I've been playing these schoolgirl roles in all my movies. Every time I went to the set, it felt like I was going to school.

I think the biggest difficulty is that when I'm here in America, there's a necessity of using English, so I really have a great sense of really wanting to learn, but unfortunately when I head back to Japan, the necessity vanishes and so does my enthusiasm about learning.

My character is somebody who is smaller in stature and yet who's strong, so to see the fighting situations between people who are not generally thought of being strong is in itself unusual and therefore interesting, I think.

Without going into too much detail, the end of my major action scene, after the climax of the scene, there was one little change that I suggested regarding the way things should turn out. It was in the detail of the tears of blood.

Japan is very much a TV-centered entertainment industry. So, when you talk about big stars in Japan, generally they are people who are on television. I work mostly in movies.

I certainly look at them very differently now, and enjoy Jackie Chan movies and movies like that.

I didn't understand the American fascination with the Japanese schoolgirl. No, I don't think I can, really.