Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Star Anna Sawai Shares Swimsuit Photo

Anna Sawai is currently starring in Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters. She has previously starred in F9: The Fast Saga, Pachinko, and Shogun. Sawai was also in the J-Pop girl group FAKY. She recently shared a set of swimsuit photos on Instagram. In them, she enjoyed a trip to Turks & Caicos with a friend, and spent time at the beach. How does she stay so fit? Read on to see 5 ways Anna Sawai stays in shape and the photos that prove they work.

1. She’s Careful About Roles She Chooses

When it comes to her roles, Sawai tells WhoWhatWear that she doesn’t want to go for stereotypical ones. “I think it’s really important that I choose the roles that don’t fit into the stereotypical Asian roles that have been around for a long time. I think Naomi is definitely one of those. In terms of projects, I would love to do a role where the race [of the character] doesn’t matter. So it’s an open-ethnicity role. Most of the [auditions] I’ve done are looking for an Asian actress, so I would like to challenge myself to those kinds of [open] roles. I know the competition is that much more because everyone is auditioning for it, but that would be a good challenge for me. In terms of stories, I really love drama. Although, I like to escape in a crazy sci-fi world, too. I would love to tell a story based on an actual person’s life or true events. That would be a lot of fun and also a lot of pressure.”

2. She Does Yoga

Sawai shared some of her favorite ways to unwind with Byrdie. “While I was in Japan, I would do hot yoga. It's a great form of meditation and exercise.” According to John Hopkins Medicine, yoga has a lot of benefits. “Yoga is as good as basic stretching for easing pain and improving mobility in people with lower back pain. The American College of Physicians recommends yoga as a first-line treatment for chronic low back pain.”

3. She Does Martial Arts

Sawai does a lot of her own stunts. She shared this video on Instagram of herself doing martial arts training for F9. BMC Psychology states that martial arts has a lot of benefits. “Previous studies examining the impact of martial arts training on mental health and wellbeing have found positive results, which has also been confirmed by a systematic review and meta-analysis. Results have included martial arts training reducing symptoms associated with anxiety and depression; and promoting characteristics associated with wellbeing.”

4. She Uses Natural Skincare Products

Sawai opened up about her skincare routine to Byrdie. She says that she uses a lot of natural products. “For skincare, I always just used the products on the counter. But around my mid-20s, I started to break out a lot. I would visit a few professionals, and they'd tell me it was caused by stress or hormones. Then, one dermatologist suggested taking Chinese herbs. I started taking them, and my skin started to clear up. I still take them to this day. I also like to use clean and vegan products since I have sensitive skin.”

5. She Works Hard

Sawai is a hard worker, and she tells Byrdie that her mother inspired this attitude. “Thanks to my mom, I developed a hard-working mentality at a very young age. But while we were doing it, it was really fun. I didn't realize it was a job, and that helped me. I was also lucky that I was not constantly working because you hear so many stories of how things can go with kid actors. After Annie, I went back to school and didn't work for a while. I was able to live a normal life and experience special things.”

1. Beauty Maven

Tamaki swears by specific beauty products for her gorgeous complexion. “Laneige lip sleeping mask- at all hours of the day,” she says. “Weleda Skin Food single handedly changed my skin. It’s very thick, so perfect for winter dryness. Supergoop glow screen SPF every day, but sometimes I use this as my foundation! There’s a little tint and shimmer to it. PawPaw ointment- for problem areas, I have had an ongoing feud with a dry patch under my nose for as long as I can remember. One of my makeup artists on manifest introduced me to pawpaw and I slather it on. I rarely wear makeup when home for the holidays, so my favorite beauty look is glowy skin! Sometimes my siblings line up and I do all of their skin care, too.”

2. Not Just a Love Interest

Tamaki is appreciative about playing a strong, complex character who isn’t just the romantic interest. “I love seeing women on TV who have more relationships than just romantic ones, and I think there can be something so dynamic and professional about female friendships and that’s kind of what we have been discovering throughout the season is the way that these two characters get along and learn from each other,” she says. “Drea comes in at the beginning and is just so infatuated with Mic and is trying to get Mic to warm up to her a little bit.”

