Shogun is a five-part miniseries that aired on NBC in September 1980. Starring Richard Chamberlain as John Blackthorne, Toshiro Mifune as Toranaga, Frankie Sakai as Yabu, and Yoko Shimada as Mariko, the miniseries earned critical praise and picked up several prestigious awards, including three Primetime Emmy Awards (including Outstanding Limited Series) and three Golden Globe Awards (including Best Television Series – Drama). The miniseries was directed by Jerry London, a veteran of television whose credits include episodes of Hogan’s Heroes (1965-71), The Doris Day Show (1968-73), Hawaii Five-O (1968-80), The Brady Bunch (1969-74), The Partridge Family (1970-74), The Bob Newhart Show (1972-78), Kojak (1973-78), The Six Million Dollar Man (1973-78), and Happy Days (1974-84), as well as the sci-fi-oriented TV movie Killdozer! (1974). For his efforts on Shogun, Mr. London was nominated for Outstanding Directing in a Limited Series or a Special for episode 5 of the celebrated miniseries. In September 2023, Jerry London spoke to Brett Homenick about his memories of directing Shogun.

Brett Homenick: Prior to getting involved with Shogun (1980), had you seen any Japanese movies? If so, what were they, and what did you think about them?

Jerry London: Just Seven Samurai (1954) – the famous ones with [Toshiro] Mifune, and I liked them. But, once I heard I was doing the show [Shogun], I did research, and I ran about 20 of them from different directors just to get the feel of it. It was very educational. I’m glad I did it.   

BH: And that, of course, leads to the next question: How did you get involved with Shogun?

JL: Well, I did one of the first miniseries they ever made, which was Evening in Byzantium (1978). Then I did another one called Women in White (1979), so I was one of the few directors that had done miniseries, so I had the experience. Also, I had worked for Paramount on quite a few shows, so they knew me.

So, when the project came [up], my wife had read the book, and I hadn’t. And she said, “It’s a real difficult show; they’ll probably never make it,” which made me interested because I always like a challenge. So I talked to my agent, and I said, “Why don’t we find out if we can get this?” So he went to Paramount and suggested me, and the head of Paramount knew my work. It was because I had done miniseries, and I had worked for Paramount, and they knew me. Those three things brought me to [Shogun].

There was only about three directors they were considering, and they picked me, luckily.

BH: Would you happen to remember the other directors they were considering?

JL: I think one of them was Marvin Chomsky, and I don’t remember the other two.   

BH: After that, what happened next in the process? Could you walk us through that?

JL: Well, they didn’t have a script yet; the script was being written. But, after I read the book – I read the book twice – they said, “A writer is working on it. You should meet with him and talk to him.” Eric Bercovici was the writer, and I went to his house.

We talked it over, and he said, “You know, this project is going to take two years of your life, and it’s going to be almost impossible because you’re working in a foreign country, and they don’t speak the language. Are you sure you want to do it?” He almost tried to talk me out of it because it was so difficult. So I said, “No, I’m interested, and I want to go forward.”      

So I went to Japan with an outline of the book and met with the Japanese people over there. I also took an American art director with me, Joe Jennings. We started looking at various locations, and we did some minor casting of the other roles. Toshiro Mifune had already been set, and that was the first thing they did. But, when the book came out, they tried to get a hold of him, they told him what it was about, and they set him [in the cast].

I spent, I think, two or three weeks there. I came back home, and by this time Eric had finished part one of the script. The script was about 10 hours long. So I started reading the script and kind of getting the final casting – the parts that I would need, plus the locations.

The next step was, I went over again in about a month, went to England to cast the parts of the English sailors in London. Then I went back to Tokyo and set up an office and really got into it. We had about four people from the States – various department heads. We just went ahead and started seeing what the challenges were. We started selecting the locations, and I started doing readings with actors with interpreters because I would say 90% of them didn’t speak English.

That was another couple of months, and then at this time the scripts came in. I read them, and I saw how difficult it was going to be. And I said, “I’m going to have to have a producer or writer over here,” because, as we film, it never goes exactly as you expect, and you have to make changes.

