By Mike McCarthy
Lee Shorten has reprised his role as Sergeant Hiroyuki Yoshida in the hit Amazon Prime show, The Man in the High Castle. If you have not seen this show, get on Amazon Prime and binge watch the first two seasons. Lee plays the right hand man who has to get a little dirty to Inspector Kido. The days on set can be long and to calm down, Lee takes time to read off beat comics and kicking ass in Mario Kart and Injustice.
Lee has been a musician, studied law and now spends his time in front of the camera keeping us entertained and intrigued with all of his portrayals on screen. Before taking on the role of Yoshida, Lee was seen on Flash, Supernatural and his own show, Average Dicks, which Lee explains where to see it in the interview below. He is also a comic book genre lover, which we can not blame him, in fact we applaud that choice.
Check out Lee Shorten and the rest of his castmates on The Man in the High Castle on Amazon Prime. The first two seasons are both available to binge watch now. Keep an eye out for Lee on a show that is slated to come out this year called, Ask Will where he plays William Shakespeare. Hopefully we get to see it as well.
Wingman Magazine: I read that Mario Kart was your game on the SNES…. Ultimate question is: Which character was your favorite to play as and can you still dominate on the Rainbow Road?
Lee Shorten: Toad, you have to give it up for the little guy. Haha. To be honest I’m more of a Ghost Valley guy, nothing more satisfying than nailing that shortcut jump, but I can still dominate the original Rainbow Road. Subsequent Rainbow Roads on N64 or Wii though, not a chance. Especially on the Wii, I’m a complete mess. If you saw me playing Mario Kart on the Wii you would not get in an actual car with me.
Wingman Magazine: The Man in the High Castle has returned for season 2 on Amazon Prime. What can we expect out of your character, Sergeant Yoshida in the second season?
Lee Shorten: Murder. Mystery. Mayhem. The usual. Last season Kido and Yoshida were pretty focused on investigating the attempted assassination of the Crown Prince, it was more or less a singular thread. This season, they’re dealing with a number of threats, the Resistance, the Yakuza and the ever elusive, Man in the High Castle. Kido handles the politics and leaves the dirty work to Yoshida, so Yoshida has to get his hands dirty and he starts to learn the price of power.
Wingman Magazine: How much of your personality have you put into your character Sergeant Yoshida?
Lee Shorten: Bryan Cranston believes pressure and circumstance shape you, and given the right or wrong pressure and circumstances we’re all capable of anything, good or bad. Which is sort of a question our show asks as well. I think in order to deliver a good performance you really need to invest in your character. So in some ways, and this is an oversimplification, it’s about looking at yourself and then adjusting the dials, muting some traits and intensifying others. Yoshida and I are both loyal, quietly thoughtful and determined to do what we think is right. Just you know, for Yoshida that extends to murder. Me, not so much. Plus, I think I have a better sense of humor. We can both be pretty serious and intense but I’m not sure Yoshida knows how to relax.
Wingman Magazine: What was the level of depth of research that you dove into for your character? This situation obviously didn’t happen, so it must come down to a lot of your own perspective of your character.
Lee Shorten: Our show is interesting because while it’s science fiction and an alternate reality, at the same time, it has historical elements so we’re always trying to create this believable world. Drew and JR, production design and wardrobe respectively, set the tone by sitting down and trying to work out how architecture, music and fashion would have evolved if the Axis powers had won the war. Yoshida is a Japanese American member of the Kempeitai, which was a real organization, so I considered it my responsibility to study pretty extensively. From the history of early 20th century Japan, World War II, the Kempeitai, Japanese American internment and Japanese American post war integration. I then took all of that and sort of ran it through the filter of the Man in the High Castle reality where imagination is key.
Wingman Magazine: With Yoshida being a Japanese American as opposed to a lot of the other full blooded Japanese characters, how much of an outsider do you think he feels like he is?
