Landing a
leading role in the Japanese animation industry is a monumental task, and
sometimes talent takes you down unexpected paths. If the Netflix film Cosmic
Princess Kaguya! (Chou Kaguya-hime!) was to your liking,
then we have for you a fascinating detail extracted directly from the official
book of the franchise. It turns out that the talented voice actress Anna Nagase
arrived at the recording studio with the firm intention of taking the lead role
of Kaguya, but the directors had other plans for her after hearing her in front
of the microphone.
A talent
impossible to ignore
During the
rigorous selection process, Nagase's performance was so imposing that it left
director Seigo Yamashita and the sound director completely in awe. Although her
vocal style wasn't exactly what they were looking for for the title girl,
executives came to an immediate consensus: they couldn't let her go. That is
how, instead of rejecting her, they made the quick decision to give her the
role of Iroha Sakayori. The production team confessed that her performance was
extraordinarily solid from the first moment, which eliminated any need to
prolong the deliberations to integrate her into the final cast.
The
secret behind a perfect cast
Knowing
this type of internal anecdotes allows us to measure the enormous level of
demand that is handled within the recording studios. That an actress stands out
to such a degree that the directors assure her a secondary character on the
spot speaks wonders of the interpretive quality that we will see in this
adaptation. This revelation has generated a very positive response among the
community, who now have a much clearer perspective of how the cast of this
peculiar vision of the classic folk story was put together.
Knowing
that directors have the final say when it comes to assigning voices
