I'm having fun reading Koushuu Hirano's interview in Uchuusen, the man who plays Haruki in Ultraman Z! And here's a thread where I share random facts from the article.

He was a really athletic growing up, participating in baseball, swimming and American Football.

For the audition, after he had read off all his lines, the director told him to take off his shirt and do pushups.

He wasn't told how many to do - rather, the director just kept telling him "one more... one more...". Even though he's pretty fit, he said he hit the gym afterwards

After he was cast, he learned that Haruki's catchphrase was "osu" and started to find himself saying it in real life...

His family was overjoyed by his casting - his dad, an ultra fan, gave him a big hug. His older brother was jealous - he's a huge Tiga fan!

However, as Hirano was playing basebally when he was young, he didn't watch TV much.

He was taken to stageshows, but he was terrified of the kaiju.

One of his parents pointed out that it was weird he was cast as an Ultra, despite being the only non-Ultraman fan in the family.

He did start making up for lost time though, watching Ultraman online thanks to Tsupro putting up a lot of shows for streaming.

As for getting into Haruki as a character, he says he's a bit reluctant to call himself a hero. Hirano typically plays hot-blooded characters, so this is right up his alley. So playing a hero is quite different for him - exciting, but also a bit anxiety-inducing.

To prepare for the role for filming, he mainly had to move and work out due to the numerous fight scenes, as well as learning karate as Haruki practices it. Since STORAGE is a military-style group, he also learned about how best to act/move to better play the part.

He learned karate by watching videos... and also from Zett's suit actor, Hideyoshi Iwata! So he points out that Zett was actually the one to teach Haruki karate (lol)

He would ask Iwata how Haruki should move in certain scenes. Since Hirano has to play both Haruki, and sometimes Zett using Haruki's body, he has to be careful how he moves since they do act differently.

As for the cockpit scenes, he uses the scenes in Pacific Rim for reference on how to interface with the robot. So, the robot's body moves as the user tends to move, which is why Haruki and Yoko have different styles even when using the same robot.

He usually gets messages from friends whenever he's in commercials and such and they see him - but he said the response he's gotten from starring in Ultraman was overwhelming. Friends were even starting to get into Ultraman again thanks to him, and enjoying it as adults.

The most difficult scenes for him to shoot so far was the karate scene in episode 2, and episode 7 starring Hamada (Geed/Riku's actor) and directed by Sakamoto. In Ep 2, it was just super cold that day with lots of action, and in ep 7 there just was tons of action to film.

On Hamada: he saw him as his 'senpai'/senior in many ways, especially since he taught him so much about Ultraman - such as giving him tips on transformation scenes and teaching him about Ultra history. He also loved seeing Hamada use the Zett Riser as Riku would.

On scenes that left strong impressions:

He's amazed by the tokusatsu scenes! He loves how beautifully it's filmed and the way they miniatures are made and put. After he saw the first episode, he called up the director and told him how amazed he was.

He was particularly amazed by the scene where he was carrying the dog. When filming, the direct just told him that there would be a kaiju behind him - but he didn't realize how it would look until it finally aired. He was floored by how real it looked.

So, the seat of his pants ripped when they were filming the first scene for the show...

The costumer rushed to the department store, bought some cloth that matched, and fixed his pants for him. So he had to wait around in his underwear around all the staff, which was embarrasing

Due to COVID19, they weren't able to film on schedule, and eventually had to stop. He was pretty bummed, but Hebikura's actor messaged him going "well, what are you gonna do about it?", giving Hirano his motivation back. He remarks that he's a captain both on screen and irl

His message for fans: He hopes that Ultraman Z can help during these times. That for children, it can be something to look up to. For parents, a way to create great memories with their children.

He hopes that Ultraman Z can become a true classic, living in our hearts forever.

link to the blog post verison for easier readability: https://toriwrites.dreamwidth.org/631.html