So I called Eric, and I said, “You should come over and produce this thing.” And he said, “I don’t want to live in Japan for a year!” I said, “Eric, I really need you!” And I also called Paramount and told them the advantage of having him there as the producer, and that’s what happened. They sent him over, and luckily they did because he was great with working with the Japanese. There was a lot of problems.

I just continued making the film, and I never had to deal with the production problems. He did all that, and I just kept shooting. It was a real smart move.  

There’s a couple of chapters on Shogun [in my autobiography From I Love Lucy to Shogun . . . and Beyond: Tales from the Other Side of the Camera], and [it] explains why it was difficult. I’ll just give you some highlights.

First of all, the Japanese wanted an entire Japanese crew instead of Americans, so they didn’t really want an American director. So I had to kind of work my way into their personalities to show them that I knew what I was doing, and I was respectful. They eventually accepted me, but they still have a certain way of working and separate rules and everything that you really have to go with.

That’s why Eric came over. He worked out all the details as I just kept casting and getting it ready. For instance, when we had a problem with a Japanese crew member, we said, “You know, we have to replace the prop man; it isn’t working.” They said, “Oh, no, we don’t ever replace anybody on the show. When a Japanese crew member is brought on to your project, he is in for the entire shoot.” That’s the rule; they keep him for the whole shoot. So I had to get a second prop man to work with – those kind of problems.

And then, when we worked at night, they had certain rules, etc., etc., but it’s not the same thing as shooting with Americans, who are very loose, and they can go any which way to make it work. So dealing with them and getting to know them took a while. I was there a long time; I was there almost nine months. The rest of the period was post-production, which we did back in the States.

BH: Well, during this time, when you were in pre-production, casting and scouting locations and so forth, around what months and year was that?

JL: It was in 1979, towards the beginning of the year. We started filming, I think, in April of ’79, and I finished [at] the end of the year – I think the beginning of December somewhere. The rest of the period back in the States was post-production. But I was there through the summer and the winter in Tokyo and Kyoto and Nagashima [in Mie Prefecture]. Those were the three locations.  

BH: When you were involved with casting the Japanese actors, you mentioned having interpreters there, and obviously you don’t speak Japanese, so what exactly were you looking for when you were casting them?

JL: Well, basically, to see if they can act. You could tell if an actor can act in any language when they’re reading the lines. You could really tell either they don’t give you enough, or they give you too much, etc., etc. So I could tell, pretty much, and the interpreters were very good. They were really sharp.

The only thing was, [there was] a tremendous amount of parts – probably a hundred parts – so it took quite a while. That’s the way we did it.

All the departments, the Americans, had interpreters – the five or six department heads. We all had them, and I must say the interpreters were excellent.

BH: And it’s also been said that Sean Connery was approached for one of the roles. Is there truth to that?

JL: Yes, that’s true. In the very beginning, when they were setting it up, they offered it to him, and he did not want to do television, so he turned it down. I think they also offered it to Roger Moore, and I can’t remember who the other one was.

Sean turned it down, and then they decided for [Richard] Chamberlain, and he was fantastic. It was a very good choice.

BH: Also, during the pre-production time, around the time that you joined the production, had Toho already been chosen as the Japanese company, or was that decided when you were in Tokyo?

JL: I think that James Clavell, when he set up the project, got the production people in Tokyo to set it up, and then, when the scripts came in, and they made the budget, the original budget was, like, $22 million. The original Japanese production company needed some other money, so that’s when they suggested Toho. That’s how they got the second company in, and they raised the rest of the money.

BH: You wouldn’t happen to remember the original production company, would you?

JL: No, I don’t.

BH: Certainly. Going back to Eric Bercovici, during the writing process, how much input, if any, did you have?

JL: Actually, I didn’t have any. After the scripts were written, that’s when I gave my input, as far as what the problems were of shooting certain scenes, etc. I worked pretty close with Eric, but this was after the scripts were written.

Eric’s biggest job was, how to condense a 1200-page book into 10 hours. It was actually 12 hours with commercials. So his biggest problem was, what scenes to eliminate. So, when he went through the book – and he read it, I don’t know, five or six times – he kept marking out sections that he would take out. And then he gave the book with those sections marked to Clavell so Clavell could approve [it] because this was his baby, [so] this is the way we were going to do it.

