{"id":2423,"date":"2024-07-10T09:00:55","date_gmt":"2024-07-10T19:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekhawaii\/?p=2423"},"modified":"2024-07-11T09:11:51","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T19:11:51","slug":"joanna-sotomura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaii.carpentermediagroup.com\/midweekhawaii\/joanna-sotomura\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunny Days Ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Photo courtesy Irvin Rivera<\/p><\/div>\n

Joanna Sotomura is walking on sunshine these days, thanks to her role in the Apple TV+ original series Sunny.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Things are looking extra bright these days for actress Joanna Sotomura, who stars in the upcoming original series Sunny, which premieres globally July 10 on Apple TV+. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just beyond excited for it to finally come out and for everyone to finally get to see it,\u201d says Sotomura, a 2005 graduate of \u2018Iolani School.<\/p>\n

The new drama series, which was filmed in Japan in 2022, follows Suzie Sakamoto (played by Rashida Jones) who loses her husband and young son in a mysterious plane crash.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s just trying to sort of pick up the devastation of her life, and her husband\u2019s tech company that he used to work for gifts her this top-of-the-line homebot who is, for lack of better words, way too sunny of a personality type for the just miserable, broken person that she is,\u201d notes Sotomura. \u201cBut together, they form this sort of unlikely friendship and try to figure out what really happened to her husband and her son.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the use of groundbreaking technology and practical effects, Sotomura brings to life the character of Sunny \u2014 the 3-foot-tall robot given to Suzie. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my voice and my face, they were tracking all of my facial expressions,\u201d she explains. \u201cAnd we had two other puppeteers on the side who mimicked my arms and how I would move. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so excited to see how audiences respond to the show and to Sunny herself and, hopefully, we can continue the story after this season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sotomura, who\u2019s from Hawai\u2018i Kai, started acting during her first year at \u2018Iolani as a seventh-grader. It was a transformative experience that not only helped her find her passion, but also developed her sense of identity, especially at a new school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pretty lonely and really shy and didn\u2019t know how to make friends,\u201d she remembers. \u201cMy parents suggested that I try theater because people have to hang out with you for the three months you\u2019re rehearsing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got Watchman No. 3 in Much Ado About Nothing and was in love. I just ate up Shakespeare and theater, and actually got second in the state my junior year for \u2018Iolani at the Hawai\u2018i Shakespeare competition. I did the Shakespeare Festival for two summers after that and was gonna do theater forever. It was so addicting.\u201d
\nSotomura, whose ethnic background is Japanese and German, went on to study theater arts at Loyola Marymount University and, at the suggestion of her professor, expanded into film and television. Since then, she\u2019s been fulfilling her aspirations in Tinseltown, with a growing list of acting credits to her name, including Emma Approved, Barry, NCIS: Los Angeles, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Quarantine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when I really feel like I hit my stride is when I worked with Wong Fu Productions \u2014 these great Asian American YouTube creators, some of the OG creators back in early YouTube (days) \u2014 and I did their first movie, Everything Before Us,\u201d shares Sotomura. \u201cAlso, I did a web series called Emma Approved, which was the modern adaptation of Jane Austen\u2019s Emma, and with Wong Fu and Emma Approved, I feel like I just really went into the YouTube stratosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was amazing and from there I kept working and auditioning, and then got a small part on Barry on HBO. After that I got this part of Sunny that took me to Tokyo for six months and made me a little robot girl and it was just a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the cameras aren\u2019t rolling, Sotomura stays busy in her new role as mom to 5-month-old baby Isla. She\u2019s married to cinematographer Eric MacIver.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s everything everyone said and then some,\u201d says Sotomura about motherhood. \u201cIt\u2019s more exhausting than you could ever think of and so much more rewarding than I knew I was capable of feeling. And it\u2019s just so surreal that my first baby is also coinciding with my first big show, so it\u2019s a lot coming at me at once and I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Home now is in L.A. (where her sister, Samantha, also lives), but Sotomura takes great pride in her island roots. She usually returns to Hawai\u2018i in the summer, and always for Christmas (her parents, Karen and Joseph Sotomura, own the Waik\u012bk\u012b Christmas Store by Santa\u2019s Pen).<\/p>\n

\u201cI miss the kindness (of the people), the warmth and the Hawaiian culture that you cannot recreate anywhere else,\u201d she says. \u201cI definitely miss my family and I miss the food. I miss eating a true authentic poke bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Sotomura says her goal is to continue acting forever \u2014 she would love a role in an absurd comedy (think Tina Fey) \u2014 and hopes to return to theater one day. It\u2019s a road she\u2019s been able to travel because of the many people who believed in her. She recalls her dad shuttling her to auditions in the middle of the school day, and stopping at KC Drive Inn for a waffle dog and peanut butter milkshake on their way back to class. <\/p>\n

She credits theater teacher David Saito with turning her \u201creally shy, awkward, nervous space\u201d into one of fun and exploration. And when she went off to college to pursue acting, which may have seemed like a \u201cfar-fetched dream,\u201d her mom told her, \u201cNever apologize for your dream.\u201d She took that to heart. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like so often in this career you\u2019re trying to do the next job and the next thing and you\u2019re going and you\u2019re moving and you\u2019re like, OK, great,\u201d says Sotomura. \u201cIt\u2019s very easy to forget where you started \u2026 even just talking about this now, it\u2019s the first time I really reflected on her, that girl (in seventh grade) in a while. <\/p>\n

\u201cI would say (to someone who may be that girl now) find your tribe. If you want to get into theater, it\u2019s a great way to make friends, especially with people who have your same sort of energy and wavelength. Don\u2019t be hard on yourself \u2026 the weird, quirky, awkward stuff about you is probably what makes you so amazing, unique and talented, and you can bring your own fun, quirky voice to a lot of the characters that you play.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd,\u201d she adds, \u201cnever apologize for your dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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