Atsuko Okatsuka Is Here to Make Friends

Vogue

10-06-2025

Right. Or you need an earthquake or something—everyone will get really close. I always say that a common enemy doesn't have to be a person. It could be Mother Nature. It could be a long line.
Your grandmother raised you, and she figures so prominently in your content that she's become a celebrity herself.
I do get along with the elderly more. Kids and I butt heads a lot. They don't like me. I've met so many babies with my haircut, and they're like, Why does this baby get to walk around? Why does she get her own seat on an airplane? And I'm like, You have no idea. You have so many things ahead of you. Every rule, every law is for you. You are the future. People would email me asking to get my grandma in their films, because they needed a Taiwanese or Asian grandma. It was, like, 12-hour shoot days for a SAG [Screen Actors Guild union] production. There are rules for children for SAG. They can only work certain hours and they have to have a teacher on set. So I was like, surely there are labor rules for seniors there. There isn't. They're just considered 18 and older, so they'd be able to work my grandma the whole 12 hours without rest. I'm finding out that with elders, there isn't anything protecting them.
In an article for Tokyo Weekender, you said you feel like you have a sixth sense about culture. Do you feel like it's nurture or nature that's made you such a keen observer?
It's probably both. You do have to be curious about other people and how they live and think. I was born in Taiwan and then moved to Japan, and then I was moved to America abruptly. Not my choice, any of these things. So I had to adapt quickly and be able to read people. The first language I really heard in America was Spanish, because of my classmates. And then I had Russians in my class, a classmate from Turkey. I had to learn where that was. The Russian kids didn't speak English, and I didn't either, so we were like, Do we come up with a third language? Do we use our physicality? I'm a very physical performer. I use my eyes a lot. Sometimes I make a noise instead of a word. I think all of that developed from me trying to connect with all kinds of people from all kinds of places.