Netflix just recently unveiled the first teaser trailer for One Piece, which is their next major release besides the return of The Witcher. With 3 Body Problem and Avatar: The Last Airbender postponed until 2024, it’s their last major push for the year. And, they went all out during TUDUM where Decider’s Raven Brunner got a chance to interview the actress Emily Rudd, who plays Nami in the series.
She got the chance to sit down and talk to the actress about the dream opportunity of playing an iconic character like Nami. In the interview, she shared how she ended up meeting showrunner Matt Owens and how he was a big part of her getting into the series. also, he seemingly set his mind on getting One Piece to Netflix when he pitched it for her to check out.
I’ve always known about One Piece – it’s a massive IP – but I didn’t start watching [the show] until I met our showrunner, Matt Owens, who has been my best friend for the last six years. We are with the same agency and they said, “Hey, you’re both nerds – go have coffee, chat it out.” And we did. He was like, “Yeah, I think I’m going to bring One Piece to Netflix. You should watch it if you haven’t.” And I was like “Okay, yeah, I’ll dive into 1000 plus episodes.” But I did.
Emily Rudd
She goes on to highlight that she hasn’t quite caught up with the anime, she definitely read all the manga. Rudd also highlighted how different it is for her reading the iconic journey of the Straw Hats compared to the anime.
Well, I read all the manga. I’m still working on the anime. There’s something about reading where I feel like the information is going into my brain in a very healthy way, and then with the anime, I was getting distracted.
Emily Rudd
The big selling point of this show is the way the cast interact with each other. Many of the cast members seem to just be the characters they will portray in the live-action sequence. Rudd highlights that they spent a lot of time together, but highlights she was with Inaki Godoy quite a bit due to seeing him like a little brother.
We all kind of spent time with each other equally, but I spent a lot of time with Iñaki [Godoy] and we definitely developed this older-sister-younger-brother dynamic. He’s 19 and I am not, so I felt a little protective of him. But, also he’s so energetic, so playful — it’s infectious. We created silly little bits that we just milked to death.
Emily Rudd
It definitely sounds like they had a lot of fun behind the scenes. Going by a lot of the promotional material so far, the group’s dynamic is quite infectious. One can see that Netflix also saw the potential and is definitely not holding back with promoting the show with videos of them just hanging out. Here’s hoping the wait for the next trailer isn’t too far off so we can get a good look at how they are together on screen.
Source: Decider
