Shaping up with Tomoka Kurotani

It’s an autumn afternoon and actress Tomoka Kurotani is happily posing for photos outdoors in Aoyama. Few passersby take much notice. “Actually, in Tokyo, people generally ignore you when you are out and about. I guess they are used to seeing celebrities,” says Kurotani, 33, giving her first interview with English media.

Born in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, Kurotani says she had no showbiz aspirations when she was a child. She became a model at 17 and studied Japanese literature at university before auditioning for her first movie part, which she got in the 1995 film "Boxer Joe." Since then, Kurotani has had a prolific career, consisting of commercials, TV dramas, movies and stage productions.

Kurotani’s cheerful manner makes her sought after for various promotional events. In the last 12 months, she has been a grapefruit ambassador for Florida and was the recipient of the “Woman With the Most Appealing Teeth” honor from Philips to promote its range of electric toothbrushes. “Those events are fun on the day,” Kurotani says.

Most recently, she finished doing the stage play "Bizan" in Tokyo, Nagoya and Tokushima. Bizan depicts a mother-daughter bond that is deepened through the revelation of the mother’s memories as she fights a losing battle against cancer. “It was a really memorable experience, especially in Tokushima, where the story is set,” says Kurotani. “I find doing theater really fulfilling. With movies, you get one or two takes and that’s it. On stage, you are doing the same thing night after night, but you can go into the story and your character more deeply. The trick to keeping it fresh is to always act as if you doing it for the first time each night.”

Kurotani’s newest project is the drama "Watashi ga dasu" (It’s on Me), which is entered in the Tokyo International Film Festival. Directed by Yoshimitsu Morita ("Sanjuro"), the film stars Koyuki ("Last Samurai") as a woman with a fortune who returns to her hometown of Hakodate where she suddenly starts giving away money to her friends for them to use for their dreams and hopes. Though her refusal to say where the money came from puzzles her friends, they eventually accept her gift with mixed feelings inside and each in turn is affected in different ways, some tragic.

Kurotani, who plays one of the friends, says: “Being rich doesn’t make your dreams come true, unless you are just interested in material things. I’d like to think I’d give money away to my friends. The script had some surprises in it, but the director was a very easy person to trust and made everything smooth.”

Kurotani is currently busy promoting her biggest passion – horse riding. She has just released a four-disc DVD set called "Whipness," consisting of workout exercises (Kurotani uses an elastic whip to exercise while simulating horse riding). “I lead the routine and the exercises can be easily done at home,” she says, adding that "Whipness" is aimed at women in their 30s and 40s. “I’ve been riding horses for more than 10 years. I go to Chiba as often as I can. I’m not really into other sports,” she says.

When she is not working or riding her horse Ralph, Kurotani enjoys gardening, reading and writing essays for Tokyo Headline. She says the environment is the theme closest to her heart. “I grow my own vegetables, use scrap wood and recycle as much as I can.”

A frequent traveler, Kurotani has visited such places as Kenya, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Florida, Hawaii, Korea and Thailand all for work. “Most of the time, I don’t get a chance to see much of the country because I’m busy with work. I wouldn’t mind living overseas, probably France, but it would have to be a country where I can ride horses,” she emphasizes.

© Japan Today