📖+ gimme that "actually an actor for K" you love so much
Ueda Naoko, twenty-two, was born and raised in Osaka prefecture by a Japanese father and a British mother. A seasoned actor, he’s been on screen and jumping between commercials and background roles since he was a child. His first major television role was for a drama series he acted in at age ten, and ever since then he’s been doing fairly well in the entertainment industry. You may recognize him from other popular shows such as Bungou Stray Dogs or Free! Eternal Summer. He’s currently popular among casting agents because of his unique natural orange hair, a trait passed down from his mother’s side, and his general personality.
An inherently dorky sort, Naoko (or ‘Nao-chan’) loves to laugh, especially at himself. He tries hard to keep himself from being changed by the stress and harshness of the entertainment industry, and does that by using humor- which as a result makes him a pretty approachable person. An easygoing attitude has caused him to get along well with whichever cast and crew he is a part of at any given time, though the K project cast are some of his favorites because many of them are right around his age. He gets along famously with Fushimi’s actor, for example. He often credits his ability to reach a likeness with Yata to Fushimi’s realness, and talks about in interviews the type of support he feels from his actor. Because they’ve had so many scenes and just generally spent so much time together, they’ve developed a good relationship outside of work as well and meet up every once in awhile.
Besides that, he gets along fairly well with Awashima’s actress. The two dated for awhile, but because of conflicting schedules and different locations they ended things. They still get along well however, and in fact he plans to be at her Okinawa wedding taking place in the spring. Finally, he rather enjoys spending time talking to Kokujōji’s actor, who’s actually a musician in his day to day life that’s friends with the director, and was roped into his role as the gold king as a result. Naoko enjoys him because it’s rare to meet such a mature seasoned entertainer, and he’s been pleasantly surprised by how progressive the man seems to be. Due to his influence, Naoko has even taken up the piano as a decompressor in such a hectic life. He greatly admires the type of existence the other lives, and shows his support for his music career whenever able.
X He has fun on set by pranking the cast and crew, most times alongside Fushimi’s actor. Despite that, he’s very grateful to the people he works with, and he never forgets a birthday.
X He’s obsessed with adding on cutesy honorifics to peoples’ names, such as -pyon, -pi, -nyan, -tan, etc.
X He gets type casted quite a lot because of his petite stature and bright hair. Usually as either a more violent type or a timid goof. He doesn’t exactly mind, though he’d like to expand upon his skill set if at all possible.
X Yata has grown on him quite a bit since he started with the show. He thinks he’s a pretty cute kid, albeit fairly misguided. He has no problem with acknowledging character flaws.
X He and Fushimi’s actor are constantly making fun of the way their characters interact. Both of them think it’s surely the most ridiculous thing they’ve ever seen, like little kids keeping this long standing rivalry because one of them took a favorite toy. Those takes when they have fight scenes always need to be redone the most times, one of them will always exaggerate a line or facial expression and get the other laughing.
X He loves his fans, but despite being friendly he’s actually somewhat shy when faced with any level of adoration. He’s the type to most likely deflect compliments onto his castmates. They know the drill.
X He and the rest of the crew are all pretty protective of Sukuna and Anna’s actors. Whenever it feels like they’ve been shooting too long, they’ll put a stop to it and make sure the kids are well rested. And when meeting with fans, they always make sure nobody crowds them. Even though Naoko doesn’t know them very well, he still remembers how scary it could sometimes get to be a child actor- so he tries to exercise a little extra empathy towards them.
X He thinks the kid who plays middle school Yata (Tsuyu-san) is the cutest thing ever. He’s probably had the poor guy FaceTime every member of his family in an effort to fool them. That aside, they get along very well. Naoko’s given him a lot of advice on how to navigate the business and what to do with certain job offers. An honorable mention must be brought to the table for the boy who plays middle school Fushimi- Naoko thinks he’s just as adorable and that both of them definitely have the potential to go places.
X He’s incredibly ticklish- it always takes a solid extra thirty to forty minutes for the make-up artists to paint his HOMRA tattoo because he loses his mind every time the instruments touch his skin. What makes matters worse is they often have to redo it because of all the falls Yata takes throughout the series.
X Speaking of falls, he does his own stunts. It’s resulted in him rolling his ankle once or twice, but he’s pretty okay at skateboarding. His older sister taught him when he was younger, so he knows a few things.