Ansel Elgort and J.T. Rogers Interview: Tokyo Vice
Ansel Elgort stars in the newest series from HBO, Tokyo Vice, which is created by playwright J.T. Rogers and covers the memoir by journalist Jake Adelstein, who was the first American to be assigned to the Tokyo crime beat in the 1990s. Elgort is best known for his roles in the Divergent series, Edgar Wright's Baby Driver, and most recently in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story. The series stars Elgort, Ken Watanabe, Rachel Keller, Ella Rumpf, Shô Kasamatsu, and Tomohisa Yamashita. The pilot episode is directed by veteran filmmaker Michael Mann, with Rogers acting as showrunner.
Screen Rant sat down with both Elgort and Rogers to discuss the preparation for the role for Elgort, particularly in learning Japanese, as well as both creators' experiences working with director Michael Mann. Rogers also shares an interesting connection between himself and the real Jake Adelstein, which helped inspire him to pursue Tokyo Vice as a series.
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Screen Rant: Ansel, I wanted to start with you and I know you've probably gotten this question a thousand times already today, but it's one of the most fascinating and integral parts of the show, which is you learning the Japanese language and being immersed in the culture. Can you talk a little bit about what that process was been like?
Ansel Elgort: Yeah, it was really cool for me. It was my second language, my first time learning a foreign language and working with Michael Mann, he really demands a lot out of you. At first I was just learning the lines phonetically, but then I also realized if I just learned them phonetically I'm not gonna have as much freedom as I'd like to have as an actor. And, also we realized I should be
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