He thought Eric did a great job. If you know the book, and you’ve seen the production, there’s not much to miss in there. Most of the scenes were battle scenes, but the story itself was completely in the film. He kept all of that. Eric was great in editing the book. That was the major problem – getting it down.

BH: Speaking of James Clavell, what was your working relationship with him like? What [were] your interactions?

JL: Well, when I first met him, it was in the States, and he met me and the other prospects, directors, and he ended up liking me. And then, when I went over to London to do the casting, he came over, and he sat in with me to cast the English actors. And then, when we went to Japan the first time, he was there with me. He was with us in the van, going around locations and stuff.

After the prep, which was that, he never showed up again. He saw the dailies back in the States. The only time I ever saw him again was when we finished. He came in at the end.

BH: Do you remember his reaction to the film?

JL: I think he was pretty pleased. (laughs) It was such a big, big production – the biggest they’d ever done on television, basically, except maybe for Roots (1977). But he was pretty happy; I never had any problems.

BH: Going back to Richard Chamberlain as the lead, what led to his casting in particular?

JL: Basically, they wanted an actor who had had stage experience because of the way the dynamics of the interrelationship between the Caucasian and the Japanese, and they felt they needed somebody that had a pretty good background.

He was suggested, and they looked at a lot of his films, and basically he was it. I don’t remember any other choices when we went for a non-“movie star.”

BH: In Japan, working with Richard Chamberlain on the set, do you have any memories of working with him?

JL: He was a real pleasure, I’ll tell you. He never gave us any problems. He could really make any scene work. He was one of those actors that was very flexible. I’ll tell you, he made my life very easy. He was a very good actor, working with the director and the Japanese.

He learned quite a bit of Japanese. In fact, he could speak it better than I could. I learned about a hundred words. But he did really well. And the interaction with the Japanese people, he was terrific. In fact, most of the cast I had was very good. I can’t recall any problems with any of them.

John Rhys-Davies, who played Rodrigues, hadn’t done much before. He was a real find. He made that part really fly. As far as the Japanese actors, once they respected me, I got along with them great.

The biggest problem shooting it was the technical stuff. It was very complicated. Some of the scenes were just really tough to shoot, like the earthquake scene and the battle on the sea where they blew up all the ships. So everything had to be storyboarded. I had 10 cameras going on the earthquake scene; we only did it once. That’s in my book; that’s quite a chapter on what happened.

Luckily, I had a crew that worked, Eric was with me, and a great script. So, as far as the director goes, I just had to keep sane when I was doing it because of all the complications, production-wise.

BH: John Rhys-Davies was a big discovery. Right after that, he did Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Do you remember how he was cast and what you saw in him?

JL: I can’t remember too many other actors that came in, but I do remember that he knocked our socks off when he came into the reading. He was Rodrigues. I mean, we had a lot of laughs because he put a lot of humor into the part. He was a real find.

BH: Do you have any memories of John Rhys-Davies in Japan, interacting with him on or off the set?

JL: He loved to eat. (laughs) We went to a lot of restaurants. He was just a lot of fun. I can’t recall too much about it. When I look back on it, it was kind of an adventure I’d never have again. Most people never get a chance to do what I did. It [was] different, complicated, and it turned out great. It had such great ratings, and most of the reviews were very good. So it’s all positive.

BH: Excellent! Let’s talk about the Japanese cast.

JL: Well, one of the big parts was Yabu, who was an actor by the name of Frankie Sakai, who was a comedian in Japan, and he was really good. He made Yabu sing. If you review it again, you’ll see Yabu was great.

We had a lot of trouble casting Mariko because none of the Japanese women, the actors, spoke any English at all. So it was a real problem because Mariko did have to speak English because she was the co-star.    

So we looked at every possible Japanese actress, and it just didn’t work out. We had the whole show cast, and everything was ready to go, and we didn’t have her part cast. At one point, they suggested we hire an American actress and put her in Japanese makeup, which was ridiculous; we couldn’t do that.

