I was excited about working with Richard Gere. Oh, and Joan Allen! Oh, my God, she is such a force of nature, it's mind boggling.

I've been in a lot of cult movies, but I've been very fortunate to have been involved in projects that people remember.

Playing Japanese characters and being in environments that are Japanese, like a character's apartment or whatever, if you have directors or art directors who just don't know what' s what with Japanese culture, then pretty soon something's just passed through. I've been through many times where I've pointed out the incorrectness of so much of what's been done to a set.

I really believe that breath, in and of itself can become the ultimate self-healing tool.

Americans really don't understand the Japanese nature, but it's not an easy thing to understand.

You can't just replace someone with a regular-looking guy who didn't say any of the lines.

There's one thing about weights with action movies: Once your muscles get that tight, it's sometimes hard to stop your movement, especially if you're trying to move with some strength, and with the swords in the film.