Challenges Faced by the Creators of the Series ‘Shogun’
When the Emmy nominations were announced in July, FX’s historical drama Shogun took the lead with a whopping 25 noms, including one for best drama series. For co-creators — and husband-and-wife team — Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks, the recognition for the series, based on the 1975 novel by James Clavell, sums up six years of collaboration with an international crew that led to critical acclaim and praise for its authenticity. Here, Marks and Kondo discuss the challenges and joys of making FX’s most expensive scripted series.
Congratulations on your nominations. What does this recognition from the TV Academy mean for you and the show?
RACHEL KONDO This is my first job in the industry!
JUSTIN MARKS You’re talking to a guy whose first job was a video game/martial arts adaptation [Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li]. It’s completely surreal to imagine that this show, after the past five, six years, is a show that so many people got recognized for, because we were just trying to survive it, all of us together, and trying to figure out how to make it — there wasn’t really a mold for this. And so this crew, who in the mud and the snow and the rain, really gave a great sacrifice, made this show a reality. The cast had nothing to imitate. They just had to know how to perform this 1600 version of Japanese in the modern day and make it human.
KONDO I think the reason things clicked and worked was because we didn’t have a template. It may feel or look intentional now, but it was pretty chaotic. … It was chaos for a long time. Let’s just be real.
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