How “Hodogaya’s Black Panther” Moctar became a model after his acting debut

From Yokohama FC junior youth to appearing in “Atom’s Child

Celeina (MC): Mr. Mokhtar, is it okay if I call you “Mokkun”?

Moctar: I am Mokkun. It’s nice to meet you.

Celeina: Nice to meet you.

Takano (MC): We are getting closer now.

Celeina: I thought for sure I had seen Mokkun somewhere before, so I looked him up. Then I realized that I had seen him in the drama “Atom’s Child”. You were in the drama “Atom’s Child”, weren’t you?

Moctar: I did appear in it.

Celeina: He is a very key person.

Moctar: I played the role of headhunting the two leads (laughs). I was surprised myself.

Celeina: Thank you very much (laughs).

Takano: So you are active in a wide range of fields.

Moctar: Thank you very much. I’m just a humble Afro.

Celeina: No, no (laughs). First of all, you were a member of Yokohama FC’s junior youth team until junior high school, weren’t you?

Moctar: Yes, that’s right. From junior high school to working age, my life was pretty soccer-intensive.

Celeina: That’s amazing. But, if you were in the junior youth team, you already became a professional …….

Moctar: It’s a steep road. The pros are really amazing.

Takano: How did you go from there to modeling?

Moctar: I entered university when I was 20 years old. I had only played soccer up until then, but I decided to study, so I sat in a chair for the first time.

Celeina: No, but it says “Aoyama Gakuin University” on the back (laughs).

Moctar: It took me two years, but the first year I practiced sitting in a chair, and the second year I started to read and write properly. I started to read properly in the second year, while delivering newspapers with a shaved head.

Takano: Are you serious?

Moctar: The side effects made my eyesight a little worse. I was only watching the ball.

Takano: Wait a minute. Your comedy talk skills have improved as well (laughs).

Celeina: We’ve been swallowed up too (laughs).

Moctar: We go back and forth, so please guide us in the direction of the conversation (laughs).

Takano: So you went to Aoyama Gakuin. That’s great.

Moctar: Aoyama Gakuin is a fashionable place, isn’t it? It’s in Omotesando.

Celeina: Is that where you got your start as a fashion and model?

Moctar: If I abbreviate it, it’s ……, right (laughs).

Celeina: I’m sorry, I skipped over it (laughs).

Moctar: You are going to college, right? I’ll be in Tokyo. And my hometown is Hodogaya-ku, Kanagawa Prefecture. Please remember me as “the black panther of Hodogaya. That’s what I call myself (laughs). (Laughs.) Since I was going from there to Omotesando, my mother said to me at my parents’ house, while cutting green onions, “You look so unusual, why don’t you use it? She said, “You look so rare, why don’t you use it?

Takano: I see. So you gave me some advice on how to make the best use of their appearance.

Moctar: From there, I started knocking around, looking into various foreign offices, and decided to give it a try. That was the beginning.

Celeina: You have a lot of vitality. Did you already belong to an agency from there?

Moctar: No, I did not. I joined a regular office where foreigners living in Japan can register. I got some small jobs as extras and so on. I was lucky to get my first chance, somehow, in a TBS drama called “Crocoach,” starring Tomoya Nagase, about a 300 million yen case, and there was a theory that one of the culprits was half-Japanese. I was chosen to play the role of the best friend of Keisuke Koide, who played the other criminal.

Celeina: Did you start out as an actor rather than a model?

Moctar: Yes, I did.

Celeina: That’s amazing. You’ve been playing soccer all your life and suddenly you’re an actor?

Moctar: Yes, I did. At the time, I was in college and I had a girl I liked. I wanted to be recognized by her on a big campus, so I went into the audition with a stimulus like, “I want to be recognized! I was inspired to audition for the role. It didn’t work out particularly well (laughs).

Takano: It’s good to see your personality, Mokkun, that you are motivated by that.

Moctar: Thank you very much.

Celeina: In your career as an actor and model, are there any particular scenes or productions that stand out in your memory?

Moctar: The first Uniqlo commercial I shot was a joy, though I was happy just to get the project, like in 2016. I went to the sauna a week before I went to the audition. I think I was a sauna person ahead of my time (laughs).

Celeina: Sauna?　By the way.

Moctar: Moderately. Sorry, I would definitely lose to a real sauner (laughs).

Celeina: Here is the real Sauna.

Takano: I’m not a real sauna, I just like saunas. Let’s go sometime.

Moctar: May I? Let me set it up.

Takano: To get you ready (laughs). There is so much variety, and I have so many questions.

Celeina: Let’s take a break and talk about the music.　It might bring out a new side of you. What is the one song that Mokkun selected for us?

Moctar: A nice one that makes you want to slip out into the night, like this at dusk, when the sky is turning a little purple to orange. “DAPPER” by Domo Genesis feat. Anderson .Paak.

Panther Ogata Surprise and Wile Motion Capture at Longhorns

Celeina: There are many more questions I want to ask you, but was there anything in the past that you did that was really interesting?

Moctar: I had a great time working on “London Hearts” (TV Asahi), which I didn’t expect.

Celeina: Do you have any behind-the-scenes stories?　As much as you can tell us.

Takano: This was a surprise to begin with, like becoming the fourth member of the trio Panther, right?

Moctar: Yes, that’s right. I was asked to join Panther’s Ogata-san because we have some similarities, such as the soccer game I used to play. I look different from him, he is strong, and the director said that Ogata-san might get jealous when he saw me. But Ogata-san gave me a thumping. And there it was. It was fun.

Takano: I wanted to see this. My producer saw it and said it was very interesting.

Moctar: It was quite a while ago, but many people still remember it.

Takano: So there are a lot of people who recognize you as “that Mokkun.

Moctar: Thank you very much.

Celeina: Also, you mentioned that you had a job that made use of your soccer experience.

Moctar: You know the game “Winning Eleven”? For the first time, I was doing motion capture for a non-employee. At first, I was working on Neymar, Ibrahimovic, and a few other things.

Takano: Wait a minute. You mean Neymar’s movements are Mokhn’s movements?

Moctar: Yes, around 2015. I asked a professional to do some of the finer moves, but the basic moves were done by me.

Takano: That’s Neymar’s inside man. The person inside doesn’t exist in real life, but…

Celeina: All the dots were connected to form a line.

Takano: My life becomes the content. All of my life experiences are utilized.

Moctar: I want to be the “Will Smith of Japan, Moktar of the world.

Takano: Yo!　(applause)

Celeina: Since you have such vitality, I was wondering where you usually hang out. Where do you usually hang out?

Moctar: Shibuya, Shinjuku, Omotesando. …… I’m rarely in Hodogaya, my hometown. ……? Yokohama, I guess.

Celeina: Do you have any recent recommendations?

Moctar: ADI” in Nakameguro is a good Nepalese restaurant, but I wanted to have a drink, so I went to a place called “BAR Sugahara Shibuya Honkan” in Shinsen. It seems that Shinsen used to be a prostitute district, and an old house that used to be a waiting room for oiran (courtesans) was turned into a bar. The owner is very nice. They are very kind.

Takano: That’s nice. Are you often in the Shibuya and Shinjuku areas?

Moctar: Yes, I do. I also like to be under the sky, so I’m often in places that aren’t stores (laughs).

Celeina: As expected of the world’s Mokkun.

Takano: Is it almost time? I still want to talk. Let’s go to “Bar Sugahara Shibuya Honkan”.

Moctar: Let’s go.

Celeina: Today we are talking with Mr. Mokhtar, a model and actor. Thank you very much.

Moctar: Thank you very much.