Néstor Carbonell grew facial hair, gained 25 pounds, learned how to appropriately bow and, yes, even learned how to row a boat for the FX limited series Shogun, which scored a leading 25 Emmy nominations, including one for Carbonell as guest actor.

Carbonell portrays Rodrigues, a Spanish pilot tasked with bringing Blackthorne (played by Cosmo Jarvis) to Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada).

The actor likens Rodrigues to Iago in Othello as “sort of a Machiavellian character, someone who knows how to play people. He knows the chess game.”

Here, Carbonell walks THR through the preparation that led to his first Emmy nom.

Congratulations on your first Emmy nomination. What does this recognition mean to you for this show in particular?

That’s a great question because this character means so much to me. Being part of this amazing show, the whole experience was extraordinary, from the beginning all the way to the end. It’s not often as an actor that you get to play someone who’s quite far away from you in so many respects; physically, I had the opportunity to grow this nasty beard and gain some weight, and then learning a Castilian accent. Usually, when I work on a project, I end up hiring my own dialect coach because it’s not factored into the budget, but it was on Shogun. They truly spared no expense in terms of every detail. I got to work with a phenomenal coach and learn some Japanese as well.

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