Exclusive Interview: Anna Akana Talks Blade of the 47 Ronin, Her Leading Role, and More

Anna Akana is an award-winning talent who is best known for the dynamic characters and stories she’s brought to life in projects including Youth & Consequences, Corporate, and Jupiter’s Legacy.

Currently, she can be seen leading the extraordinary cast of Netflix’s Blade of the 47 Ronin. In this sequel to 47 Ronin, a new class of warriors emerges among the Samurai clans to keep a sought-after sword from falling into the wrong hands.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Anna about her career as a storyteller, Blade of the 47 Ronin, representation in media, and more.

PC: How did you discover your passion for storytelling?
Anna: I’ve been writing stories for as long as I can remember. Do you remember Xanga? I used to write fan fiction about all of my friends in middle and high school. Then I did erotic stories on FanFiction.net about my favorite anime characters. [laughs]

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Anna: I always cite Margaret Cho as the entire reason that I have a career. I saw her perform standup when I was eighteen or nineteen. Seeing someone who looked like me up on stage for the first time is what propelled me to start moving forward.

PC: In addition to acting, you’re also a writer, director, producer, and creator. How have your experiences behind the camera impacted the way that you approach your work on screen and vice versa?
Anna: Doing YouTube in particular, I had to film myself, watch it, and edit it. It really gave me an awareness of my body and face that I didn’t have innately. Some people are naturally good at acting. I was not one of those people. I had to work very, very hard. Doing my own content and being behind the camera is what taught me how to connect certain emotions with what I was actually emoting. Sometimes I’d be like, “Wow. I did a really great job feeling sad in that scene.” Then you watch the camera footage and my face is completely deadpan and looks annoyed. [laughs] It’s really helped root me in my body, especially because numbing is kind of my coping mechanism. Dissociating was something that was taught to me as a kid. So actually allowing myself to feel feelings and then communicate those feelings in front of the camera has been a challenge.

PC: Tell us about Blade of the 47 Ronin, your character, and what drew you to this project.
Anna: Blade of the 47 Ronin is the sequel to 47 Ronin, which came out in 2013. But the film we’re in takes place 300 years in the future. The original film takes place in the feudal era and covers the legendary aspect of the Tengu sword. In the future, the Tengu sword has been split into two. One half has been given to the samurai clan and one half to the witch clan to ensure peace and that no one clan can ever get the sword, unite it, and take over. But of course, there’s a great evil that wants to unite the sword and use its power to take over the world as evil does.

My character, Luna, is an ex-con. She has a rap sheet, and she’s coming over because she has received an inheritance from her father. She’s hoping it’s cash. Unfortunately, it’s some old relic of a sword. It’s not even a full sword. It’s half of a sword. She gets pulled into this world of samurai and witches who are battling it out for the faith of all of humanity.

I actually auditioned for Onami who was played by Teresa Ting. Ron [Yuan] actually brought me back in for Luna after he saw my Onami audition. He was like, “You’ve got a little too much edge for Onami, but enough edge for Luna.” When we were talking about it, I really loved his idea of leaning into and subverting the tropes of this type of film. We’ve all seen the chosen one who fights the great evil and who’s a fish out of water, and he really wanted Luna to be very sardonic and almost be winking at the audience. I really loved the idea of getting to do an action comedy as I’ve either lived in pure comedy or pure action, but I’ve never gotten to bring both of those together, which is my personal sweet spot and what I love to do. This was the first project where I was like, “I get to fight, but I also get to be funny.”

PC: When Ron pitched this different character to you, how did that change your mindset and preparation for this project?
Anna: It was really collaborative. Ron was a very collaborative director. He was always open to hearing my opinion about Luna and how I felt she should be informed. We both approached it from the sense of really wanting her to be as funny, witty, and wiry as possible while still tracking her emotional movement throughout the movie.

My preparation was predominantly in stunt training. We did stunt training for five hours a day. Mike Moh is a martial arts teacher. Teresa Ting is a Wushu champion. Yoshi Sudarso is an acrobatic god, as well as Mark Dacascos. Everyone was so physically capable. I was a fish out of water as an actor. I was like, “I did martial arts as a kid, but I’m not as good as these guys.” I had to really keep up with their prowess throughout the whole thing.

