In dancing, you can work hard and improve and see the results. With acting, you can work hard, and it's still luck of the draw.
— Sonoya Mizuno
'Ex Machina' was the first film I'd auditioned for. I didn't have an agent.
I'm one of six and would be lost without my siblings. We're really close. They always understand what I'm going through.
It's fun to channel a different mood and character through makeup.
My mom's cooking was all about comfort, flavor, and plenty of butter. It was so hearty.
I grew up in Somerset in southwest England.
My vibe is a bit boyish: rock shirts, trousers.
I used to be a dancer.
Ballet is something for which you need so much control and composure. And there's an element to acting that is the complete opposite. You have to be able to completely let go and reveal everything about yourself. It's about being very vulnerable.
I never grew up thinking, 'Why aren't there any Asians?' But then Lucy Liu came on, and I was like, 'Oh my God, she is my favorite.' I was nothing like her, but I just loved her because she was the only Asian I saw.
My dad is Japanese; he was an art director there. My mom is half-English, half-Argentinian. They met in Japan in the '70s. Her parents were diplomats posted there.
I'm learning to let go of the idea of trying to be perfect.
For most of my childhood, I grew up in the countryside of England, where it was very suburban - there weren't a lot of people who were multicultural like my family. It was a place where the blonde and brunette girls in school were considered gorgeous. And because of that, I remember feeling like I wasn't good enough.
I was born in Japan, and I grew up in England, and I wanted to be an actor when I was a child because I had an uncle who was an actor. I wanted to do everything he did, and he told me to learn how to dance first. So then I learned how to dance.
When I was, like, 10, I cooked a three-course meal for my family.
'Crazy Rich Asians' has been compared to 'Black Panther,' but I feel like that's a false equivalency. The idea that there's only this film for Asians and that film for African Americans - it's so binary. I don't think it's like that at all. There should be and will be many films and many stories. Hopefully this just opens the floodgates.
I love Christy Turlington in the '80s and '90s. Classic.
I wanted to be an actress from when I was very young.
My mother's brother, my uncle, was an actor, quite well known in the West End. He used to come over to our house, and he and I would put on performances for my family. From that, this love of performing and acting grew.
The entertainment industry has an effect on social consciousness.
The thing about being a dancer-turned-actor is that you know what hard work is.
Since ballet has such a solid classical framework, everything is supposed to be a very specific way, so you learn to look at things with an eye towards perfection. But in acting, it isn't always necessarily good to be like that - really magical things can happen when it's unexpected and messy.
I drink a glass of water and half a lemon as soon as I wake up. I heard that it's supposed to balance your body's pH. Not sure if that's true, but to be honest, it really helps with bloating.
In the Royal Ballet Company, there was a Japanese principal dancer, and onstage and in ballet, they have colorblind castings - so I did see Asian dancers, and they were always my favorite. When you have someone who looks like you, it's something you can kind of grab onto, and it makes you feel better about your place in the world.
If I could throw a dinner party for anyone, I'd invite Lena Dunham, Dave Chappelle, and Gena Rowlands.
I've lived in a lot of places - London, Germany, Tokyo, Scotland, Ireland, Los Angeles, and New York. The fashion capitals I've lived in - Tokyo, London, and New York - have this stamp of coolness about them. But I've noticed that in big cities in general, people are just less afraid to be themselves when it comes to fashion.
I had classical training at London's Royal Ballet School, and my first job was with the Semperoper Dresden ballet company in Germany.
I really liked Glasgow. I really liked living there for a year. It's a very fun city, and it has a lot to offer young people who are interested in music and art. It's a very creative city.
I feel disheartened when I see stereotypes, because it's untrue and unfair. It just raises the level of inequality.
I always want to do work that feels honest and that's harder to find than you imagine.
