[Editor's note: This interview contains major spoilers for Season 1 of "Shogun.”]

When Anna Sawai was preparing to die, she listened to Mozart.

In a key scene of the FX series "Shogun” — in which Toda Mariko, the disgraced but defiant noblewoman and samurai she plays, meets her fiery demise — Sawai delivers a rebellious speech to the sinister Lord Ishido (Takehiro Hira). Lady Mariko knows it doubles as a death sentence. To prepare for this pivotal moment, Sawai says, "I was listening to ‘Requiem K. 626’: ‘Lacrimosa.’”