At one point, we were going to postpone because we couldn’t find her. And then, at the very last minute – like, two weeks ahead of filming – the Japanese casting department said, “Oh, a new actress just finished a play, and we thought maybe you’d like to read her.” I said, “Absolutely.”

We were rehearsing, and she [Yoko Shimada] came on set and started reading. Eric and I looked at each other, and we said, “Can you do those lines again?” We didn’t believe it because we could actually understand her English. She did it again, and we went to the casting director and said, “Sign her now. Sign her now.” That’s how she got the part – the very last minute.   

BH: I’ve read that there was another actress cast before her who dropped out at the last minute. Is there truth to that?

JL: Yes, there was. I think her name was Judy Ongg, and she was an entertainer. We’d cast her, and then, when the schedule came out, they saw it, and they said, “Well, she’s gotta take this weekend off, and she’s gotta be here because she has all these engagements.” And [we] said, “No, that’s not possible.” So they said, “Well, she can’t do it then,” and they pulled her because she was very popular. She was a singer-entertainer in Japan.   

BH: I see. Do you have any other memories of working with Frankie Sakai?

JL: Frankie [who] played Yabu – I just told you all about that. It was all fun. He was great, and he spoke wonderful English. He was a very generous man; he took us out to different spots. He was great.

BH: Of course, the big star was Toshiro Mifune at the time, so let’s talk about him – what you remember.

JL: When I first met him, I was in the office in Japan, and there was this real handsome guy in there. I didn’t know who he was because, without the makeup and the costume, you wouldn’t recognize him. (laughs) I didn’t know who he was.

He doesn’t speak much English, or, if he does, he doesn’t use it. He was very quiet, kept to himself, and he did his job, and I never had any problems with him. He just did the work, and he had his own people with him. He had a couple of ladies that took care of him, as far as his own makeup, wardrobe, etc.  

But he was really terrific. In fact, one story is, when he was riding a horse at one time – he had a scene where he had to ride into this compound – I said, “[Should] we get a double?” “No, no, I want to do it myself – my stunts myself.” He did it, and he fell off the horse. Luckily, he wasn’t hurt, but boy it could have been real tragic, let me tell you.

BH: In that meeting with him, when you didn’t recognize him, how did you actually find out it was him?

JL: Well, I kept looking at him. I said, “He looks familiar; he looks familiar.” So I went over and asked, “Who is that?” He said, “No, that’s your lead!” (laughs) That was him. Have you ever seen any Japanese films where he plays just a regular [person in] a non-period piece? He’s a real handsome guy.

BH: Yes, I have. He has a very striking appearance. I’ll read a couple of names [of] other Japanese actors, and you may recognize them; you may not. So just tell me if you have any memories or not. How about Yuki Meguro?

JL: Yes, I know the name. He had a good part in the thing. I don’t remember too much about him, but I do remember his name.

BH: There’s also Masumi Okada, who played Brother Michael.

JL: Yeah, that was a minor role. Didn’t have much to do, but I remember him.

BH: Yosuke Natsuki, who played Zataki.

JL: Don’t remember him.

BH: How about Ai Matsubara, a female, who played Rako?

JL: Don’t remember her. (laughs)

BH: I ask [about] these [actors] because they are sort of well known in Japan, so I’m just looking for anything you might remember. Next is Shin Takuma, who played Naga.

JL: Naga, I remember. That was a good part – very interesting part. I do remember him, though.

BH: Do you remember the actor [Shigeo Kato] who got decapitated? There was a fake head made for the actor.

JL: Yeah.

BH: What do you remember about filming the decapitation scene?

JL: Well, we had to work it out, how we were going to do it. They still talk about that scene and the scene where Blackthorne [Richard Chamberlain] gets pissed on. Those two things [had] kind of never been on television before.

In fact, when NBC first saw the show, they said, “You know, we can’t show this on television.” We all said, “Well, we’re going to do it,” and Clavell, who had a lot of power at the time, said, “It stays. Don’t even ask us to take it out.”  

BH: Do you have any memories of actually shooting the scene?

