"Shōgun," a television show set in feudal Japan, won a record 18 Emmys for its first season, including Outstanding Drama Series.
The FX historical drama was brought to the screen by Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks, a husband-and-wife team. Kondo grew up on Maui and graduated from Maui High School, and the couple currently lives on the island.
HPR first talked to them in April and recently got the chance to hear about their award-winning month. The show's cast and crew won 14 Creative Arts Emmys and four Primetime Emmy Awards.
"As we were sitting there at the Creative Arts Emmy evening on Sunday, which was the weekend before the Primetime, our crew kept winning over and over and over again. And then Justin leaned in and said, 'I think we might beat the record,'" Kondo said. "Definitely it's like outside of our wildest dreams, like beyond it, because it didn't even occur to us."
Hiroyuki Sanada won best actor in a drama, and Anna Sawai won best actress. Sanada was the first Japanese actor to win an Emmy, with Sawai becoming the second just moments later.
Marks said that when Sawai won, he recalled a difficult night for her during filming a few years ago.
"She was having a real hard time with the scene, not with the scene itself, just with, you know, getting like her performance, and feeling happy with it," he said. "I always want to hold on to that because I saw the doubt on her face, and I know what that feeling is like, in writing, and feeling like I told her that night, I said, 'You're going to be remembered for this.'"
Kondo added, "She kind of wielded that self-doubt and that concern that she wasn't getting it just right, and she was always chasing perfection, and it's tough for that person, of course, but we are all the recipients and benefits of her excellence."
The first season covered the entire James Clavell novel — the source material. But Marks and Kondo told HPR in April that if there were to be something in the world of "Shōgun" worth telling, they would consider bringing it to the screen in the future.
A few months later, FX greenlighted two more seasons.
"I would say that there was an idea that Rachel and I had years ago in the middle of production that felt like, at the time, maybe a little bit of fan fiction, but we said that if we could work this out, it could be an interesting template for how the show would move forward," Marks said. "A lot of it was about imitating Clavell's process in some way."
"We're almost halfway through our Part Two in the plotting and feel really good about the decisions we've made," he added. "There are things that will really surprise audiences, and that's what we're excited about, because they surprised us as we came to them."
When asked what she would say to aspiring creators and actors, Kondo said, "If it can happen for me, as a person who just fell in love with the work itself, it can happen for anybody — I mean, I'm a girl from Pukalani on Maui."
This interview aired on The Conversation on Sept. 30, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