Lee Shorten: That’s definitely something I wish we had more time to explore and I know Isa felt the same. We did touch on it a little through the character of Sara this season, but Yoshida has his own perspective. I certainly do think he feels like an outsider, to both cultures, and we see hints of that particularly with the Yakuza. Yoshida doesn’t necessarily respect the hierarchy, he’s a little reckless, a little more outspoken and emotional, which is good for Kido’s development. But he’s trying and in many ways the relationship between Yoshida and Kido is key. He’s lucky to have the trust of someone like Kido who he sees as a father figure as opposed to an old school hard liner like Onoda.
Wingman Magazine: Your favorite graphic novel is Watchmen, which is absolutely phenomenal. Do you read any other comic books or graphic novels?
Lee Shorten: I have to confess, I don’t read a lot of actual comic books, although I was a huge fan of all the 90’s cartoons like X-Men and Spiderman. That X-Men theme song, still solid to this day. Haha. I do love the characters, the worlds and I watch pretty much every movie and TV show that comes out. I’m really excited for Black Panther and Wonder Woman. Probably going to waste a million hours playing Injustice 2 when it comes out also. I do read the odd comic book or graphic novel, especially anything by Alan Moore. I thought Locke & Key was excellent, Killing Joke, of course, and I’m huge fan of what Robbie Thompson is doing with Silk.
Wingman Magazine: Shooting a lot of shows in Vancouver like Supernatural and Flash you see a lot of other great shows and movies filming. Have you randomly seen or heard anything being filmed that you weren’t a part of? I had someone tell me that they saw Deadpool being filmed when they were jogging one day.
Lee Shorten: It’s insanely busy in Vancouver these days, it’s hard not to walk past a set or two. One day we were shooting out at Riverview and there were around three other shows on location. Pretty sure we had the best crafty though. Haha, take that Van Helsing. It’s a great time to be an actor in Vancouver.
Wingman Magazine: I know a lot of actors don’t watch their own work for one reason or another. Do you see all of the work that you are in and do you have certain reasons that you do or do not have for seeing your work?
Lee Shorten; Yeah, I do. I force myself too. I don’t really enjoy it though. I’m definitely a bit of a perfectionist which isn’t helpful in this industry, because art is messy. I like to watch my work from a critical perspective and take of stock of what worked and what didn’t. Sort of study it so I can see where I need to improve. They say we’re usually our own worst critic, which in my case is probably true.
Wingman Magazine: You also had a show called Average Dicks in 2015 and 2016. What was it about and where could we and our readers see it?
Lee Shorten; Ha! Average Dicks. It’s this highly satirical web series that was created by a good friend of mine, Joel McCarthy. He would probably hate for me to make this comparison, but we had this Judd Apatow like crew in Vancouver who are all friends and we shoot episodes of the show when our schedules allow. It chronicles the insane adventures of these two aimless stoners played by Mike Doaga and Bruce Novakowski as they try and stumble through life. It’s ridiculous but in a good way. They try and cut a rap album, encounter Lizard People and kill someone while playing Pokemon Go. I play their roommate who is a gay Australian lawyer and sort of their angry voice of reason. You can check it out here, it’s definitely NSFW:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlb3TyaE1nls1IqZJIK0ZrvQ0Zi0hN5H_
Wingman Magazine: Actor, Lawyer, Musician… how did you go about becoming an actor when you were in law school?
Lee Shorten: I didn’t really do any acting after junior high. Closest I came was taking Film Studies as my Liberal Arts major. Acting was always something I had enjoyed but I put it out of my mind once I started law school. During law school, I was working at a bookstore and also played in a number of cover bands in order to pay rent, so I was pretty creatively fulfilled. Once I graduated and started working, I didn’t have time to do anything but lawyer up and after a few years I was feeling a little jaded. Being a lawyer isn’t as glamorous as they make out in Suits and I was trying to figure out what to do with my life. I remembered how much I enjoyed acting, so I quit and moved to Vancouver.