Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada is no longer waging off-screen battles as he stars in the new "Shogun" miniseries. 

In the past, while performing in Hollywood films, he fought to offer an authentic representation of Japan and not a stereotypical Westernized image.

Sanada, 63, said he voiced his opinion every time he felt uncomfortable about the way Japanese were depicted in a film he was cast.

But his feedback often did not make much difference in the final cut. 

“I have always felt that there is a limit to how much I can do as an actor,” he said in a recent interview in Tokyo.

Sanada is serving dual roles in the latest production of the historical epic set in feudal Japan.

He is starring in and also serving as a producer on "Shogun," which offers him more control of the depiction of Japan and the Japanese characters.

Sanada’s Hollywood debut came in 2003, when he appeared in “The Last Samurai,” a period action drama starring Tom Cruise that became a global box-office hit. 

He then moved his base to Los Angeles to appear in a number of notable movies with ties to Japan, including “The Wolverine,” a 2013 superhero film; “47 Ronin,” a 2013 historical fantasy action film; and the 2020 biographical drama “Minamata.”

Prior to that, Hollywood made such Japanese-themed films as “House of Bamboo,” a 1955 crime drama starring Yoshiko Yamaguchi; “Sayonara,” a 1957 interracial love story with Marlon Brando; and “The Barbarian and the Geisha,” a 1958 historical romance drama featuring John Wayne.

But most of these films tended to present Japan through the imagery of Orientalism from a Western eye, such as being represented by Mount Fuji and geisha.

So, when he was offered double duty as an actor and a producer in “Shogun,” a highly acclaimed 10-episode series now streaming on Disney+, Sanada jumped at the opportunity. 

Initially, he was offered only to act in the project, which was first announced in 2018.

But the co-creators of the new series, Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo, asked him to double as a producer because "they did not want the production to seem weird to Japanese audiences."

“I told them that is what I have wanted so badly,” he recalled.

“Shogun” is based on James Clavell’s best-selling novel of the same name that is told through the eyes of an English navigator who landed in Japan in 1600 when the country was on the brink of a civil war.

The navigator, John Blackthorne, was inspired by William Adams (1564-1620), the first known Western samurai in Japan.

Blackthorne becomes embroiled in the political strife among warlords, but he deftly maneuvers around them to ascend to the highest reaches of Japan.

The first adaptation from the 1975 novel was made into a TV miniseries by the NBC network in the United States in 1980, becoming a massive ratings hit.

In the remake, Sanada plays Yoshii Toranaga, the main character modeled after Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which lasted for more than 250 years. 

Toranaga, a cunning master strategist who rarely reveals his thoughts, jockeys for power to become the next ruler, through exhausting political schemes and intrigues to outsmart his rivals.

Toranaga sees the benefits of allying with Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis). The two men were connected by Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai), a vassal of Toranaga and a converted Catholic, who serves as Blackthorne’s translator.

The original miniseries was ultimately the tale of Blackthorne told through a Western outsider’s point of view, relegating the Japanese characters to subsidiary roles. 

But the emphasis in the new version is placed on telling the story of the Japanese characters in great detail, describing their interpersonal relationships and bringing depth to these principals.

“I set out to incorporate more Japanese viewpoints in our show,” Sanada said.

He trusted that U.S. audiences wanted to see a historical drama set in Japan from a much broader perspective beyond the viewpoint of the Western observer, more than 40 years after the original adaptation.

“The level of understanding of Japanese culture in the United States is completely different from what it was back then,” he said.

The latest “Shogun” has received rave reviews for achieving an elevated sense of authenticity, starting from meticulously crafted sets to gorgeous costumes to the cast’s outstanding performances.

Sanada and his crew put tremendous efforts into making everything in the project look credible.

He began with bringing period drama specialists from Japan, including those employed at Toei Studios Kyoto, with whom he has worked with for decades.

Sanada also cast Japanese actors for the roles of Japanese characters.

He flew to Vancouver, Canada, about a month before the shooting kicked off there to make thorough preparations for the series.

There were tons of details he needed to pay close attention to: the size of belts of kimono and the width of collars, the size of "fusuma" paper sliding doors and spacing between shoji screens.

He also held a weekslong boot camp for young actors and local extras to prepare them for shooting a historical drama.

“We asked special advisers to come from Japan to show them how a maid-in-waiting walks, opens and closes shoji and carries trays and how a samurai carries himself, handles a sword and uses his voice,” he said. “When the filming began, all the extras looked natural in their kimono and wielding a sword.”

While he deployed the traditional Japanese method of making a classic period drama, he was also willing to take advantage of Hollywood’s advanced special makeup effects. 

The characters’ period hairstyles were created by combining wigs prepared by hairdressers from Japan and a bald cap, a common technique used in Hollywood.

“Our approach is not exclusively all Japan, but both Japanese and Western,” he said.

During filming, Sanada went to the studio the first thing in the morning to ensure everything was ready: the set, props and the way extras donned their kimono. Only after that, the director and crew were called in for a rehearsal.

When it came time to film his part, he switched to performance mode. And Sanada was at ease during the production, much more so than in his previous roles.

“I spent plenty of time in preparing to perform my role, so I was ready when I stood in front of the cameras,” he said. “I was grateful and even felt like I was given an opportunity to perform as a reward for working as a producer.”

In the 1980 TV miniseries, Sanada’s role was played by the internationally renowned actor Toshiro Mifune.

It is not surprising if he felt pressure stepping into Mifune's "waraji" sandals. But Sanada said he did his own take on playing the Toranaga character.

“Mifune is an actor whom I deeply admire and historical figures have been played by many other great actors,” he said. “If you feel pressured each time you were cast for a famed historical role, you would be under pressure forever. I watched the previous series, of course, but I decided to forget it for a moment and go in a different direction.”

Sanada said he is happy with how the new series turned out.

“I cannot say that it is perfect, but we did not cut corners and turned to all available resources to make our show look authentic,” he said.

Sanada also said the shift to diversity in the U.S. film industry worked in favor of a project such as “Shogun.”

“It is only natural for all Japanese characters to be played by Japanese actors,” he said. “It is bewildering that it was not the case even in the 21st century. I hope the show will serve as the new normal when a foreign culture-themed movie is made.”

But Sanada also warned against bowing to the trend of taking diversity to the extreme.

“Some movie studios are extremely nervous about being potentially criticized for a lack of diversity in their production,” he said. “(Casting people of color in a movie) just because studios fear a possible backlash would be an insult to actors.”