really hard to earn that money, and then it was taken from her. So it's sort of like having blinders on that it doesn't really matter where the money is coming from, I'm opening the club. And that's what's happening, because it's about protection and survival. It's not really about what's right or wrong in that moment. It's just about, you know, surviving. And then yeah, it starts to pressure her quite a bit puts her in some sticky situations. But I guess that's what's interesting and sort of dramatic. It's what you get from a serialized kind of storytelling. When you stretch it out, that's, that's the benefit really, is that you sort of set the character up in some way and you break that, and then set them on a new path and break it again. And I think these kinds of serialized sagas why we're all such fans of The Wire and Lost and Peaky Blinders, these really well done well crafted serialized television is because the characters kind of keep failing and fighting again to to earn some independence or autonomy. I think that's what we get to see with Sam.
With your character, are you more confident this season? Jake is always trying to get himself into any sort of mess. Now he’s got this new agenda with the bikes and all that stuff. Is Jake more confident than before?
Ansel Elgort: I think maybe before he was more cocky, and now he's healthy confidence this season. He's more comfortable working within the system of Japan. In Season One, I think he understands the system, but he doesn't really agree with it. So he wants to do things his own way to try to, which is so Americans like, oh, I don't agree with that rule. So I'm going to do things my own way, I'm not going to follow it. But you know, he gets burned so many times in season one, that at the end of the season when he goes to category, and he says, Please help me, you know, I don't know how to do this. I need your help. And I'm going to listen to and I'm going to be respectful to you. I'm going to be patient and I'm going to listen. So then things don't go their way. Like Sam said, a lot of things aren't going everyone's way over and over again. But at the end of episode one Katagiri tells him “Okay, now the only thing we can do is wait and be patient.” And Jake actually listens. And when we meet him and see in episode two, we see him investigating these bikers. And when he has it, he has a choice between a Yakuza story or the bikers and he takes the bikers, which just shows that more so than him being, more confident or this season. I think he's more patient and he He's like, he's working within the system really well now.
Looking at your character, your family is gone. So does that give you the opportunity for your character to be more bolder as opposed to having your family near and be a threatened anytime?
Ken Watanabe: Yeah, so my family is threatened and it’s a scary situation. Then I’m removed from the department. And then I lost something and the investigation of the Detective, then but he needs to keep the opportunity to get back to the department and then investigate together with Jake. Then, so many things happened all around the Tokyo and the Yakuza and then we need to follow up to investigate. Otherwise, it's about keeping the family safe. That is very sensitive moment. I really am enjoying the following the script.
Was it always mapped out? Or did you look to see how season one played out before you knew where to go with season 2?
J.T. Rogers: I knew the story I created and with the two seasons, it became 18 episodes. So I knew obviously, as you write it, and as your subconscious are going to pick up stuff from obviously, when you're writing Season Two after seeing these actors in season one. When we come back to make season two, one of the things that I wanted and talked about on the other PvPs that I was, we need to show even more of Tokyo. Tokyo revealed itself to be an important character, not just the story I created and season one. And so how much more can we get up into Tokyo? How much more of what parts of Tokyo that never been seen on camera before can we do and Alan really led the charge on that. I think it was a huge lift, but it really shows up on what you see. Everything is just bigger, not in a stimulative way. But in a sort of relentlessly moving forward and expanding way. What it looks like the pressure the characters are under and the new characters we bring in.
Alan Poul: When season one came out and people said, “Oh, my God, I've never seen so much of Tokyo.” And my reaction was, I think we were inside rooms way too much. And I'm glad to be able appreciate it. But we needed to show much more of the city. And that meant learning how to work within the system, because it's a very difficult city to shoot in. You have to take a long time to get to the place where you're going to have the permits. And I think season one, we were banging our heads up against the system a little more. And by season two, we had figured out how to work within the system, to not just to our own advantage, but to everyone's advantage. Because if if the police don't feel they've won it, the shopkeepers don't feel they've won, then you can't feel like you've won. Like Jake, who had to learn to work within the system.
