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NEW YORK, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- Pachinko actress Anna Sawai, The Flash alum Kiersey Clemons and newcomer Ren Watabe say they tried to ground their characters in reality, despite the extraordinary circumstances of their action-drama, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. The show, which spans three generations and more than half a century, wraps up its first 10-episode season Friday on Apple TV+.
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The streaming service has not announced if it will bring the show back for a second season.
At the heart of the adventure are half-siblings Cate (Sawai) and Kentaro (Watabe), a teacher and artist, who are almost as shocked to learn about each other's existence as they are about their presumed dead father Hiroshi's scientific connection to Monarch, a secret organization that tracks and tries to protect people from enormous havoc-wreaking creatures.
Kurt Russell, Wyatt Russell, Mari Yamamoto, Anders Holm, Joe Tippett and Elisa Lasowski co-star in the series, which takes place in the shared Monsterverse that includes 2014's Godzilla, 2017's Kong: Skull Island, 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters, 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong and the upcoming Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire.
Clemons plays May, Kentaro's ex-girlfriend, an accomplished hacker and activist, who goes along for the ride as Cate and Kentaro traipse the globe trying to figure out what their father (Takehiro Hira) was working on when he went missing.
"Kurt was always reminding us: 'This is reality. We are in the real world. There's just monsters. We're not pretending we are on a different planet. Don't do that,'" Clemons told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
Sawai noted that her character still deals with the emotional and psychological consequences one might expect after Godzilla destroyed her home, along with thousands of others, during an appearance in California a decade earlier.
"I really dove into Cate's back story," Sawai said about the young woman who is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder when the audience meets her in Monarch.
"I just feel so lucky to tell this story because I know it's a new endeavor for this MonsterVerse -- telling a human story. It's really exciting," she added.
"i was a casual fan. I never thought about doing it, but i was looking for something fun and my agents were like, 'Monsters?' and I was like, 'Yes, let's do it!'"
Sawai said she found it easy to relate to her character.
"I kind of see myself in Cate when it comes to personal relationships and wanting a little bit more and wishing that she could have done this or that," she said.
"With her half-brother, she thinks he's the reason her father abandoned her in the beginning, so [the relationship] is not that great, but she realizes that she needs his help to find the answers," Sawai said. "Then, they need May's help to move forward."
In a way, the characters' getting acquainted mirrored how the actors were bonding in real life.
"We did block shoots chronologically, so it really helped show their friendships grow," Sawai said.
While Cate and Kentaro are up front about their motives, May has her own agenda and isn't always honest with her fellow travelers.
"She's got a lot of things she's got to work on, so some of those things she's got to work on, I need to work on, as well," Clemons said.
May isn't completely self-serving as she teams up with Cate and Kentaro, according to her portrayer.
"She feels a bit of guilt because she has abandoned some people she loves and she is watching these people go through being abandoned, so she is, at least, having the conversation with herself [about being a better person]," Clemons said, adding May is self-aware, but "a little weak."
Although Kentaro has complicated relationships with both women, he quickly comes to appreciate them and their abilities, even as they are overwhelmed with information about a their family and the shadowy society that has repeatedly saved the world.
"He cares deeply about both of them and they become an emotional anchor for him," Watabe said.
The show was extremely physical, with the characters seen running, fighting, freezing in the cold and reacting to creatures that weren't actually in front of them, but would be added to the screen through movie magic later on.
"When I had to play the hypothermia, my body was so tired," Clemons laughed. "I feel like I would wake up a lot going: 'Why do my arms hurt? What did I do yesterday?' That was really tough."
Watabe said the entire shoot was challenging.
"You're on a set for six months, working every day and in tough environments, sometimes," he added.
"It's physically demanding, and also our characters are dealing with a lot of emotional things, so that was difficult, as well."
