Yuyu Kitamura Interview: Dead Boy Detectives

Welcome Dead Boy Detectives star Yuyu Kitamura to chat trinkets, memories, and formative fish fables.

Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Yuyu Kitamura

DHK: I’m going to start with what do you admire most about Niko? 

Yuyu: The thing I love most about Niko is how she truly wears her heart on her sleeve and her chest and like every moment, she can exude love. She’s so happy to do that. I think that kind of quality, it’s not just, you know, romantic love, it’s platonic love, it’s self-love. I found that really grounding for myself during this process and I found ways that it bled into my own personal life. So for that, I really feel like Niko gave me a gift.

DHK:. What was the most emotionally challenging scene for you.

Yuyu: I mean, I feel like every part of this being, you know, this being sort of my first big girl role in a sense, was challenging. Like even the happy moments. It’s like on paper it can, you know, seem like happiness is such an easy emotion to convey. But finding nuanced ways and trying to really show her growth throughout the season, was something that I was carefully mapping out. and so I would say every scene was challenging in its own way!

DHK: Fair enough! What would you use as a currency or barter item in the afterlife?

Yuyu: Ooh. Amazing question. No one has ever asked me that. What would, I mean? I would love to believe that she just constantly carries her soap stones with her in her afterlife. Can use that as, like, not soap stones, right? 

DHK: Like, the glass, the sea glass?

Yuyu: Yeah! The sea glass, and give people just little, you know, moments of comfort with her color, associations, high value.

DHK: I like that. High value, compact size. Very smart, very efficient. 

Yuyu: I love trinkets. I’m like 80. So I’m like, here’s a trinket, here’s a trinket. 

DHK: What is your favorite trinket you’ve collected?

Yuyu: From set or from?

DHK: Oh, I mean, in life. But also if you collected any from  set, you know, we won’t tell. 

Yuyu: I collected a lot of trinkets from the set. but I also, I definitely asked to collect them, and I didn’t just take them because I’m afraid of karma. I would love to believe good karma exists.

DHK: I mean, if this show is an indicator of the impact of, you know, like, places you go after, I think it’s a smart move.

What do you think your aura looks like to other people? 

Yuyu: I would like to believe. It’s like if I could even put, like, an emoji or colored, like, just little sparkles.

DHK: What color sparkles? 

Yuyu: I would love to see, like, a light beige. Like nothing too intense, but soft.

DHK:  If you had to come up with the case name for your life what would it be? 

Yuyu: The case of the Russian doll. 

DHK: Ooh! Which matryoshka level do you think you’re currently at? 

Yuyu: I want to say, like, maybe the, maybe, like, 30% in. I don’t know how many more layers I have, but I would like to say that this is, like, just still just the beginning. Yeah, it gets better. I want to see it get better. 

DHK: I love that so much. Speaking of dolls, so many creepy dolls and figures and images in hell. What would your personal hell be decorated with?

Yuyu: Pigeons? I am terrified of pigeons. Unfortunately, I’ve grown up in cities where pigeons are just everywhere. It gets to the point where if I see a pigeon on the road, I’ll cross that road to avoid said pigeon. So that’s my personal hell. 

DHK: Have you ever seen a baby pigeon? Don’t Google it. That would be the next layer of your Dante’s Inferno / Hell.

Yuyu: Thank you for that. Thank you for telling me not to Google it because I would’ve assumed they are so cute.

DHK: No, no, there’s a reason you don’t see baby pigeons. Their PR people are on it because they’re like, “you know, they would not survive as a species”.

Shifting gears: which of the endless would you most like to run into? And if you need a reminder, they are Destiny, Dream, Death, Destruction, Desire, Despair and Delirium.

Yuyu: Maybe Dream. I feel like Dream is a safe one, I would say. It’s the rest I feel like are Pandora’s boxes everywhere. 

DHK: Yeah, I mean, they all, are Dream included.

Broader question: What is the first time, if ever, you felt represented on screen?

Yuyu: It really was Sandra Oh in Grey’s Anatomy. I think if I could choose a fighter, she is someone that I would gladly like, want to hang out with, be friends with or have as a mentor. I think she was a character that the most interesting thing about her wasn’t that she was Asian and that is so important to me.

So yes, that is the first character that I saw that I was like, this woman is everything. Mother Sandra Oh still is to this day. Longevity. 

DHK: Long may she reign. Growing up, who is your favorite fictional character? 

Yuyu: I mean, I want to say it was Ariel. I was obsessed with The Little Mermaid. I love water, I love being in water. But A Part of Your World is the song, that if I could, like, have in my album of life it is definitely in there. I loved the movies and also now kind of seeing it come back in a different, you know, angle and a different representative way, I think just shows that that film and that character, was beautiful.

DHK: Do you do the thing I do every time you see a good rock at the beach, you’re like, well, I must! 

Yuyu: It’s the vibe. That’s the confidence. It’s more of that than, like, my hair is an accessory. 

DHK: Ariel, also a collector of trinkets I would like to point out. 

Yuyu: Oh my God, thank you. Dana. Amazing, formative. Thank you. Well, that is something that I’ve carried through my life, yes.

