Hidetoshi Nishijima Was ‘Overwhelmed’ by This Filmmaker’s Work

The morning after “Drive My Car” won an Oscar for best international feature, its lead actor Hidetoshi Nishijima was already planning his next project.

Nishijima, 53, met with the director and screenwriter of the upcoming Apple TV+ show “Sunny” and is now one of its stars.

In “Sunny,” which began streaming this month, Nishijima plays Masa, an employee at a secretive robotics company in Japan as well as the husband to Suzie Sakamoto, an American expatriate played by Rashida Jones. When Masa and their son go missing, Suzie embarks on a quest to find out more about the company and the husband she thought she knew.

“In this show, there’s trust and betrayal,” Nishijima said in a video interview from Tokyo, where he lives with his family. “There’s technology that has a good side and a dangerous side. This show really explores how as a human sometimes you don’t even know who you are.”

He discussed the way he brings a bit of nature to his home, the thing he and his “Drive My Car” character have in common and the filmmaking book he keeps coming back to. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

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Movie Theaters

When I was in my 20s and 30s, I wasn’t really working. I was an actor, but I wasn’t working. So I was going to the movies every day. In Tokyo, we could watch every movie in the world. I would watch two or three movies a day. Looking back, I treasure those moments. I was still doing something productive, and I feel like that kind of saved me in a sense. It helped me keep my sanity.