There’s surely no precedent for the career of Hiroyuki Sanada, which spans more than a dozen big-screen blockbusters and TV series including Westworld and Lost—all of which came after more than three decades of work in his native Japan. But this moment still feels seismic. For the first time in his nearly 60 years of acting, the Last Samurai breakout and John Wick: Chapter 4 scene-stealer topped the call sheet of a Hollywood production on FX’s Shōgun, the epic new adaptation of James Clavell’s landmark 1975 novel. (The first two episodes are now streaming on Hulu.) He received his first-ever producer credit on the show, painstakingly poring over every detail of the production’s lavish, nuanced portrait of feudal Japan. And he found himself giving a performance unlike any he’d given before.

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For fans of Sanada, most familiar for wielding swords opposite and dispensing wisdom to some of the town’s biggest stars, this marks a thrilling step forward. As the actor candidly reveals in our wide-ranging conversation, the roles available to a Japanese actor in American movies and shows have historically leaned stereotypical, thin, and culturally inaccurate. His mission has been to correct that tradition, and it’s hard to think of a better example than what he pulls off in Shōgun—both in front of and behind the camera.

In a series based on real events and told mostly in Japanese—a contrast to the previous 1980 adaptation of the novel—he plays Yoshii Toranaga, a daimyo (a lord subordinate to Japan’s overall military leader, or shōgun) clinging to power at a turning point in 16th-century Japan, whose political ambitions are challenged by the arrival of a rebellious English sailor named John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), who’s been shipwrecked in Japan—and left under his watch.

Sanada’s physical performance is, as always, a marvel. But it’s the cunning intricacies, the heart and liveness of the role’s dimensions, that mark a thrilling new showcase for an icon of the screen.

Vanity Fair: Is acting and producing simultaneously something that you had been familiar with coming into this project? How did it challenge you, and what did the producing, particularly, entail?

Hiroyuki Sanada: I’ve wanted to make something about Japanese culture in Hollywood. I’ve wanted to correct and introduce our culture to the world in an authentic way for such a long time. When I got the title of producer, I was happy. I thought, It’s a good chance to correct everything.

I really enjoyed doing both. I was on set every day, even if I had no shooting as an actor. I had a chance to learn how to collaborate with the Western crew to try to make this authentic. This is 20 years after The Last Samurai, the experience that trained me. I put all my knowledge and experience into this show. And I’m not alone. I could hire a Japanese crew who has experience making props, wigs, costumes. Each department has a consultant from Japan. I just ordered them to correct everything, and then if there’s any problem, they talk to me. [Laughs]

I wanted to introduce our culture to the world correctly. That was my dream. Everything—language and movement are an important part of our culture. Speaking as an actor who was born and grew up in Japan, it’s a good education for the young generation of Japanese actors as well as filmmakers. I learned a lot from so many great masters in Japan, so now I need to give back to them. That’s my mission as I age. I wanted to look to the future.

It’s such a massive production. What did you learn about making something on this scale?

I was always surprised by the huge scale of the set. But as an actor, I was just happy to act in front of the huge-scale set. As a producer, I wanted to make a good balance between scale and the small details of the characters—of Japanese culture. I’ve learned a lot on how to make a good balance between scale and detail. It was the most important thing on set. It’s a little difficult to understand each other, but day by day we learned from each other and then understood each other.

What attracted you to playing Yoshii Toranaga at this point in your career?

When I got the offer for this role, I thought, Why now? I thought of the model of Toranaga and his real shōgun [basis], Ieyasu Tokugawa—he was my hero since I was kid, because he stopped the war period and created a peaceful era for about 260 years. That’s why he became a hero. So that was my motivation.

I respect the novel, but we created an original version in the script. It’s going to be a more universal theme. The original one was: The audience will watch feudal Japan through Blackthorne’s blue eyes only. This time we tried to put in more of a Japanese lens, so we can show details of how the Japanese people watched the English sailor or the Portuguese priest. We had both sets of eyes, East and West.

This is your first time on the top of the call sheet for an American production. It must be a big feeling.

I felt responsibility, but not the pressure. The pressure as a producer was bigger. I forgot that kind of pressure once we started shooting—just fun, fun, fun every day. Especially when I was acting, it was like a reward for me. Spending time as a producer is much, much bigger than acting moment to moment. I could feel freedom and relax and just focus on my performance, just enjoy it.

Given that responsibility, did you have any models in mind for how to lead a set? You’ve worked with some big stars in your day.

Yeah, every great actor has their own way. But I worked with Keanu [Reeves] twice. Of course, he’s always leading and producing, but he just focuses on his job. He’s hard on himself and kind to others. It’s just very simple, his doing his job and trying his best. That was impressive, and I believe this is the way to be a number one. His way of being on set inspired me a lot.

You called this show a hopeful “correction.” Have you felt frustrated or disappointed by the way Hollywood has depicted Japanese culture in the past, and the types of projects you’ve been offered?

Yeah, there’s misunderstanding. Asking me to do the very stereotypical version of something. But time has changed, and hopefully this show will change things. Then there will be a new normal in the studios. Before taking the role, I asked the writers and director and producers: How do you want to show our culture to the world? I told them if I [were to] take the role, I needed things—including, if you don’t hire Japanese actors for a Japanese role, I cannot be involved in this project. I clearly said that. I had conditions.

But sometimes on sets I’ve worked on, the props were incorrect. Or the language on the poster is upside down. I’ve needed to check all this every single day, and then correct, correct, correct. As an actor only, I cannot be involved from the beginning, and on set, there’s no time and no extra budget to change things. So I’ve learned to say things like, “Please cut off this one—it’s not Japan, it’s a Chinese thing. Please change the frame a little bit and then we’re all good. Let’s shoot.” I learned how to keep company without a big fight or problem. [Laughs] All those experiences helped for this one. Even if it’s not a perfect setting, I can find out the mixture between what they want to shoot and the correct culture—how to fix it on time and then go forward. Those kind of techniques helped me this time.

When you’re an actor for hire, I imagine you don’t always feel listened to.

Yeah, it all depends on the project. If the movie has its own world, the audience wants to see that world, and not necessarily authenticity for the Japanese culture. But hopefully time will change things more and more. It’s not only for Japanese people, but for every culture and every country. If it’s going to change a little bit, and we step forward to the future, I’m happy.

You mentioned the level of detail of this show. This is a period we’ve seen in films before, but what are you excited to showcase, both in the design of the show and as an actor playing in it?

It’s true—this period is so popular and has created many, many movies and TVs. I’ve played a few samurai-lord roles in Japan. [Laughs] Maybe because there’s a lot of great drama in there—not only battle, but strategy and also human drama. Family drama in the samurai rule. I think this one is going to be universal; every country has had the same situation. I hope people understand what we’re thinking, our emotions, even with the subtitles—they can feel and then overlap it with themselves, I hope.

This time I was so simple in front of the camera. I didn’t try to do anything, just be there as a character. React, react, and then try to make it simpler and deeper. Because I’d done all the producing, I prepared everything before I started acting. There was no desire left as an actor [except] to be there. Maybe for the first time ever, I think.

In your career?

Yeah, I’m always trying—ideas are coming and then I want to do something. But this time: Okay, don’t do anything. I wasn’t wasting movement or selling something. I thought to myself, Don’t do this. You don’t need it.

This is billed as a limited series, but it feels like a longer potential project. Do you see this as a one-time thing or something to continue?

The novel’s events finish with our [finale], episode 10. If they want to make something more, it’s going to be totally original. Who knows? The model of Shōgun makes it easy to see what happened in real life, and then we can create an original story from then. Who knows? We have history.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.