DHK: This might be the same answer, what is the first film you went to see in theaters that you were the impetus for going to see? So, like, your family didn’t drag you along, your friends, you were just like, oh, what is this thing? I must see it.

Yuyu: I’m now, like, going back into my memories and I’m like, what was a film that was so, I mean… I think school of Rock. Oh, actually, no. I take it back because I had it on DVD. So I didn’t go to the theaters. It was High School Musical 3. I asked my parents “hey, can I have a birthday party?” And that was a movie that, like, I corralled all my friends to go watch, and I don’t know what that really says about me, but that was a movie that I distinctly remember having my friends go and watch it with me.

DHK: I’m not going to lie, I did not realize that it had a theatrical release. But I am so delighted for you and your friends and that formative birthday party. I bet it was a fun time. 

Skay, so Niko might not be the bravest, but has excellent reading comprehension skills.

What is a skill of yours that is a secret weapon. 

Yuyu: I tell my friends to drink water all the time. I’m very water conscious. Again. Thematic. Back to The Little Mermaid. But time management, I’m someone that, like, I really care about showing up on time. Also, I get anxious when I’m running late so I will tell my friends about it.

I’m always planning my life around time, which I don’t know if that’s a great quality. I wish I lived more in the moment sometimes, but I think being time conscious is a skill that I have grown to love and adore about myself. 

DHK: I mean, you’ve just said your secret skill is just being Asian. Which is very hard! 

How do you define personal success now, and how has that changed from when you were younger?

Yuyu: In this current stage in my life it’s really speaking up for myself. I think I’ve had a hard time being decisive and wanting to make sure people are happy and that everyone around me is, you know, comfortable or happier. and now it really is when I can advocate for myself.

DHK: Was there a particular catalyst for that phase change, or is it just sort of like, you know, going along in life and having new experiences?

Yuyu: It’s a bit of both, I would say. but part of that is also just in this insane, sort of and wonderful life that I get to live in, this job that I get to do.

We can often get lost in the process or lost in how you know everybody else’s moving parts. But if you don’t speak up for yourself, I find that that also can be a really, shadowing feeling. and at the end of the day, I feel like we should all, you know, get to live a life that we are proud of.

I would hate to look back when I am 95 and still glowing with amazing skin, (you know, from drinking water) but feeling like I didn’t speak up for myself. 

DHK: I am curious, it’s very well intentioned, but Niko does that date set up for a friend that goes very awry. Do you have any moments that you might be able to share that are like that were well intentioned, but ended up disastrously? 

Yuyu: I think that’s one quality with Niko that I really share. I put my foot in my mouth a lot, so I can’t pinpoint a specific thing, but I will tell you, I often find myself being the person where I asked my friends: “Oh my God, how are you doing with said partner?” and they’re like, we broke up and I’m like, oh, I’ve done it again. Countless number of times. I have been that person trying to, you know, well-intentioned, ask questions, but find that I have opened a can of worms.

DHK: Oh, I very much relate to that, and I’m also terrible about broadcasting news, not secrets per se but maybe not widely known news.

Yuyu: Niko and I share that quality

DHK: Who do you think is least like their character of all of the core four?

Yuyu: Kassius,. Yeah. On the show Crystal is such an angsty character, and she’s really going through it. Kass has such a big heart and she can be a softy. She’s not, as intense all the time as Crystal is. And she gives great advice and she is so much lighter than her character.

DHK: If you were presented with the opportunity to forget some of the darker / worst moments or maybe just embarrassing ones, do you think you would take it?

Yuyu: Oh my God, great question. No, because I feel like some of these awkward, dark moments are things that are so formative and really shape a person. Also it’s a humbling experience to put your foot in your mouth and be wrong. 

DHK:  I respect and appreciate that perspective. Although sometimes the, you know, keep you up at night loop memories I wish I could forget.

Congrats on the series. I am so excited for everyone to see it.

Yuyu: Thank you. This is such a lovely conversation. Thank you so much. just some light hearted girl chat.

More about Dead Boy Detectives:

Do you have a pesky ghost haunting you? Has a demon stolen your core memories? You may want to ring the Dead Boy Detectives.

Meet Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri), “the brains” and “the brawn” behind the Dead Boy Detectives agency. Teenagers born decades apart who find each other only in death, Edwin and Charles are best friends and ghosts… who solve mysteries. They will do anything to stick together – including escaping evil witches, Hell and Death herself. With the help of a clairvoyant named Crystal (Kassius Nelson) and her friend Niko (Yuyu Kitamura), they are able to crack some of the mortal realm’s most mystifying paranormal cases.

As part of The Sandman Universe for Netflix and based on the beloved comic series from Neil Gaiman, DEAD BOY DETECTIVES was developed for television by Steve Yockey, who serves as co-showrunner alongside Beth Schwartz and is brought to you by Greg Berlanti. Jeremy Carver and Sarah Schechter also serve as executive producers. The series also stars Jenn Lyon, Briana Cuoco, Lukas Gage, David Iacono and Ruth Connell.

Dead Boy Detectives is streaming now on Netflix