Monkey D. Luffy actor Iñaki Godoy spoke on the most challenging aspects of his experience filming the live-action Netflix One Piece series.
Netflix’s One Piece adaptation is a hit! The eight-episode season broke major viewership records for the streamer and has been an undeniable success.
Iñaki Godoy, who led the series and its cast with earnestness and charm as Luffy, stood out as one of One Piece’s many highlights among viewers.
Godoy Discusses the One Piece Scenes That Challenged Him Most
One Piece breakout star Iñaki Godoy, in a video for Teen Vogue which was recorded prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike, detailed everything that went into his role as Monkey D. Luffy in Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the hit anime.
For starters, Godoy went into detail on his underwater sequences, such as when he was submerged in Buggy the Clown’s tank. But, as the actor noted, the water scenes were “not the hardest:”
”I have never filmed a scene in the sky. Or when I filmed underwater, that was also really wild. I would open my eyes and there will be divers with cameras filming me! And I have to act! Underwater. Oh wow, that was something new! The underwater scene was pretty hard, physically, because the water was freezing. But that was not the hardest scene to film.“
What was the hardest? The moment towards the beginning of the show, in Episode 1 “Romance Dawn,” where Luffy and Morgan Davies’ Koby are floating in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean, after escaping from Alvida‘s ship:
“I think for me, the hardest thing to film... I had this one scene with Koby in a dinghy, where we’re talking about dreams and that he wants to be a Marine. That scene particularly, it was one of my first scenes that I filmed.”
It’s a quiet, yet utterly crucial moment for the series’ narrative thrust, and one in which Iñaki Godoy managed to get down to the root of his character, noting that Luffy is “very kind and nice:”
“It was a very important scene because Luffy’s all about dreams. So I knew I had to get this scene right. This is what the character is all about. And there are a lot of things that I did in that scene at the beginning that I changed. I did rehearsals for that scene with my director, and I think it worked out pretty well. But it definitely was a process, getting to that point of, oh, like, there’s this side of Luffy that.. he is very kind and nice. He’s not just a ball of energy. He’s a ball of energy who listens.”
Luffy can absolutely be described as energetic, so it’s encouraging that Godoy understood the assignment and cut to the core of the stretchy pirate hero.
The character displayed great sensitivity toward his new friend in this scene, as Koby explained his ambition of joining the Marines, and reassured him that they would still share a connection, even if the two ended up on different sides of the law.
What’s Next for One Piece?
Iñaki Godoy wasn’t the only cast member to feel the weight of responsibility in getting their character right. Mackenyu, who plays swordsman-of-few-words Roronoa Zoro, also remarked on the pressure he felt while acting on One Piece.
But, ultimately, all the worrying and difficulty paid off in spades. Audiences catapulted One Piece to the very top of Netflix’s streaming charts since the show dropped on Thursday, August 31. The series has been quite well-received by both newcomers to the franchise and established fans of the manga and anime.
So, could a One Piece Season 2 be in the cards? It seems like a foregone conclusion that a blockbuster like One Piece would be the recipient of one or more additional seasons. But nothing has been confirmed by Netflix as of yet.
For now, though, fans still have the anime and its over 1,000 episodes, as well as its decades-long manga run to enjoy while they wait for more of the live-action adaptation.
One Piece is now streaming exclusively on Netflix.