JL: Yeah. We had it pretty well prepped out. We had the actor in there first and did everything except, when the blade came down, we stopped, and then we put a dummy up on a platform. Of course, the whole thing was in the editing – how quick it’s done; you can’t tell the difference.

BH: The reason I ask about that is because I was actually friends with the actor who got decapitated, and he still had the fake head.

JL: Oh, no kidding! (laughs)

BH: I have a picture I took of him [with the fake head]. I can send it to you after we’re finished.

JL: Yeah, I’d like to see it.

BH: He died in 2020. He was almost 95, so he lived a long time.

JL: Oh, really?

BH: He showed me this head, and he said it was like a treasure. He said he was very proud of it. But it was at a cafe, and the waitress came by, and she was looking at it, like, “What’s that? That’s so gross!” So it was pretty funny.

JL: (laughs) Yeah, I’d love to see that picture. That’s great.

BH: Certainly. I’ll send it to you when we’re finished. Next, how about Orson Welles as the narrator?

JL: Well, that came in later. We had subtitles, and the network kept saying, “You know, we really should hear this, but we’d like to get somebody to narrate it.” So we talked about it, and of course Orson Welles has this great voice. At the time, he was a very big man; he was in a wheelchair at the time because of his size. He couldn’t really get around much.

I remember we paid him $50,000, plus a box of his favorite cigars. That’s what he wanted.

BH: (laughs) Do you remember how long it took for him to record his lines?

JL: Oh, I think we did it in two days. Not 10 hours a day, but three or four hours one day and three or four hours the next day.

BH: And the music was composed by Maurice Jarre.

JL: Well, he’s very famous for doing David Lean movies and so forth – Doctor Zhivago (1965), etc., etc. He was a wonderful choice; I loved the music.

BH: Did you have any interaction with him?

JL: Well, when we scored the movie, I was there, sure. Talked about different types of music for various scenes. He was easy to get along with and really good. The scoring took a couple of weeks. We had big orchestras, etc.

BH: You also worked with Andrew Laszlo as the cinematographer.

JL: Right. He was from New York, and he was suggested to me. I checked out his various films. He had a tough job because he had to work more closely with the Japanese crew. He was uptight a lot of the time because he had really a tough job. I must say, he probably had the roughest job of any of the Caucasians on the show.

BH: What made it so difficult in particular?

JL: Well, when a DP [director of photography] is working, he’s explaining, “We want the lights here,” [etc.] Of course they have different descriptions of what they want to do, so it was like a different language. So his interpreter had to explain this and that, and it took a long time. So he had more pressure than most of the people on the show.

BH: In general, what do you remember about shooting at Toho Studios?

JL: It was cold in the winter and hot in the summer. They didn’t have air conditioning; I remember that! (laughs)

BH: You also filmed at Himeji Castle in Hyogo Prefecture as a stand-in for Osaka [Castle]. Why was that decision made?

JL: Well, because it was perfect for what was described in the book. I was able to get some really good long shots of the castle. Also, when Blackthorne first goes up there, they have this wonderful stairway and path going up there, which made [for a] beautiful production shot. It was a really terrific place to shoot, and luckily they gave us permission.

BH: Could you also talk about the difficulty of filming at Nagashima?

JL: Well, the problem there was that it was just a desolate little town. They’d never really seen Americans or Caucasians before. They had all these little fishing boats in the harbor, and, when we [looked] out [over] the water, we said, “Well, you’re going to have to move all these boats out of there and then bring them back.” So, production-wise, it was a big deal.

Then they had to build the road from where everything came in, and they built roads through the town. It was a lot of art-direction work in putting up various buildings, and they kind of made the whole set.

I know when we filmed there – we were there a couple of months – we were just about finished, and the weather forecast said that a big gale was going to come in. So we had to hurry up to finish. They felt that this storm was going to be so big it would knock down any of the sets we had and so forth.

Luckily, I finished [at] about 1:00 on that last day, and I got on a train and went out to Kyoto – I took a train to Kyoto. The rest of the crew were packing up, and they were coming the next day. It started to rain in the middle of the night, and that gale came in, and it just did wipe out the whole town down there. The crew got out, but luckily we finished in time. It could have been real tragic.

