His role in The Last Samurai changed Hollywood’s attitude to Asian characters overnight – but illness very nearly ended his career.

He is one of the few modern east Asian stars to cross over successfully to Hollywood, which he did with his role in 2003’s historical epic The Last Samurai.

Watanabe made his name working within the crude templates that Hollywood drew up for portraying east Asian men, but somehow managed to transcend tired stereotypes.

Each time, Watanabe outshone his co-stars with his boundless charisma and gravitas – no mean feat, considering they included Christian Bale, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Cruise.

Watanabe is often cast as the good guy, playing the brave General Kuribayashi in Letters from Iwo Jima, the kind-hearted Lieutenant Yoshida in Pokémon Detective Pikachu and Katsumoto, the noble leader of a gang of rebels in The Last Samurai.

“I didn’t think of it like that,” Watanabe says.

“I just thought we had the opportunity to depict Japan in a way that we were never able to before.

“Before The Last Samurai, there was this stereotype of Asian people with glasses, bucked teeth and a camera,” he says, conjuring up images of Mickey Rooney’s abominable performance as Mr Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

“It was stupid, but after [The Last Samurai] came out, Hollywood tried to be more authentic when it came to Asian stories.”?

With TV and film executives finally cottoning on to the importance of on-screen representation, a handsome east Asian love interest seems to be all the rage (see Crazy Rich Asians, Last Christmas, Always Be My Maybe, The Good Place and Love Life).

But for many years, east Asian actors were reduced to playing nerdy sidekicks, kung fu fighters or villains in the style of Fu Manchu.

“I don’t create my characters that way, so I wasn’t aware that I was being looked at that way,” he says.

Similarly, when The Last Samurai earned Watanabe an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor – making him only the fourth man of Japanese heritage to be shortlisted in that category – he was unaware of the significance.

“I wasn’t hugely ambitious,” he says.

“I just needed an outlet to express myself.

(Watanabe has portrayed many samurai over the years – he even voiced a samurai robot called Drift in 2017’s much-derided Transformers: The Last Knight).

But in 1989, just as his career was taking off, Watanabe was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia.

“I just wanted to recover and live life,” he says.

“I didn’t really think about acting, because my mind was more occupied about what was going to happen to me … Things have progressed now, but 30 years ago, the probability of recovering was much slimmer, so it was more serious.”.

“The first time, I didn’t know what was going on, what kind of treatment was available and how successful it was going to be.

But the second time, I had already gone through it, so I was just thinking about having to do everything all over again.

Just before he started filming The Last Samurai, he discovered that he had contracted hepatitis C from a blood transfusion he received as part of his treatment for leukaemia.

Then, in 2016, while on a break from performing in a Broadway production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, Watanabe was diagnosed with stomach cancer.

I didn’t really think about whether I was going to succeed or fail with the cancer.”.

“When I have these illnesses, it is really difficult, but I actually think of myself as a lucky person.

In my 20s, I was a lead in a major Japanese TV series; in my 40s, I was able to do The Last Samurai; and in my 50s I did The King and I, so I consider myself really lucky to have had all these opportunities.”.