Controversy
At the movie premiere for Closed Note on September 29, 2007, Sawajiri responded in a terse manner to reporters' questions. After much criticism in the Japanese press, she posted an apology on her website. A few days later she appeared on a TV Asahi's morning news show Super Morning, and gave them an exclusive 120-minute interview. She also denied the rumors that she was being suspended by her management.
She had planned to attend the 12th Pusan International Film Festival on October 6, 2007, but she cancelled. It was later discovered that she had been seen in a club with Tsuyoshi Takashiro, a man 21 years her senior. Sawajiri returned to Japan on March 29, 2008 after nearly three months in London with Takashiro. While in London, Sawajiri attended a language school. Her familiarity with English became evident at the airport when several cosmetics items fell out of her bag, and she exclaimed, "Oh shit!" She continued to mostly use English while at the airport, and she reportedly has become fluent enough to handle ordinary conversation.
During her two-year break from show business, she spent a year in London and a month in Australia studying English. She also spent half a year in Spain studying graphic design.
In September 2009, the Japanese media started releasing reports that her management company, Stardust Promotions, would void her contract for undisclosed reasons. Her personal website became devoid of all content save one cryptic line: "See you at the next stage." Sawajiri's mother denied that termination of her contract was the result of substance abuse by Erika.
On September 1, 2010, in an interview on CNNGo.com, she said that her apology after the 2007 movie premiere incident was a mistake. She didn't want to apologize but her management at that time forced her to apologize; "I told them 'this is my way'... but in the end I surrendered. That was my mistake." Sawajiri believes that the agencies that are forcing too much from their idols are too old fashioned and that "The managers themselves are old but we have to change this situation."
Read more about this topic: Erika Sawajiri
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
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