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Charlotte Kate Fox, 29, stars in an NHK TV drama series every morning, playing the role of Ellie in "Massan," a story about a Scottish woman and a Japanese man who open a whisky distillery in Japan. As the first foreigner to play a leading role in an NHK morning drama series, the American actress has made tireless efforts to learn the Japanese language using a special script. Fox says she has led the life of a "nomad" during her acting career and is now taking her shot in Japan.

The life of a professional actor is not easy. For Charlotte Kate Fox, an American actress, her career is no exception. "Actors are incredible because the majority of us do not act on big TV shows or movies. The majority of us are waiting tables dreaming of it." Fox said in an interview with Asahi Weekly.

Fox isn't waiting on tables anymore. The first foreigner to play a leading role in an NHK morning drama, Fox stars as Ellie Kameyama in "Massan," a character based on the Scottish wife of a pioneering Japanese man in the early 20th century who attempts to establish a whisky distillery.

Aired in the morning nationwide, she is now on a "big TV show. " But like most wannabe actors, she has experienced many "odd jobs," including waiter, bartender and baby sitter before hitting the big time. She still does not regard acting as a "normal job," but she chose this career since "acting is the only thing I truly loved and I can be consistently good at in the sense that I can keep training and learning."

Her self-determination is paying off. Fox begins each day by repeating her lines out loud over and over and listening to recorded tapes as she constantly works to master her script. Her script is specially-made. It has lines written in romaji underneath the original Japanese followed by an explanation of their meaning in English, and then a literal translation at the bottom. With all that extra information, her script is about 10 times thicker than the rest of the cast's.

"I have a whole team of people who help me in translation and keep me well taken care of," Fox said with a laugh. "There is a saying that it takes a village to raise a child, so does it to (also) raise an NHK heroine."

Fox said her experience on "Massan" has been a difficult but amazing experience, and by these endless team efforts, she claims that she can now understand almost "60 percent" of what they say. Although she has difficulty in speaking Japanese, especially when it has a "tsu" sound, she said she can still sense the proper rhythm in speaking Japanese, which she tries to do her best when saying her lines.

"In the beginning it was so difficult that every day was the hardest day of my life, and I had to give up certain things like sleep and gymtime, whatever," she said. "It took a while for a lot of the fear to go away, (fear that) I don't think I can memorize all these line�� �c that I needed more time. But now I know I don't. Now I know I can do (it), and I know how hard it is. I just had to completely dedicate every second."

Born in New Mexico, Fox loved dancing and studied ballet and jazz dancing. But when she was about 15 years old, she discovered it wasn't fun anymore. She said she did not like the "politics" of ballet, as she puts it, that "dancers (live in a) very Harsh world and it has become more about body image, how thin you are." She then joined a children's theater group and realized, "Oh, I can just be what I want to be. I don't have to be tiny and thin ballet dancer that has everything right all the time."

Fox went to the College of Santa Fe in the state capital after high school. Nursing was her major during her first semester before she switched to conservation science to "save the planet." One day, while digging a hole to set out a trap for bugs to study prairie dogs as part of a class project, she thought, "Why am I doing this?" She then rediscovered acting and entered the theater program, and graduated magna cum laude.

She went on to earn a master's degree in fine arts at Northern Illinois University, specializing in acting. Her nomadic acting life led her to New York, Chicago, North Carolina and back to New Mexico for auditions and roles she got in theater. Fox never dreamed of acting in Japan, but her peripatetic lifestyle seemed to naturally lead to the NHK drama.

Since May, Fox spent most of her time at the studio filming episodes of "Massan." The series premiered in late September, and since then, Fox has become a star in Japan. At a public event in November, she first became aware of her growing celebrity. She said she felt "overwhelmed" by the crowd of more than 1,400 fans who gathered to greet her and listen to her speak. "I felt we are making something that touches many people," she said. "It was joyful that I knew everyone was experiencing this 'Massan' story."

She also said she appreciates and respects the Japanese sense of propriety. "I'm a big fan of manners. Small things, like saying, 'Otsukare-sama deshita' have taught me some boundaries in terms of working relationships,"Fox said. "There is a great deal of respect in Japanese life."

With her husband back in the United States, Fox lives alone in Japan. She focuses on her work, sticking to her script. She is greatly respected by Japanese co-workers. "She writes notes on her script and we know that she is a very hard worker," said Kiyoshi Nishikawa, who plays the role of Ellie's husband's mentor in "Massan."

Even though she is getting wide notice in Japan, Fox knows this is far from the ultimate goal in her career. NHK dramas are not well known in the United States, so when it was announced that she had accepted the role, some speculated on why she would want to do this. "When I return, if I return (to the U.S.), it will take some explaining to people, I am sure," she said. "It will be an adjustment from a country where people know my body of work, and know what I am capable of, to going somewhere else where I have to start all over again."

Still, she said, the prospect does look "a little daunting." But when she was on stage at the November event, seeing many Japanese people cheering for her, she thanked them and said, "I have the best job in the world."

- asahi.com 1-22-15 -