Tatsuya Nakadai
The description of Hidetora in the first script was originally based on Toshiro Mifune. However, the role was cast to Tatsuya Nakadai, an actor who had played several supporting and major characters in previous Kurosawa films, such as Shingen and his double in "Kagemusha". Other Kurosawa veterans in "Ran" were Masayuki Yui (Tango), Jinpachi Nezu (Jiro) and Daisuke Ryu (Saburo), all of whom were in "Kagemusha". Other veteran Kurosawa actors did not appear in "Ran", but would go on to work with Kurosawa again, such as Akira Terao (Taro) and Mieko Harada (Lady Kaede) in "Dreams", and Hisashi Igawa (Kurogane) in both "Dreams" and "Rhapsody in August". Kurosawa also hired two entertainers for lighter roles: transvestite singer-dancer Shinnosuke "Peter" Ikehata as Hidetora's fool Kyoami and comedian-musician Hitoshi Ueki as rival warlord Nobuhiro Fujimaki. About 1,400 extras were employed.