From injury, mistress actress, to schedule conflict, this Netflix series is buried in misfortunes
The filming of an upcoming Netflix series has been suspended after various issues and misfortunes.
On January 1st, the Japanese media outlet “Nikkan Cyzo” reported that the filming of Netflix series “The Queen of Villains”, which star Yuriyan Retriever, Erika Karata, and Ayame Goriki, has been suspended since mid-November last year due to director Kazuya Shiraishi’s personal schedule. “In the worst-case scenario, filming may not resume until May”, Nikkan Cyzo wrote.
Previously, in October of 2021, the lead actress of “The Queen of Villains”, Yuriyan Retriever, suffered a head injury while doing a wrestling scene, and filming was halted. Afterwards, Yuriyan Retriever announced her condition via Twitter on October 31st, saying, “As a result of the diagnosis, there was no damage to my brain” and apologizing for causing people concern.
“The Queen of Villains” tells the story of professional wrestling team “Gokuaku Domei”, which consists of 3 female wrestlers that adopt the persona of “villains”. The team includes Dump Matsumoto, Bull Nakano, Crane Yu, and Conder Saito, who were popular in Japan in the late 1980s. Actresses Yuriyan Retriever, Ayame Goriki, and Erika Karata will be playing the main characters.
To act in this Netflix series, Yuriyan Retriever, who plays Dump Matsumoto, gained weight from 65kg to 93kg, while Ayame Goriki and Erika Karata put on over 10kg, gaining huge expectations from Japanese netizens.
Meanwhile, prior to the two filming suspensions, Erika Karata was discovered to have had an affair with a married actor. In particular, she met Masahiro Higashia in 2018, and started to develop a relationship with him despite the latter having a wife. At the time of the scandal, Erika Karata was a minor, so everyone was left in deep shock.
As the controversy spread, Erika Karata’s agency back then announced an official statement, which said, “We are reflecting on our careless behavior and deeply accepting our own weakness, carelessness, and stupidity. We will do our best to prevent events similar to this from happening.”
After more than a year of self-reflection, Erika Karata made a comeback in September 2021 at the 2022 Spring Summer Rakuten Fashion Week in Tokyo. At the same time, she appeared as the main character in the short film “Something in the air”.
When Erika Karata greeted the audience at a premiere of “Something in the air” in November 2022, the actress mentioned her hiatus and said, “During this period, I realized who I was. Acting has always been important to me and I want to repay the people I love. There are many things I want to convey through acting. While I was taking a break from work, I thought I had to change while having several conversations with the staff. Now, I want to do my work properly and repay you with good acting.”
Alongside “The Queen of Villains”, Erika Karata will release a short film titled “真夜中のキッス (Midnight Kiss)”.
Source: wikitree