The other thing is, when the American and Caucasian crew would walk down the street in Nagashima, the kids would follow us because they never saw white people before. Of course, most of us had beards and stuff – they thought we were Martians! The kids would look at us real strange, and they went, “What is going on with these people?” It was a real primitive area.

BH: (laughs) Wow, interesting! I’ve also read that a stunt man was injured during a horse-riding scene. Could you tell me about that?

JL: Actually, it was the earthquake scene; it wasn’t the horse-riding scene. What happened was, when they set [up] the earthquake scene, they dug out these trenches, and they put platforms on top of the area that was going to fall, and they had little braces underneath the platforms. With an electronic charge by the special effects people, they’d hit it, and then the trapdoors would open, and they were topped with dirt, and all the dirt would fall in it. It gave the impression of the earthquake.

It took a couple of months to set this whole thing up because it was large; it was a big, big, long area. When we were there, as I said, I had 10 cameras. Some of the actors were in it – horses and everything else. When we started to film, I said, “Action!” I looked at the SPEX [special effects] man, and he hit this charge, and nothing happened. So we cut, and I said, “You’d better check it and see what’s going on.”

So he went, and he checked it. What happened was, it rained, and the dirt got [turned into] hard mud. Even though the trapdoors opened, they didn’t fall in. He said, “I gotta loosen them up, and it’s going to take me a couple of hours.” I said, “Well, you know, it gets dark this time of the year at five. You’d better be ready in two hours.” And he said, “I will be.”

He got it ready, so we had about a half hour left of daylight. “Action! OK, hit it, Bobby!” He hit it, and nothing happened again. We were all slightly panicked, me especially, because I hadn’t shot anything that day. The whole day’s work was the earthquake.

So he said, “I don’t understand it. I’m going to go down there and see what happened.” So he went down into where the ruts were cut out, and, while he was there, the rest of the platform fell, and he fell, and all the dirt came on top of him. He was buried alive.

Now, all the crew members were yelling and trying to get him out. By doing so, they put so much pressure on the area, more dirt fell in. And I could just hear him when we kept yelling to him, “Are you all right? Are you all right?” He said, “I can breathe. I got a little hole here, but everything’s on my back. Get me out!”

So we called the fire department and the emergency people, and they started digging him out. It took a while. They got him out, got him in a helicopter, and took him to the hospital. Luckily, he was not seriously injured, but that’s what happened. He was actually the special effects guy.

BH: And that was Bob Dawson?

JL: Yes.

BH: I’ve also read that someone apparently missed his cue and ruined a night battle scene. Could you talk about that?

JL: (laughs) In the book, I’ve pretty well laid the whole thing out. But, basically, I’ll give you the short form of it. Chamberlain was on top of the galley slave ship, heading toward these samurai, which were in these small fishing boats, and they all had rifles.

I was waiting for the galley slave ship to get in line with the fishing boats, but the problem was that the tide kept moving, so we could never line them up properly. It was either to the right or to the left. It took hours, and of course we were shooting at night.

It took hours to try to get it right. Nothing worked; nothing worked at all. Finally, before we gave up, I said to him, “Well, I’ll tell you what: Just put them way out to the right, and I’ll wait for the tide to bring them in. When I see the tide brings them in, I’ll give the cue to Chamberlain, who, when he tells you, ‘Now!’ that’s when they all fire at each other and blow up all the boats.”

So we started rolling, and sure enough the tide was bringing them in line. A minute went by, two minutes went by, and I’m still rolling film. All of a sudden, after a couple of minutes, Chamberlain got restless and said, “Hey, Jerry, when do I say, ‘Now’?”

As soon as the Japanese heard “Now,” they started firing; they blew up everything. Of course, nothing was lined up yet. So we had to come back and do it another time.  

And then, as the boat went by, Richard looked at me, and he said, “Hey, I screwed up, didn’t I?” (laughs)

BH: (laughs) Do you have any other memories of shooting in Japan, or even in your life in Japan – anything else you could share about that?

