Mikami Ai: Stick to what you want to do. I don't want to have any regrets!

■ Profile

Born in Tokyo on October 26, 2000.
She began her acting career in 2019 and is currently active in a wide range of fields including dramas, movies, and music videos.
"Kirei no Kuni" (NHK Night Drama, broadcast every Monday from 10:45 pm) and "Girl Gun Lady"
(MBS/TBS Dramaism slot, broadcast every Tuesday late at night), and will be appearing in the film "Character" (directed by Nagai Satoshi), which will be released on June 11th, as well as the films "Impulse" (directed by Doi Emi) and "Pretenders" (directed by Kumasaka Izuru), in which he co-stars.

Since her debut, Mikami Ai has been a regular on TBS's "Love Lasts Forever" and has appeared in music videos for GENERATIONS from EXILE TRIBE, making her a sought-after actress. After seeing a play in junior high school, she aspired to work behind the scenes as a lighting technician or director, but what was her true intention in choosing to stand out on the stage as an actress?

■ I joined the drama club so I wouldn't have any regrets

I started working as an actress after entering university. When I was in my second year of junior high school, my theater-loving parents took me to see a play, and that was the trigger that gradually made me interested in theater. After that, I played handball for three years, from my first year of junior high school to halfway through my first year of high school, but somewhere along the way I started to lose track of why I was playing handball. I felt that if I didn't do what I really wanted to do now, I would regret it, so I transferred to the drama club. In the drama club, members are assigned to roles such as acting, directing, and lighting, and at first I wanted to be a lighting specialist, but due to a lack of members, I ended up directing and writing scripts.
In my second year of high school, I participated in a theater critique competition called the "High School Theater Criticism Grand Prix" and won an award. Theater allows me to work hard in areas I'm good at, and I really enjoyed the fact that there was an audience for my performance. My experience in the theater club made me realize that I wanted to work as a director in the future, so I went on to university to study directing, where I devoted myself to studying directing, actually directing plays myself and creating prop tables.

■ Enter the world of acting to understand direction

I decided to study acting after hearing the opinions of my seniors in the theater world who said, "If you want to become a director, you should also study acting," and "It's good to understand the perspective of an actor." However, my high school prohibited me from engaging in entertainment activities or joining a theater company, so I looked for a place where I could learn acting as an extracurricular activity, and I studied acting at Watanabe Entertainment School. It was there that my current manager contacted me, which led to my debut.

■ To be honest, I wasn't interested in being in the spotlight.

I have an older brother who is six years older than me. He is the type of person who would clearly find out what he wanted to do before taking on the challenge of doing what he wanted to do, and he has had a strong influence on me. Because of this, I often wondered "What do I want to do?" from a young age. So I have always felt that "I can't move forward unless I find out what I want to do." Perhaps that is why I thought, "I want to go to a drama university and study to become a director."

To be honest, nothing has changed since I stepped into the public eye. However, by appearing in various productions and having many people see me, I find it interesting to get objective opinions and realize, "So this is how I look."

■You never know until you try it!

Acting is so deep that there is no right answer, so you have to come up with your own answer one by one. When I think that many actors repeat this process over and over again, I realize how deep it really is.

■Take on more challenges, even if they are selfish

I would like to urge all university students to cherish who they are now. We live in an age where there is an abundance of information, which can make you feel anxious and unsure of what to believe. That's why I feel it's so important to live life with a strong sense of self. Think about what you want to do, and even if it's selfish at times, I hope you'll try to take on as many challenges as possible.

Interviewed by Student Newspaper Online on March 16, 2021 by Satoru Sudo, second-year student at Rikkyo University