Production press conference of FujiTV Winter 2015 drama "Mondai no aru Resutoran"

The production press conference of FujiTV Winter 2015 drama "Mondai no aru Resutoran" was held on 7 Jan at Omotesando Hills which was attended by cast members Maki Yoko, Higashide Masahiro, Takahata Mitsuki, Matsuoka Mayu, YOU, Sugimoto Tetta, Usuda Asami, Yasuda Ken, Fukikoshi Mitsuru and Tayama Ryosei. The drama which begins its run from 15 Jan in the Thursdays 10pm timeslot, is written by Sakamoto Yuji who last worked with Maki in the 2013 hit drama "Saikou no Rikon" and is set in Ura Harajuku. A group of women led by Maki's OL character face various issues in life and come together to open a restaurant there but are faced with competition from an all-men's restaurant. They try to keep their business alive while dealing with their own problems.

Maki who usually plays roles of cool women, will be a comedic character this time. As such, she tries to discuss with the director on the direction of her acting so as to get the feeling which the scriptwriter hopes to convey. She also expressed her "jealousy" towards Yasuda who gets to play a prettier character than hers who is not concerned with looking good.

As one of the major themes of this drama is the battle between men and women, the actresses were asked about which male character they dislike and everyone named Sugimoto's role in unison. In response, Sugimoto said that him being detestable is in the name of acting so he smilingly accepted their "criticism". As for the question on what kind of traits they dislike in men, Maki answered that men who would ask women for money without qualms were the worst and said that she had met someone like this before in the past.

As this was also the first public appearance of Higashide who got married on New Year's Day to An, there was a lot of media attention on him but he didn't comment about his marriage. When explaining how his character is like, Higashide said that he's a pretty cold person who believes firmly that he is right all the time and says bad things to people even though he doesn't do it on purpose. However, this is merely a facade to hide his insecurities and lack of confidence so Higashide said that he could identify with his character's "bad points".

Source: Sponichi 1 /  Sponichi 2