Everything's centered around Jake. But when you have these other characters, how much goes into telling their story? Are you are you leaning back and waiting it out?
J.T. Rogers: I would respectfully disagree. I think that Jake's character is the first among equals in an ensemble. And I mean, the show was set up purposely in the first episode that you would think oh, this is a show about this one white guy in Japan. But that was my design entry point of the show. And also dramatically this show is constantly about paying attention. There's things are not what they seem, not just with Jake's character or Sam’s character.
But even for Katagiri, he’s probably the wisest, most knowledgeable in his field character. And as you'll see season two, he makes a lot of major mistakes that are not out of stupidity. Even he doesn't have all the information. The show is designed even more in season two is as Rachel said that joy is long form storytelling. You invest in all these characters and there's characters in season one that had very small parts that will purposely have much bigger parts. I won't give it away because it there's an actress who's marvelous and was asked to do a tiny part in season one. I told her “I can't tell you how yet because it hasn't been written but I promise if you if you sign on to do both seasons, you will have a lot to do next year.”
Rachel, you've had other series before but how long did it take you for you to get comfortable playing this character? Was it early on? Is it when you got greenlit for season two? And you're like, Okay, now we're good. Now we can grow?
Rachel Keller: Other side to series work is that the book is not finished? There's this wide kind of open question mark, where sometimes feels like a real opportunity. And sometimes it's that uncertain, unknown. It's quite uncomfortable. When I was doing Legion, or Tokyo Vice, it's being comfortable in the uncertainty. So there's other things you hold on to. So there was certainly much more comfort in the country, in the city, with the people, with my friends, in the comfort of coming back a second time.
Your answer was saying earlier, like, he lives in New York and and I wonder, like finish the sentence I was like, and then you go home. So Tokyo, I mean, it's really it became like, you were going home in some way. I really love living in Japan. I've felt so alive. It's so calm and so alive. It's a really beautiful, it's an imperfect country. But it's close. It's not iand we can see that wherever you are. But I guess to answer the question, simply, there really isn't comfort in the character, which is part of the design. If you're doing a play or phone where you know, the painting in the middle of the end, I'm not sure that there's comfort there either. But I’m not sure if comfort is what you're striving for. I think you're just trying to throw up some questions into the air and live inside of that uncertain, unknown thing. I mean, it's quite a treat. It's difficult, but that's kind of part of the fun, is challenging yourself to be uncomfortable
How much have you learned and grown as an actor working with an ensemble in a series as opposed to doing a film?
Ansel Elgort: This is my first time doing the long form storytelling. I had first this long prep period with Michael Mann to get as comfortable as possible, while definitely still always being uncomfortable playing this role. Llke Rachel said, she was sweating while doing this Japanese speech. Like having to show up and perform in front of a camera and speak a foreign language, and be able to feel confident and that what you're doing is making sense and is real and authentic, that's nerve wracking. But it was a great experience. And to answer your question, yeah, to have this long period of time to continue to develop the character and the character develops by itself, just through the writing as well. Yeah, I mean, I learned a lot. Also, what I learned also is that you can never do too much preparation. Actually, if we could start season one, episode one now, I'm finally prepared. And so now that we've done almost four years of this, so that's taught me you can just prepare more and more next time you do a movie, like just go Daniel Day Lewis on it and do a whole year of prep, because that's what you really need, and even then you still won't be totally comfortable.
We've also spoken about Tokyo and stuff, like when you have the opportunity to go into another country where the culture is so different. And you are so different in that culture, and you don't understand it. That's when you're going to learn so much. Because now like, yeah, I've definitely changed as a person. I've learned patience. I was never patient. I could not wait in lines. If I didn't understand the rule, I would question it. I would say why. But now for the first time, I can wait in line. I had all these delays coming here. I just came from Japan, my journey took over 30 hours and I wasn't upset when I had to wait two hours for this, I had to wait six hours for that. I just wasn't upset about it. I was accepting. Well, I've learned so much from from the Japanese people and Japanese culture. So I'm really grateful for that.