1st-time Emmy nominee Anna Sawai (‘Shōgun’): Lady Mariko ‘will always have a very special place in me’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

Anna Sawai has barely had enough time to digest receiving her first career Emmy nomination for her leading role of Lady Mariko in FX’s “Shōgun,” which earned a whopping 25 nominations for the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards. In an exclusive chat with Gold Derby recorded just hours after the nominations announcement (watch the video above), Sawai admits to feeling a bit overwhelmed. “It feels like it just got announced 15 minutes ago and I’m still processing it.”

It’s been a banner year for Sawai, who headlined not one, but two acclaimed shows: “Shōgun” and “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” which will return for a second season on Apple TV+. In addition to the Emmy nomination, Sawai has also earned four Gold Derby TV Awards nominations (Drama Actress, Performer of the Year, Breakthrough Performer of the Year, Ensemble of the Year) and just recently won the TCA award for Individual Achievement in Drama.

For Sawai, the whirlwind of filming and promoting both projects has meant that she hasn’t had the time to enjoy her success. “I haven’t really had time to sit back and look at it from a different point of view,” she says. “I wish I could just see it from an outside point of view and appreciate it a little bit more. Not that I’m not appreciative, but it’s just happening so quickly.”

Sawai admits to feeling like she wasn’t quite hitting the mark while playing Lady Mariko, and was only appeased after receiving reassurance from star and producer Hiroyuki Sanada and co-creator Rachel Kondo. Even now, the actress admits that she is taken aback when her work on “Shōgun” receives kudos. “It’s weird when people praise my performance because I still don’t believe that it was my performance,” she explains. “It really is the creators that wrote this beautiful character who is just so complicated and has so many layers. It was them, so it feels like an award that should be going to the creators and the writers. I’m just grateful that all the burden that I was feeling, all the self doubt that I was feeling probably meant that I was doing the character right.”

Though Lady Mariko’s journey in “Shōgun” is over, Sawai says the character has left a profound impact on her. “I think she’ll always have a very special place in me,” she admits. “She really brought out a different side of me artistically and I kind of have this different view on my work now. So I’ll always carry her and she’ll always be this very precious important figure.”

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