Living by the Sword
Meet television’s newest superhero, Kiki Sukezane, who stars on NBC’sHeroes Reborn. As our STEPHEN CHRISTOPHER finds, there’s one thing this sword-wielding badass hopes she never has to face.
If serendipitous events float your boat, you’ll enjoy the one about actress Kiki Sukezane. Every week for about two years—ever since landing in LA from Japan—the five-foot-one Kiki, trained at a sword-fighting class in Santa Monica. One day, Lisa McBride, the mother of another student, approached her. “She told me her friend was a casting director for a new show on NBC called Heroes Reborn,” Kiki says in her slightly broken English. “And they happened to be looking for a Japanese girl who could sword-fight.” What are the odds? A few days later, a tape showcasing her martial-arts skills was submitted, and shortly thereafter, an audition was arranged. Needless to say, Kiki nailed it, and now appears as Miko Otomo, the sword-wielding superhero who enters a comic book and slays bad guys as Katana Girl. But if there’s one thing this badass warrior never wants to confront, it’s this. “I hate frogs! They’re soft and green and easy to smash. I don’t even want to think about them. They give me goose bumps.”
If all continues as planned, Kiki hopes to emulate one of her own heroes, Angelina Jolie. “I hope to become deeply involved in humanitarian work. Helping others is why I wanted to be an actor in the first place—to have a bigger voice.” Now, as she’s headed back up to Toronto to finish filming, she also hopes her role on
Heroes Reborn gets picked up next year. “Yep, I just hope they make season two.”
