"Luffy reminds me a lot of me, when I was a little kid." When Iñaki Godoy received the news he got the role of Luffy, he knew it would change his life forever. From keeping his own 'One Piece' journal where he kept notes on every episode to putting on the straw hat for the first time, Iñaki Godoy truly manifested his pirate dreams. Iñaki breaks down his entire process for the 'One Piece' live-action, from studying original voice actor Mayumi Tanaka's legendary dubbing, working alongside director Marc Jobst on set, seeing the incredible set come to life, and so much more.
SAG-AFTRA members are currently on strike; as part of the strike, union actors are not promoting their film and TV projects. This video was conducted prior to the strike.
Director: Adam Lance Garcia
Director of Photography: Jack Belisle
Producer: Madison Coffey
Associate Producer: Rafael Vasquez
Production Manager: Natasha Soto-Albors
Talent Booker: Mica Medoff
Camera Operator: Alfonso
Audio Engineer: Rehanna Chandan, Michael Guggino
SAG-AFTRA members are currently on strike; as part of the strike, union actors are not promoting their film and TV projects. This video was conducted prior to the strike.
Director: Adam Lance Garcia
Director of Photography: Jack Belisle
Producer: Madison Coffey
Associate Producer: Rafael Vasquez
Production Manager: Natasha Soto-Albors
Talent Booker: Mica Medoff
Camera Operator: Alfonso
Audio Engineer: Rehanna Chandan, Michael Guggino
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 There were multiple straw hats for different scenes.
00:03 There was a specific type of straw hat for the wide shots.
00:05 There was like another type of straw hat for the closeups.
00:08 Sometimes they had to change straw hats.
00:10 There was a fight scene straw hat.
00:11 Every single straw hat felt special to me.
00:13 Hi, I'm Iñaki Godoy,
00:15 and this is how I became Monkey D. Luffy in "One Piece."
00:19 [dramatic music]
00:22 I remember that for my audition,
00:29 and I played this YouTube video that was like,
00:32 "Oh, who is Monkey D. Luffy?
00:34 Let's analyze this character."
00:36 And I just listened to that video for like an hour,
00:39 and I realized that the main thing about Luffy
00:41 was his smile.
00:42 So I thought to myself,
00:43 if I can have that smile in my audition,
00:46 I think I have a good shot at making this character.
00:48 And hey, I think it worked.
00:50 I remember that for my audition scene,
00:52 I was talking with Kobe.
00:54 I didn't know it was Kobe at the time,
00:55 but my audition scene was the scene
00:57 where we're at the dinghy after fighting Albedo.
01:00 I remember when I did my first read of that audition,
01:03 I was a little bit more serious.
01:04 You know, there's like a boat in flames behind me.
01:07 Like, you know, that sounds like some serious stuff.
01:09 And I sent that audition, and then I got some feedback,
01:11 and it was like, "I know there's a boat like on fire,
01:14 but your character, he's chilling, man.
01:17 He's like fine."
01:19 So I sent the audition again, this time no drama at all.
01:23 And hey, that's how I got my callback.
01:24 My mom received a WhatsApp,
01:26 and it was like, "We want you to play Monkey D. Luffy."
01:30 I was really, really excited.
01:32 And then it hit me like, "Wow, this is gonna change my life."
01:36 And then I got a little bit nervous.
01:38 And then I got really excited again.
01:41 I didn't get to meet with Oda during the audition process.
01:44 I did get to meet him later down the line.
01:46 And I remember I asked him that question, like, "Why me?
01:50 Why did you like me?"
01:52 And he said that I made him laugh in my audition.
01:56 [dramatic music]
01:59 Getting into character with Luffy was a big challenge.
02:02 He is very explosive, very optimistic.
02:06 He's a crazy guy in a lot of ways, but he's also kind.
02:10 And he doesn't speak too much.
02:13 He listens a lot.
02:16 To me, it felt like Luffy was an optimistic, big dreamer
02:19 who cares about his friends.
02:21 - No one messes with my friends.
02:24 - Who's brave, who's committed,
02:26 and who will do anything for his dreams.
02:28 So understanding that was a key factor
02:31 for me to play this character.
02:32 And then after that, it was finding a balance
02:34 between how can I be fun, energetic, and crazy,
02:38 but also keep this real, you know?
02:41 How do I find that balance?
02:43 And honestly, that was just a lot of work with my directors.
02:46 I had this director called Mark Jobs
02:48 of the first two episodes, amazing director.
02:50 And he used to tell me that he was my parachute.
02:53 So I could try things.
02:55 Let's make a funny face on this one, you know?
02:57 I'm gonna really open my eyes here
02:59 and I'm gonna scream out loud.
03:00 And if you think it's too much, you let me know.
03:03 So knowing that I could trust my team
03:05 to get out of my comfort zone really gave me a safety
03:08 to try to be unique because Luffy is extraordinary.
