Screening event of new NHK drama "Natsume Souseki no Tsuma"

The screening event of new NHK drama series "Natsume Souseki no Tsuma" (Natsume Souseki's wife) was held on 7 September which was attended by Hasegawa Hiroki, Ono Machiko, Tachi Hiroshi and Kuroshima Yuina. The drama which begins its run from 24 September in the Saturdays 9pm timeslot and comprises of 4 episodes, is based on the memoir "Souseki no Omoide" (Memories of Souseki) by Natsume's wife Kyoko and written by Matsuoka Yuzuru which describes how Souseki and Kyoko grew as a couple. Hasegawa plays the role of Natsume while Ono plays Kyoko in the drama. Tachi plays Kyoko's father while Kuroshima plays Kyoko's cousin.

Hasegawa revealed that he felt a lot of pressure playing Natsume especially since the latter was such a famous and great writer. He also recounted that when he first met the scriptwriter, he was taken aback when the latter commented that Hasegawa is taller than expected and that Natsume had an inferiority complex about his height. As such, Hasegawa was worried that he might be replaced due to this reason despite having read many of Natsume's novels, done a lot of research on him and even visiting Kumamoto secretly to find out about Natsume's teaching stint there at a senior high school. Luckily, the filming began as scheduled without any hitches. Hasegawa also complimented Ono for being such a good actress and able to respond no matter how he acted so he felt very reassured during the filming. In response, Ono commented that it was a joy to act with Hasegawa and this made memorising the lines a lot less painful that it could have been.
　
During the press conference, an earthquake struck which caused the cast and reporters to be flustered briefly. However, Hasegawa extended his hand to Ono and assured that things were fine just as how a husband would comfort his wife.

Sources: Nikkansports / Sponichi / Oricon