JL: No, all I can tell you is that I had a great time when I was off the set. The Japanese were very social. It was completely different when we were off the set than when we were on the set. It was just two different atmospheres, and it was really tough.

I remember, when we finished, we were on a stage in Kyoto, and it was, like, at 10:00 at night. They said, “OK, guys, that’s a wrap.” Everybody applauded. And I looked at this little dot on the floor of the stage. It was like a little white dot. I looked at it, and I walked over. I looked up, and there was a hole in the ceiling of the roof of the stage. The moonlight shined through this hole and hit the stage. I walked into this, and I looked up. I said, “Thank you, God!” because I got through it. (laughs)

BH: (laughs) When it was all wrapped, was there a wrap party with the cast and crew? What was there?

JL: Yeah, on the set. We didn’t make a really big deal out of it. Everybody wanted to go home; we were there for such a long time. They couldn’t wait to pack up and get out. But, yeah, on the set we had drinks, and everybody shook hands, etc., etc.

I was there so long, I forgot what my house looked like in the States. (laughs)

BH: Well, how long did it take to shoot in Japan?

JL: Six and a half months of filming. Then you had the prep, which was three months. So that was it. Of course, I’ve done a lot of miniseries, and usually the most you’re ever on location is – three months is a lot. But this was over six months.

BH: When you were in Japan during your off time, did you have any hobbies or interests that you pursued?

JL: My wife and I traveled around. We went to Hiroshima, and we went up in the mountains and stuff. It’s a beautiful country. So, basically, it was just seeing what we could see on weekends, etc.

BH: While you were in Japan, did you happen to meet any film personalities, perhaps Akira Kurosawa, or anyone interesting like that?

JL: Kurosawa was shooting Kagemusha (1980) on another studio somewhere at the time. I remember, when we were doing the battle scenes, they said, “Well, we can’t do it this week because he is using 400 extras on Kagemusha, and the costumes wouldn’t be ready.” So we had to delay for two weeks to do those scenes. I never met him, though; I never did.  

BH: Was any of it shot in the States?

JL: No, no, none of it. It was all done in Japan.

BH: When the film came out, obviously the miniseries played first, but then there was also an edited TV movie version of it. How did you feel about that version?

JL: It was a piece of crap. Well, they were trying to make some more money. Actually, it was originally made to go in the theaters as a small film. I had nothing to do with it. What happened was, they hired a separate editor to go through the footage and try to construct a two-hour film, and of course it didn’t work. It was no good. They did it because they were trying to make some extra money, but it was pretty bad.

BH: In terms of the post-production, is there anything you could share about editing the film, putting it together, and that sort of thing?

JL: Well, I had five editors, and I spent months in the editing room, going from one editor to the next editor, making changes, moving scenes, etc. And I’d go back to the first one again. But my team was very good. It was just cumbersome because there was so much film to go through.

BH: But, overall, would you say it was a smooth process, other than the fact that there was just so much material?

JL: Oh, yeah. I had great people. They were terrific. When I was first filming – just to go back – and I had all these problems I was solving [in] the first months I was there, I was thinking, “You know, maybe my life’s too short. I shouldn’t be here this long. Maybe I’ll just drop out.”

On that Saturday, I went into the cutting room, and they had half of the first episode edited. And I looked at it on the Moviola, and I knew it was great. I could see what I had, and that’s what made me fight my way through to finish it. I knew right away when I saw the film what was put together, and I was right.

BH: Certainly, it was a big success with high ratings. Of course, it won some Emmy Awards and so forth. What was your reaction when all the success came in?

JL: Well, I was very happy because I had worked so hard. I was very happy that it was accepted so well. You know, they still talk about it today. I go out to a lot of colleges and talk about it. They all want to hear about the Japanese culture and how it was to film it. I do a lot of speaking engagements about it even today. It’s a piece of TV history.

BH: Is there anything else – any other final comments that you’d like to share before we wrap up?

JL: Well, all I can tell you is, it’s the best thing that, I think, has ever been done on television, and it’s the best thing I ever did. And I thank my lucky stars that I had an opportunity to work on something that was this good. I really do. Very proud of it.