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‘The Last Samurai’ Director Ed Zwick on Tom Cruise’s ‘Intimidating’ Energy
The Last Samurai director Ed Zwick on the “joyous, challenging, and exhausting” experience of working with Tom Cruise.
In it, Tom Cruise plays an alcoholic American officer, haunted by his role in the Indian Wars, who joins in with Ken Watanabe’s Lord Moritsugu Katsumoto, the leader of the uprising and the “last samurai” of the film’s title. In addition to the Japanese cast I had hired Tony Goldwyn as Colonel Bagley, Algren’s former superior officer in the Seventh Cavalry, and Billy Connolly as Sergeant Zebulon Gant, in what I liked to think of as the Victor McLaglen role — the gruff, stalwart noncom straight out of a John Ford movie. Ken Watanabe’s commanding performance continued to thrill me while I came to count on Sanada’s vast experience in martial arts (known as Seiten wo Tsuke, literally “reach beyond the blue sky”) to help me stage the many fighting scenes.
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