PC: You go into this film expecting this high-octane action flick, but what is unexpected is the humor, like you were saying, which was very intentional. You have a comedic background. How much of it was improvised versus scripted? Do you have a favorite line of Luna’s?
Anna: We were constantly adlibbing on set or rewriting jokes and trying to keep it more grounded. The writers are amazing, but there were some things that you could only address once you’re on set and have the wardrobe and environment. We tried to write everything to play to the moment and not just stick to what was in the script. My favorite joke is actually not said by me. It’s said by Dustin Nguyen’s character when he and Yoshi are fighting. Not to spoil it for everyone, but basically, Yoshi is trying to get the location of a safe out of Dustin’s character. He goes, “Where the fu*k is the safe?” Dustin says, “Where the fu*k are your sleeves?” Yoshi is in this sleeveless little vest, and I could not stop laughing when I watched it. That was born purely in the moment between those two. I feel like some of the best jokes in the film came out of the freedom we had to riff.

PC: On the flip side of that, Luna has such an emotional journey within the film, and you handled that with so much nuance. As an actress, how did you create the space for yourself to dive into that?
Anna: Oh wow. My process changed a lot. I used to be one of those actors who was like, “Let me think about all of my trauma and my sadness.” Then I got very exhausted by re-traumatizing myself with my real trauma all the time. Now I try to really root myself in this person and their circumstances by asking how I would feel and letting my imagination take on the work so that when the camera cuts I’m not bogged down in my own stuff. With her, I really tried to imagine having no family. How would I feel? Then to be abandoned by everyone after I dared give myself the hope of intimacy and connection.

PC: I love the dynamic between Luna and Teresa’s character. You have such a fun evolution throughout the film. What was it like getting to collaborate with Teresa and bring that to life?
Anna: Teresa and I had so much fun. We had such a blast. Teresa is such a little goofball. It’s so funny to watch her switch into strict traditional Onami, but we spent a lot of time in rehearsal improvising and figuring out what our tiff was. Because we never wanted it to be this girl versus this girl. We wanted it to stem from their difference in values. She’s more traditional and about duty and responsibility. Luna is more individualistic, having come from the States, whereas Onami is from Japan. It was about the cultural clash between these two perspectives. Ultimately, we felt like once we honed in on those perspectives, it wasn’t necessarily about cattiness towards each other. It really allowed us to feel empowered in our banter.

PC: You’ve said in previous interviews that you rarely saw yourself represented on screen. What has it meant to you and the rest of the cast to know that you’re ensuring that future generations won’t have to experience something similar?
Anna: It’s so great—the idea that maybe in a couple of generations they won’t even have to care about representation because it’s everywhere. I always feel like this with my older gay friends. They’re like, “We paved the way so that you don’t have to care about this sh*t.” I’m like, “Oh, yeah.” So it does feel wonderful to be like, “We have an all-Asian cast set against European architecture.” As a young Asian woman, I could watch this movie and have four or five different characters that I could relate to. Rather than when I was growing up and I could only be the Yellow Ranger because that was the only Asian I saw on screen. It’s wonderful to get to be the lead of a film where you’re like, “Everyone looks like me.” It was such a sense of community. It’s so different than it was ten years ago when executives told me to my face, “We can’t have more than one Asian on this show.” It’s amazing how much can change in a decade.

PC: The film is out on Netflix. It’s been incredibly well received. What do you hope audiences take away? Is there a scene that you’re particularly excited for your fans to see?
Anna: I’m so excited. We hit #3 on Netflix’s Top 10 in the first week. I was like, “Wow!” What I really hope people take away from the film is a sense of female empowerment and that they have a laugh. It’s a fun romp. It’s a movie that tries to entertain you and make you laugh while also delivering this wonderful cast of characters and this really cool world.

There’s a wonderful fight on the metro that I thought was phenomenal. I’m not in it, but the fight scene was so badass. I hope when people watch it, they get inspired in some form or another to be physically active. When I saw that scene, I was like, “Oh, I want to go on a run. My heart is pumped watching this fight scene.” Hopefully, people get a fun jolt out of it.

PC: The film ends pretty open-endedly. Have there been any conversations about potentially doing another film?
Anna: I’m hoping. I’m harassing the producers every day for our next film. We’ll see.

PC: You’re such a dynamic storyteller. As you look ahead to the next five to ten years, is there a dream role or story that you’d love to bring to life, either in front of or behind the camera?
Anna: I’m manifesting it now. I would love to be Doctor Aphra from Star Wars. There’s an amazing graphic novel about an archaeologist who faked her death to get away from Vader, but she worked for Vader. She’s got her own BB-8 and C-3PO, who are actually tortured robots for Vader, and a crazy dark Chewbacca who murders people. They’re this team of misfits going throughout the universe, collecting weird archaeological facts. I’m hoping one day that the Star Wars universe decides to make a rated-R trilogy.

To keep up with Anna, follow her on Twitter and Instagram. Watch Blade of the 47 Ronin on Netflix today.

Photo Credit: The Riker Brothers