Tokyo Vice's Rachel Keller On Her Character's Journey And A Potential Season 2 - Exclusive
HBO Max's "Tokyo Vice" centers on character Jake Adelstein (Ansel Elgort), a newly-hired American reporter working at a major Japanese newspaper in the 1990s who's both desperate to prove himself and determined to pursue hard-hitting stories that get to the truth of crime in Tokyo. In the course of his work, Jake comes into contact with Samantha (Rachel Keller), a beguiling American hostess at a Japanese club whose job regularly puts her in the orbit of members of the organized crime ring known as the Yakuza.
While she initially comes across as mysterious and enigmatic, as we learn more about her, we discover that — just like Jake — Samantha is in Japan to forge her own path, professionally and personally. The show eventually reveals Samantha came to Japan as a Mormon missionary, but when her mission ended, she stole a large amount of money so she could stay in the country. It's a crime that comes to threaten her ambitious plans for the future, which include opening her own hostess club, even as Samantha does everything in her power to protect what she's building. In an exclusive interview with Looper, Keller discussed her character's Season 1 trajectory and whether a second season of "Tokyo Vice" could be coming.
Samantha's troubled path to independence could be the crux of a possible Season 2
Rachel Keller pointed out that, even though Jake and Samantha are following very different paths, "Tokyo Vice" comments on the way their country of origin has shaped the way they approach their goals. "It's pretty clear that there are only two Americans in the show," Keller observed. "The American-ness they've captured is a sort of blind ambition, which [Samantha] certainly has from being in and under the eye of a very extreme religious family and church."
Before Samantha can follow her dream of running her own hostess club, however, she must build a life apart from everything she knew in America. And Keller noted that Samantha's choices are reflective of many real-life women who work in Japanese hostess clubs. "[Samantha] finds the hostess club and job as a way to liberate herself, which many women that come from Bulgaria and Thailand and America and London [feel], that they're in a position in their life that they can't be independent," Keller explained. "They go and become a hostess to make their own money so they can live their own lives. She sort of takes that and runs with it."
By the end of the first season, Samantha's determination to start a club of her own has put her in a precarious position that could have big consequences. Does that mean fans can anticipate her story continuing in a second season of "Tokyo Vice?" As Keller revealed, "Yes, I think so. At the end [of Season 1, Samantha] is forced into going into the business with the Yakuza, which is a really tricky place to be. Once they've done you a favor, you're really caught in another kind of web." While there's no official word yet, hopefully fans will be able to see if Samantha can get out of that web in Season 2.
The first season of "Tokyo Vice" is available to stream on HBO Max.