Tao Tsuchiya is back as the fierce yet fragile Usagi in Netflix’s mega-hit Alice in Borderland, and this time, she’s baring it all: emotionally and physically. In a candid conversation on The Wayne Ayers Podcast, Tsuchiya peeled back the layers of her performance in Season 3, diving deep into grief, love, and stunt work that nearly broke her body but strengthened her spirit.
Facing Usagi’s Haunted Past
Season 3 of Alice in Borderland finds Usagi tormented by visions of her late father. For Tsuchiya, embodying that renewed grief wasn’t just about tears and heavy silences. It was about courage.
Usagi’s always had this wound,” Tsuchiya described. “But in Season 3, since now she’s had this opportunity for happiness, she’s realized that she’s got to face that weakness. She’s got to see the hurt that’s been keeping her back.
Rather than borrowing from her own experience, Tsuchiya described how she drew upon Usagi’s relationships by their depth of emotion. “It was not about her own injury,” she described. “It was about finding the love and support from other individuals surrounding her, which allowed her to meet herself full on.
An Enduring Love: Usagi and Arisu’s Future Chapter
The fan-favorite romance between Usagi and Arisu was hinted at from Season 1 onwards, but Tsuchiya confirmed that Season 3 totally changes everything.
“In Seasons 1 and 2, they bonded over survival. But in Season 3, they emerge without memories of all those battles. They get introduced to one another, they love one another, they get married in the real world,” Tsuchiya explained. “Then they get dumped back into Borderland, but this time as spouses. They have to face everything together, not only as gamers but as husbands and wives.”
It’s one that’s larger than that. For Tsuchiya, it brings a raw familial intimacy to their tale: “It’s not survival anymore. It’s survival as a family.”
Stunts, Sweat, and Post-Pregnancy Grit
Tsuchiya’s talents as an actor are legendary, though Season 3 posed one distinct dilemma: she had recently had her fourth child four months prior to filming.
Running, jumping, rolling, these are usually my areas of strength. But physically, after having been pregnant, they were tremendously hard for me,” said she. “I had to sit down with the stunt team and figure out how to pay tribute to Usagi’s spirit without overexerting my own body.
The production team offered a kind of solidarity that moved her deeply. “They told me, ‘We will all raise this child together.’ Those words gave me strength. Every fight scene, every stunt, I carried that encouragement with me.”
The Borderland Games She’d Win and Lose
When questioned which game from the Borderland series she would ace in real life, Tsuchiya chuckled. “Seriously? No way. I enjoy moving my body, but I do not enjoy playing death-penalty kind of games.”
But she admitted some things would be in her favor. “I would like to compete individually instead of on a team. With team sport, it hurts to lose friends and I would like not to have that happen.”
And what about games she’d逃げたりする؟ “There was one called ‘Distance.’ The starting point was secretly the finish line. That would psychologically destroy me,” she admitted. “That’s the type of game I never wanted to play.”
Why Usagi by Tao Tsuchiya Still Enthralls Fans
Between having to navigate Usagi’s bereavement, redefine her relationship with Arisu, and persevering with her own post-pregnancy stunts, Tsuchiya’s acting in Season 3 is both a victory of artistry and willpower. She doesn’t just play Usagi. She lives her struggles, her joys, and her contradictions. And if the world of Borderland is about fighting against impossible odds, then Tao Tsuchiya just proved she’s the ultimate survivor.
