Biography

Takako Fuji

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Born in Tokyo on July 27th 1972, Takako Fuji started her career when she joined En Theatrical Campany when she was studying acting at Aoyama Gakuin University. She was mainly playing on the stage or voice-over, and had the screen debut in 2003 as Kayako Saeki in "Ju-On" directed by Takashi Shimizu. Her specialty is dancing modern ballet, and speaking English.
- IMDb mini biography by: Ayumi Sasaki

Is a trained contortionist and ballet dancer, which helped in performing the unnatural movements required to play Kayako Saeki.
Turned down the chance to reprise her role as Kayako in The Grudge 3 (2009) after growing tired of playing the role for about a decade of film productions. Up until that film she had played the role in every installment of the franchise, American and Japanese versions.
Is superstitious and has always believed in the supernatural.
Has a fear of fire (pyrophobia), which made shooting any scenes with fire in the Ju-on franchise difficult.
Has said that the only way she will reprise her role as Kayako in another Ju-on or Grudge film is if Takashi Shimizu returns to direct it.

I have always believed in ghosts.
The Grudge (2004) is obviously is a bigger production. We were able to build the sets and everything, where we can do more stuff. So contrary to Japanese production, we have to use existing houses and we are not allowed to use different equipment and stuff, so we have to use whatever is available to us. But still, it was fun to do as a team, so both ways are fun.
[on her professional partnership with Takashi Shimizu ] I am not a very talkative person, and he isn't either, so it used to be that we never really talked to each other. But we do share the same goals, and so just recently we started chatting [laughs]. It took me 7 years! We are both [shy].
[on the J-Horror remake craze in Hollywood in the 2000s] I feel that some of the reasons are because typical American ghosts are zombies and demons and stuff like that, but when it comes to the Japanese ghosts it's more like a grudge. People's feelings are into it. I think that's something new to America. I think that's maybe what makes it scary.
At first, I only expressed anger, but then Takashi Shimizu asked me to release more feelings. Kayako is crying for help, she is very sad. By showing these different feelings, Kayako became more like a human being [laughs].

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