Joe Odagiri's Thoughts On Kamen Rider Kuuga
 

Well, this is a bit disheartening to find out that his negative feelings WERE true, at least when he started.

'Cuz it seems like he warmed up to it according to this older blog post.

Well I hope he doesn't have the same feelings anymore, I would love if he came back to be Kuuga again but I don't know if that'll happen.

That's sad. Let's hope that he returns for a theoretical Heisei vs Neo-Heisei Rider war movie as the man who started it all for a new generation.

Never happening. The last time he appeared on a tokusatsu was a small cameo in Daimajin Kanon, and that was only as a favor to the director. He's moved on with his film career and doesn't look back on Kamen Rider as anything other than a job he had to do once. If you know Doctor Who at all, think of Odagiri as the Chris Eccleston of Kamen Rider.

I wonder how the movie/tv industry works. Do actors just go for any auditions in a role just to get a job?

From my understanding, a lot of times it's their agents who get them their gigs that are recommended to their clients (the actors/actresses).

Odagiri's case is kind of odd.
He went in for a role in GoGoV, and blew it. There he met Takatera outside of the audition room.
When Kuuga project started Toei was in favor for pro-wrestler Tanahashi Hiroshi from NJPW to take the role as Godai and Kuuga, while having other wrestlers as the Gurongi. Takatera defied the decision of the sponsors, and brought Odargiri on board.

Hiroshi Tanashi was almost a Kamen Rider?! That's freaking awesome!

Damn that sucks, well maybe someday later on he will like if they pay him a lot. He is one of my favorite actors from Kamen Rider.

I rather take a actor that is willing enough to come back. Who wants to pay some one to come back for a role if they didn't at least enjoy it?

Never thought I'd dislike a show WITH the lead actor, but there you go. Here here Odagiri, Kuuga is overrated and a bit poop.

I agree. I think that Godai returning would be seriously undermined by the fact that it's public knowlege that he doesn't enjoy the role. There's plenty of actors who love being Riders, like Decade, Double or even Rider 1, so why spend time, effort and money to get back someone who doesn't?

And I personally thought Godai was a rubbish character to begin with. They could put in a scene officially replacing him with Yuusuke Onodera from now on and we'd have a better character whose actor might actually want to come back.

Agreed, Yusuke is everything Godai actually claimed to be and in turn was able to be a greater hero, despite barely ever getting to transform, than Godai was in his entire series.

Well if you click the link right under the first one you will see that he in fact warmed up to his role. He wasnt a fan of Tokusatsu when he did the part but after working with the Staff and doing Kuuga he warmed up to the genre.

He was at a cast reunion in 2008 and even agreed to come back to a Kuuga reunion film that unfotunately never happened.

Oh that's good to know. I wish there was a cast reunion that would be so much fun.

Well I think it would be something else if he did come back since he says that he's warmed up to the role, I honestly want all the past riders to come back who can.

Honestly, I think the complete opposite, Yusuke is everything that Onodera wishes he could have been. Godai is basically if Kuuga was Batman and Onodera is if Kuuga was Robin. Not saying that I don't like Onodera I just thought Godai is the Superior Kuuga who lived up to his potential. His friends helped him evolve and grow, he managed to achieve his ultimate form through his kind and gentle heart, not through anger which is something that I'll always love about Kuuga. Now see I watched Decade before I watched Kuuga which leads to some of the bias but Kuuga is one of my favorite series and from the moment I watched the first episode of Kuuga, I thought Yusuke was one of the best main characters ever and as the series went on he just got even better and better.

Did we watch the same show? Everything you described never once played a part in Godai's character in the show. He was the same character in the first episode, as he was in the last. He learnt nothing, lost nothing, gained nothing and was so disconnected from the Kuuga suit actor he may as well have been in another show which was disgusting and insulting as literally THOUSANDS died while he made curry. My hatred for both his terrible characterisation, and the blind defending of this abomination will never stop infuriating me.

Despite the the fact that Yuusuke doesn't want to solve things by brutal force
- Godai has to do it because he was the only person around who had the power to deal with the situation.
- Onodera had a choice not doing it because Decade took the load off from him already.

He didn't like it on the production end. Never heard his thoughts about watching his own show though.

Despite my loathing of Decade, I agree. I found Yusuke to be a far better character.

Anyway, I don't know why he seemed so down on playing Kuuga. Are toku roles not seen as good roles for budding actors?

I've heard that they're like a stepping stone to getting even bigger roles, at least on Kamen Rider.

The only real problem I could picture is him getting afraid of being typecast a la Kirenger, but I don't think that happened.

It was different when Odagirir started. Back then Kamen Rider was everythign from Kamen Rider to Kamen Rider Black RX and plus it was off the air for almost a decade.

To him atleast Kamen Rider and what I´ve gathered Tokusatsu in general was something he actively disliked and never had any interest in.

It depends. In most cases a role in a tokusatsu is usually considered a good way for a young actor or idol to get a lot of exposure and make a name for themselves. A lot of these actors embrace that as a part of their past and what got them where they are now (and some will even come back or stay in the genre, like Nao Nagasawa). A few do try to distance themselves from it, though. The actor who played TimeRed, for instance, is really famous for not acknowledging his time on that show, to the point where it's not even on his resume or official profile (although I've heard that may be more of a management mandate). Odagiri hasn't gone that far, but he's always made it pretty clear that he considered doing tokusatsu to be kind of slumming it.

It's not as sensational as people make it seem. Masaru Nagai, TimeRed's actor, quit acting for a while after TimeRanger and went back to college. When he got out of school he signed with a new agency and they basically gave him a fresh resume.

Also, I wouldn't put a lot of stock into that link from Orends. While it's not 100% yet, their sources are nebulous at best - basically the source they have is using a source that (thus far) only properly sourced one thing from Odagiri. It's a big game of telephone with them.

I love how this thread went from, "Oh poor Odagiri, well that's that." To," Let's shit on Godai and Onodera" in a page.

There's an old internet phrase for this phenomenon, "haters gonna hate" :p


Personally, I love him as Kuuga. I'm just happy to see him finally talking about it because I can only listen to rumors for so long before I want proof.

Same here. He did a great performance and for that I´m greatful. I personally dont care if he enjoyed doing it or not as long as he put effort into it.

Acting is like everythign else still a job and in a job you sometimes gotta do things you dont like.

I completely agree, he was fantastic.

Well I'm just glad he did do it, he helped bring back Kamen Rider, so I'm grateful to everyone who helped make Kuuga.

You can't mention Kuuga on this site without Locke showing up to say it sucks.

Like I do when Goseiger is mentioned. ;)

As I said, haters gonna hate...wait, did you say Goseiger? Hold on, let me go get my pitchfork and join you! :p

You better not, because if you do so, I'll go get Sentai and we'll defend it to our last breath. <3

Anyway, as for the topic: I think it's a proof of acting talent to take a role you do not like and make the best out of it. From what I heard so far, you don't even realize his feelings for the role while playing it, which is pretty damn amazing, because it's really hard to be convincing in a role you do not like.

I agree. Even if you don't like Godai as a character, at least you can tell he put a lot of passion into the performance.

:lol

Hey finding out even the main actor didn't like Kuuga is great for me. I just had to enjoy and savour this.

Yea, I mean, it just kinda came off as a shock for me that he didn't like the role at first. But hey, a job's a job, and he did his well.