03:12 So you need to be different.
03:13 I immediately knew who Luffy was in the Alvida fight.
03:17 I was watching the anime and it didn't take me long
03:20 to understand who this guy was.
03:23 He sees a person who has been mistreated.
03:27 He doesn't really know them.
03:29 And yet he decides to help them.
03:31 And when he does that, he does it with a smile.
03:33 He gets into a fight and he's smiling
03:36 because he enjoys being a pirate.
03:39 I think growing up, I was a lot like Luffy in some ways.
03:43 I had no worries in the world.
03:45 Everything was so much fun.
03:47 And I think Luffy is like that too.
03:49 Luffy is a rubber man.
03:51 This was new to me.
03:53 It was a challenge how that would work.
03:57 I used the anime as a reference
03:59 for how the rubber buddy reacts.
04:02 I would see Luffy's fight scenes, the way he stretches.
04:06 And in the live action, I would try to replicate
04:08 as much of that as I could.
04:09 In the manga, in the anime, when Luffy throws out a punch
04:12 and then it snaps back, he always puts his hand right here.
04:15 You know, that's like a thing that he does.
04:17 So that's the thing that I can like literally translate
04:20 into live action with no problem.
04:21 So like, I can keep that.
04:23 I watched the anime.
04:24 I mainly saw the Japanese dub.
04:26 Mayumi Tanaka has been voicing Luffy
04:28 for a very long time, since 1999.
04:31 (speaking in foreign language)
04:34 And what she has done is amazing, amazing.
04:37 And I would never try to replicate any of that
04:40 because that's her own thing.
04:42 She created her own version of this character
04:44 and I have to do my own thing with the live action too.
04:47 So, you know, more than paying attention
04:50 to what the dub actors were doing,
04:51 I really just paid attention
04:52 to what the character was all about.
04:54 (speaking in foreign language)
04:58 The anime is great as it is.
05:00 I would never try to replicate it.
05:02 I mean, that's why it's been going for so long
05:05 and live action needs to stand by its side.
05:08 My voice in Spanish is a lot deeper.
05:09 (speaking in foreign language)
05:14 So yeah, my voice in Spanish is like way deeper
05:16 than Luffy's voice in English.
05:17 I found his voice just with time.
05:20 It just appeared.
05:21 (grunting)
05:23 I'm feeling so, so piratey.
05:27 And slowly with time, I started to speak more like this,
05:31 you know, more like, ah, oh wow,
05:33 and be a little bit more loud and it just came natural.
05:35 The script is so good that it just pushes you
05:38 to say the lines in a certain way.
05:39 I remember the first time I put on the straw hat.
05:42 It felt like, oh wow, it's happening.
05:44 It was a realization that for the next 10 months,
05:48 that character would be my life.
05:50 While I was filming, I had a one piece journal.
05:53 So I had this little book.
05:55 I put some pictures of Luffy in that book
05:59 and I also put some pictures of me when I was a little kid
06:03 because Luffy reminds me a lot of me
06:05 when I was a little kid.
06:07 I also had notes on every episode on like,
06:10 oh, these are like the key moments.
06:12 Like this is important, this is important,
06:14 this is important, like this is where I'm coming from.
06:16 This is where I'm heading to.
06:18 And I also did some little exercises like,
06:20 if Luffy did homework for his school
06:22 about what is his dream, how would that look like?
06:25 Well, you know, it would be like a drawing
06:27 of him and his boat.
06:29 It would be a horrible drawing and they're all together
06:32 and it's like, my dream is to be a pirate.
06:35 The king of the pirates.
06:36 And then, you know, I just did like silly exercises
06:38 like that and you know, I think they worked.
06:42 A normal day for me on set.
06:46 Here we go.
06:47 Wake up.
06:48 Normally the pickup time would be around 5 a.m.
06:52 We wanted to film on sunrise, so we had to wake up early.
06:57 I would get to set.
06:58 I had this massive like sweatshirt/blanket
07:02 that I would put on the entire time
07:03 and sometimes I would just go to set on my pajamas
07:06 because I was too lazy to put something on.
07:09 I would get a set, I would go to the makeup trailer.
07:11 At the first months of shoot,
07:13 I remember I would go in the makeup trailer
07:14 and we would like blast music
07:16 and I would talk and chat and blah, blah, blah.
07:18 By the last four months, I would sit on that chair
07:22 and I would be gone.
07:23 I would be exhausted.
07:25 So I would normally take a nap in the chair
07:28 while I was getting the makeup on my scar.
07:30 Then after that, I would put on my costume
07:33 and I would head to set where we would film.
07:36 And I remember I did this thing.
07:38 I would go to set and I would arrive with a theme song.
07:42 So I thought to myself,
07:44 what is the most important part about Luffy?
