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I'm part of that generation that grew up watching TV, and being an actor was all about being on TV or being in films.

My mother told me I was begging her to be an actor when I was four. My father and my grandfather saw at least one or two movies a week; they were film buffs, so I guess it just rubbed off on me. And now it's kind of become a way of life for me.

I'm used to American actors who have a movie career thinking television acting is beneath them.

After all these years in the business, I really feel that actors are used. People treat actors worse than they treat children. It's always, 'Do me a favor,' it's always, 'Help me out,' it's always, 'You carry the load,' and then they don't want to admit what you've done.

My parents never looked at my acting as a career. They saw it as a way to help provide for the household.

My only reason why I am not doing films is my children. My children need my attention, and it's my duty to give them my time. I have not given birth to them to just dump them and go off to work. I am not that kind of a person.

Hollywood was a detour, although my mother was an aristocrat from Tokyo who ran away to join the theatre, so acting is in my genes.

Television has dried up for my generation, so it's plays and films. You get used to being lazy doing films, but classical theatre's going to finish me off.