3. Ocean Swimming

Tamaki went on a magical trip to Bali earlier in 2023 where she swam and snorkeled in the ocean. “To my Bali baddieeees- thank you for the trip of a lifetime. From spirituality and support, to morning bintangs and debauchery, I’d like to think that all of our little islands formed a perfect archipelago. Thank you @adawsss for bringing us all together. This insane jet lag was worth it,” she captioned an Instagram post detailing her adventures.

4. Superhero Dreams

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Tamaki wants to explore more physically challenging roles in the future. “When I think into the future and the projects I want to work, I feel like I love and gravitate toward roles that are super grounded and driven and moral,” she says. “I’ve read some scripts recently that are really fascinating about incoming new Congresswomen who want to evoke change in the government. Or maybe even in the vein of a detective, but the scrappy detectives who figures out that there’s something wrong with the system and she goes on and tries to fix it. I’d love to work on something really physical. My training is in physical acting, and I once played Billie Jean King, the tennis player, and so I think that if there were something where I could use my physical acting training, maybe like a superhero that I would love to dive into.”

5. Love On Set

Tamaki genuinely loves her co-stars and enjoys spending time with them. “I mean, that’s the judicious answer, right? To be like ‘everyone’s amazing,’ but it’s true, this is one of the greatest shows I’ve worked on, cast and crew and you know everybody involved, but the person who actually came to mind is Parveen [Kaur], who plays Saanvi,” she says. “I ended up getting close to her hanging out in New York and we were able to have like a couple of days on set together, but we didn’t have to get to have a big story-arc. Our characters have two totally separate situations going on and they’re really complicated stories, but I think it would be really cool to work with her and to see how these two women could maybe start figuring stuff out together.”

1. Relating To Tamar

Leong draws on her own life experiences when playing the role of Tamar. “When I auditioned for the role, I really wanted to bring myself to it,” she says. “So she is, as I play her, very close to myself. I am definitely a bit of a hothead – or have been in the past – and I really relate with this feeling of not quite fitting in. You know, with the white side of the family, Asian side of the family – where do you fit? I think you can grow a little bit of a husk of defensiveness or wit around that.”

2. Physical Role

Leong physically prepares herself to play Tamar with a combination of shadow boxing and jumping. “I like to energize myself, because sometimes you can be sitting around a lot between takes,” she says. “And I had this amazing costume – the wardrobe department is incredible – with axes and stuff like that. Early on, when there was going to be a big fight scene, I was thinking, ‘OK, come on, got to bring your A game. Energize. Bring it back into your body, ‘and I was jumping up and down and shaking myself. And then all of my belts – all my axes, everything – fell off! Like a game of Buckaroo, just things clanging on the floor. Everyone’s like, ‘What? Hold the roll! What’s that?’ So that was a bit embarrassing… But normally, I would try and do some shadow boxing or jumping up and down. Tamar lives on her wits and she’s very front footed, so you’ve got to be in the body.”

3. Stunts on Set

Leong loved the stunts on Shadow and Bone. “All of the battle scenes at the end were very challenging,” she says. “There were huge setups, boiling heat, and a lot of racing around, but there was a really fun stunt that I got to do where I basically fly backwards through the air horizontally and dig my axis into the ground to slow myself down. So, in the middle of an extremely busy shoot day, I got to strap into a fun harness and slide around like I was on a roller coaster. I was like, ‘Let’s do one more take…one more take of that.’ That was really fun. It made me laugh when I came on screen.”

4. Her Bucket List

Leong is excited for what’s next, career-wise. “There’s always something left on the bucket list,” she says. “Tamar was such a gift to relieve my childhood fantasy. My playground fantasies of good versus evil and kicking [butt]. That’s the stuff you grow up on. I suppose the next thing would be nice to counterbalance that with something quiet, introspective, and emotion-driven and maybe more in the naturalistic, realistic side, and maybe not quite so many explosions. Although, I do love an explosion.”

5. Real-World Family and Friends

Leong is careful to make time for her loved ones. “I think maintaining close relationships with family and friends, even if you’re away for long periods of time – shooting in other countries or on tour or things like that – is really important, because you can end up in a bubble,” she says. “The people who are able to make a successful go of it long term and still maintain their own actual lives, they have a healthy detachment from the bubble. Otherwise, you’re in this very intense, amazing scenario with people that you’re having very intense on screen bonding experiences – and off screen, too; often they’re your only people on the ground – but it isn’t real life.”