07:46 Well, he has fun, right?
07:48 So what is my goal here as an actor to embody this character?
07:51 Well, I wanna have fun
07:52 and I wanna help create a fun environment.
07:55 So every time I arrived on set,
07:57 I would blast the John Cena theme song from the car.
08:01 Sometimes it was the John Cena one.
08:03 Sometimes it was the rock.
08:05 Sometimes I used to make the Undertaker, but not too many.
08:07 John Cena was like the main thing.
08:09 So I would arrive on set and people would know it was me
08:11 because it was the John Cena song.
08:13 They would greet me and we would do some dances
08:16 and then we would block the scene and we would shoot.
08:19 There were scenes that took longer than others,
08:22 but I don't think we ever did more than three scenes a day.
08:25 By the time we were finishing, we got a little bit better.
08:28 Maybe we would do five scenes a day.
08:32 You not only have the actors, but you have stunt people,
08:34 you have extras, you have like the sets,
08:36 you have special effects.
08:38 There is so much going on.
08:40 And if we want it to be the best version it can be,
08:42 we have to focus.
08:44 So, you know, we did take our time with our scenes.
08:47 There were many sets that were very impressive.
08:50 The ships are great.
08:51 Bucky's tent is amazing.
08:53 When we were filming in Shell's town,
08:55 I couldn't believe I just walked into a town
09:00 just made for this show.
09:03 The production designers on this show are insanely talented.
09:07 They created, I mean, this super, super interesting world
09:12 and I am just so grateful that I get to play inside of it.
09:16 I remember one time Emily and I had to film a scene
09:19 where we're holding to a safe
09:21 and then my character pulls the safe
09:24 from where it is to a window
09:27 and we go flying in the air.
09:29 So they had to like lift Emily and me up in the sky
09:34 with a crane.
09:35 And like, if it was like some bungee,
09:36 they just like let us drop with a camera filming us.
09:40 I think it was in that moment
09:41 where when I was suspended meters above the ground,
09:45 I think it was in that moment when I realized like,
09:47 oh wow, I have never filmed a scene in the sky.
09:51 Or when I filmed underwater, that was also really wild.
09:54 I would open my eyes and there will be divers
09:57 with cameras filming me and I have to act underwater.
10:02 Oh wow, that is something new.
10:04 The underwater scene was pretty hard physically
10:08 because the water was freezing,
10:10 but that was not the hardest scene to film.
10:12 I think for me, the hardest scene to film,
10:16 I had this one scene with Kobe in a dinghy
10:19 when we're talking about dreams
10:21 and that he wants to be a Marine.
10:23 That scene particularly,
10:24 it was one of my first scenes that I filmed.
10:26 It was a very important scene
10:27 because Luffy is all about dreams.
10:29 So I knew I had to get this scene right.
10:33 This is what the character is all about.
10:35 There were a lot of things that I did in that scene
10:36 at the beginning that I changed.
10:39 I did rehearsals for that scene with my director
10:42 and I think it worked out pretty well,
10:44 but it definitely was a process getting to that point of,
10:47 oh, there's this side of Luffy that he is very kind and nice.
10:51 He's not just a ball of energy.
10:54 He's a ball of energy who listens.
10:57 So for Luffy's powers,
10:59 this is all the special effects team.
11:02 They are the ones that really made that magic come to life.
11:05 I would punch in the air and that was it.
11:09 I would throw a punch in the air.
11:11 The other actor would have to react like two seconds later
11:14 because the punch was stretching in post-production
11:16 and that was like what I did for those special effects scenes.
11:19 At the beginning of the show,
11:22 we were trying a lot of different things
11:23 and I remember I did have like this,
11:26 they created like this long stretchy arm.
11:28 I don't know if they ever used it.
11:30 I know that me personally,
11:31 I never used that long stretchy arm that they built.
11:34 It was amazing though.
11:35 Like if I could, I would keep that thing in my house.
11:38 Just as a souvenir.
11:39 If there is one piece of advice,
11:45 oh, one piece.
11:46 If there is one piece of advice I could give
11:49 to any young actor,
11:51 anyone who supports you will tell you, just have fun.
11:54 You need to have fun
11:55 because you don't know where life is gonna take you.
11:57 I really just do what I do because I enjoy it.
12:00 And if it was with Luffy,
12:02 if it was with any other character,
12:04 big production, small production,
12:05 I know that I'm gonna find a way to have fun
12:08 because I got into this business
12:09 and into acting because I love it.
12:10 So my advice to you would be,
12:12 regardless of where life takes you,
12:15 just enjoy it.
12:17 Enjoy it, enjoy it, enjoy it.
12:19 Because you get to do something that you like
12:20 and it doesn't matter if it takes time
12:22 when you're doing what you love.
12:23 So have fun.
12:24 (bell chimes)