SPOILER ALERT: The following interview contains spoilers from “Chapter Fourteen,” this week’s episode of “ Pachinko ,’ now streaming on AppleTV+. “It’s been a very good week,” says a smiling Anna Sawai on the Thursday after her history-making Emmys victory. Having won an Emmy for lead actress in a drama — for her role as Toda Mariko in FX’s “Shōgun” — she became the first actor of Asian descent ever to win in the category , one of a record-breaking 18 total trophies for the drama’s first season.
But the New Zealand-born Sawai had only so much time to enjoy that Emmys high: She had to report back to work in Australia, where she speaks with Variety over Zoom while shooting Season 2 of the Apple TV+ series “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.” in which she stars (alongside Godzilla, of course) in the lead role of Cate Randa. However, it’s her other series that we’re talking about today, since Sawai is also a cast member in creator Soo Hugh’s period drama “Pachinko,” which is currently airing its sophomore season on Apple TV+.
In the series’ 1980s timeline, Sawai plays ambitious businesswoman Naomi Ichizaki, who is currently in a relationship with colleague Solomon Baek (Jin Ha) — but we see their romance hit a major snag in this week’s episode. Here, Sawai talks about her Emmys win, and gives insight into this week’s “Pachinko” episode — and discusses how playing Naomi has shown her what her own mother endured in the business wo.
