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| Kuuga didn't have enough hipster hats and cool smokes! Look how cool and indie I am!!!1 |
Tokusatsu Network just posted this bit about Joe Odagiri recently smack-talking toku again on a TV show.
Ha! This is further proof of what I've known since, like, 2004. (I remember someone telling me that they saw a television interview with him where he was complaining about making Kuuga.) The whole Odagiri thing was never a mere rumor -- his stance on toku and Kuuga has been well-documented. (The most quoted thing being his interview in the April 2005 issue of Pict-Up magazine.)
It's in that magazine where you get the full details -- the way he sabotaged an audition for GoGoFive that his agency forced him to go on, how biased against toku and how reluctant he was to audition for Kuuga, his wonderful quotes about how "henshin hero shows make him sick" and how when he heard he had to audition he wanted to either "retire or die."
The only people who ever thought this whole thing was a rumor or exaggerated were people who wanted to put on the blinders and not believe that goofy old Godai was a big old jerk. So, it's nice to have a newer quote from him so that people can finally have their eyes opened.
The sad thing is, I feel like nearly anyone could have played Godai. It was the strength of the writing and the production that made that character, and not really anything that Odagiri did. So, not only does his popularity stump me, but his lack of gratitude. As if his annoying tryhard indie hipsterdom wasn't bad enough...
Another sad thing? Odagiri's hipster-doofus roles are going to dry up, and he'll come crawling back to tokusatsu, probably playing a captain in an Ultraman show nobody wants to watch. And the fans will welcome him back instead of spitting in his moley face as they should.
Choice Odagiri quote, from a CNN interview a few years back: ""Unfortunately, I have no interest in Hollywood. You see, I am the independent type. And I would rather be happy if New York calls me." Don't laugh too hard, now.
