Actor Hayato Kakizawa appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) on June 26th. He revealed that he was so impressed when he saw Shiki Theatre Company's "The Lion King" in his first year of high school that it changed his dreams for the future.
His great-grandfather, Kiyomoto Shizudayu, was a Joruri narrator, and his grandfather, Kiyomoto Eizaburo, was a shamisen player, making him part of a family of two generations of Living National Treasures. However, Kakizawa himself had no interest in the performing arts. "I played soccer my whole life and wanted to become a professional, so I felt there was no way I would ever go down the path of performing arts," he recalled.
When he was in his first year of high school, he watched "The Lion King" as part of a school field trip. At the time, Kakizawa had no knowledge of musicals and didn't know anything about "The Lion King." He wanted to practice soccer for as long as possible, but once the performance started, he was "locked on" to the stage. "After the show, I went to my homeroom teacher and asked, 'How can I get in there? How can I become the lead in The Lion King?'" he revealed.
His teacher told him, "Only people who have been taking lessons in performing arts since they were little stand here. There's no way you, who've only ever played soccer, can get in!" But Kakizawa, who had no basis for his confidence, retorted, "I'll do it! I think I can do it!"
The next day, she bought songs from "The Lion King" at a CD shop. From then on, she listened to them almost every day, and her mind was completely focused on the stage. She would go out into the hallway between classes and sing songs like "Hakuna Matata."
Then, reminiscing about that time, he said, "My friends were really great guys, and they told me, 'Yuto, you could do stage work, couldn't you? You've never had singing lessons, but you have a pretty good voice.' I took that to heart, and that's how I got to where I am today (laughs). If they had told me back then, 'You can't do it,' I think I would have given up, thinking it wasn't that easy... I'm grateful to my friends."
