Anger on the set of Last Friends
I'd been avoiding stories about Last Friends since I hadn't finished watching it and didn't want to come across any spoilers, but now that I have only one episode left, I took a chance and found this one to be okay. But for anyone who hasn't seen ep 10 yet, it will give away a certain plot point.
Ueno Juri was not at all happy with the way the drama developed. More specifically, she wasn't happy with Sousuke and got into an argument with the director about it.
"Why the hell are you keeping Nishikido alive?!" she roared, her voice echoing.
You see, originally it was decided Nishikido's character, Sousuke the Terrible, was to die somewhere in the middle of the drama. However, when Sousuke would beat Nagaswa Masami's Michiru, ratings for the next episode would go up. A worker on the production staff said, "Everyone was talking about Nishikido-kun's intense, violent scenes and the ratings clearly rose. So in order to maintain the drama's popularity they kept Nishikido's role alive until the end and he continued to do violent scenes." Hence Juri's anger. Her portrayal of Ruka, a girl struggling with gender identity disorder, was amazing yet all people talked about was Nishikdio. Even the higher ups in production were like, "Nishikido keeps this drama going," so they dumped the story they had going in favor of Sousuke.
The production staffer went on to say, "As a result, the relationship between Ruka and Michiru, which should have been more carefully developed, tapers off towards the end." Juri had worked hard to become Ruka - she even talked to people with gender identity disorder - so for them to put her role aside like that really pissed her off. She and Ryo didn't speak much towards the end of fimling.
Not really Ryo's fault (if they say "we've decided not to kill you off" then give him more work, what's he gonna do, say no?), but, if true, I can see where she's coming from. I think Ryo did a great job, but if they needed to add a few extra beatings to pump up their ratings, that's pretty sad. While I admit to getting drawn into his scenes, I would've liked them to have spent more time making the story not suck. Of course people are going to watch the violence, they don't have much else to keep them interested. That's my experience anyway. For me, it got to be really frustrating because of the slow pace and lack of anything happening a lot of the time. I mean, JEEEEZUS. Ten episodes and I still don't know what the hell is up with Takeru's sister. Ridiculous. It's one thing to have cliffhangers, it's another to drag things out forever to the point of irritation. This drama is lucky to have good actors because I don't know if I could take it without them. Anway, I'll be happy to finish up the drama and I hope the final ep is good.
source: ズバリ！裏芸能
Ueno Juri was not at all happy with the way the drama developed. More specifically, she wasn't happy with Sousuke and got into an argument with the director about it.
"Why the hell are you keeping Nishikido alive?!" she roared, her voice echoing.
You see, originally it was decided Nishikido's character, Sousuke the Terrible, was to die somewhere in the middle of the drama. However, when Sousuke would beat Nagaswa Masami's Michiru, ratings for the next episode would go up. A worker on the production staff said, "Everyone was talking about Nishikido-kun's intense, violent scenes and the ratings clearly rose. So in order to maintain the drama's popularity they kept Nishikido's role alive until the end and he continued to do violent scenes." Hence Juri's anger. Her portrayal of Ruka, a girl struggling with gender identity disorder, was amazing yet all people talked about was Nishikdio. Even the higher ups in production were like, "Nishikido keeps this drama going," so they dumped the story they had going in favor of Sousuke.
The production staffer went on to say, "As a result, the relationship between Ruka and Michiru, which should have been more carefully developed, tapers off towards the end." Juri had worked hard to become Ruka - she even talked to people with gender identity disorder - so for them to put her role aside like that really pissed her off. She and Ryo didn't speak much towards the end of fimling.
Not really Ryo's fault (if they say "we've decided not to kill you off" then give him more work, what's he gonna do, say no?), but, if true, I can see where she's coming from. I think Ryo did a great job, but if they needed to add a few extra beatings to pump up their ratings, that's pretty sad. While I admit to getting drawn into his scenes, I would've liked them to have spent more time making the story not suck. Of course people are going to watch the violence, they don't have much else to keep them interested. That's my experience anyway. For me, it got to be really frustrating because of the slow pace and lack of anything happening a lot of the time. I mean, JEEEEZUS. Ten episodes and I still don't know what the hell is up with Takeru's sister. Ridiculous. It's one thing to have cliffhangers, it's another to drag things out forever to the point of irritation. This drama is lucky to have good actors because I don't know if I could take it without them. Anway, I'll be happy to finish up the drama and I hope the final ep is good.
source: ズバリ！裏芸能