Pull-no-punches princess Anna Tsuchiya is in hot water, after revealing on squeaky clean national broadcaster NHK that her deep sultry voice is the result of "boozing and smoking from an early age," according to Shukan Gendai (11/10).
Anna's voice is only one of the attributes that has made her one of the most popular stars among young Japanese today, but telling the public broadcaster on air that she was smoking and drinking illegally poses a career-threatening move for the 23-year-old star.
Anna is the daughter of a Russian-American father and Japanese mother, and catapulted to stardom after making her debut as a model at the tender age of 14 in 1998. Her exotic looks, knockout body and refined fashion sense soon attracted fans. She got her first movie lead role in 2004's "Shimozuma Monogatari," for which she received a number of prizes and is now highly regarded as a thespian.
"Anna played a courtesan in (the 2007 movie) 'Sakuran,' and really came to life during the sex scenes. She did a lot of ad-libbing, including one scene where she jumped atop a guy and started licking him," a movie industry insider tells Shukan Gendai. "Yoshino Kimura, one of her co-stars, looked on in astonishment, saying 'Wow, people like (Anna) really do exist, huh?'"
Anna hasn't let too many dictate her private life, either. In 2004, she fell pregnant and married the father of her child, another model a year her senior. But the marriage was over within two years. Anna has remained undaunted by being a divorced single mother, to the adoration of her legions of mostly high school girl fans, who've taken a liking to her non-conformist approach to life.
But while there seems to be plenty of fire in the Tsuchiya belly, many warn that she can be something of a loose cannon.
"She's foul-mouthed, always using men's words and referring to people in overly informal ways. She never ever uses polite Japanese," an insider from a movie production company says. "There's a joke within the business that Anna should absolutely never be put on live TV because nobody knows what she's gonna say."
Which is why her comments about underage drinking and smoking are creating such a fuss. Japanese celebrities are held to impossibly high standards of public behavior and stars caught having a puff or taking a tipple before they've reached the legal age of 20 can find themselves ostracized, as disgraced former Morning Musume singer Ai Kato found out when she was twice captured on camera dragging on a coffin nail while still in her teens.
Anna's minders, however, are quick to argue that there was nothing in the comments she made while appearing on the NHK show.
"She wasn't doing that stuff while she was still only a kid. She was just hamming for the cameras, Anna was only joking," her mother and talent agency boss, Mayumi Tsuchiya, tells the weekly. "Reporters shouldn't be focusing on that stuff. I've got some responsibility here, too, and I can state unequivocally that she was not drinking while still underage."
NHK, too, is backing Anna.
"The producer of the show said 'That conversation didn't happen,'" an NHK spokesman tells Shukan Gendai. "It wasn't anything to do with the main part of the program and it won't go to air when the program shows on Nov. 3."
Linear Mode
