Emily Rudd who plays the character of Nami in Netflix’s successful live-action series One Piece has received a lot of appreciation and she surely has become one of the fan favorite characters. The first season followed the original manga until the Arlong Park Arc, which focuses on the story of Nami, the crew’s navigator, emphasizing the character’s importance in the series. She has frequently stated that anime has shaped her into the person she is now. She has a long history with anime and manga, having grown up with Pokémon, Dragon Ball Z, and most notably, Sailor Moon.
Even though she got to play one of the most important characters during the first season, she was a little unsatisfied by Nami’s fighting scenes.
Emily Rudd Wanted More Fight Scenes
In an interview posted on Twitter by Netflix, Rudd explained how she wanted a lot more fighting scenes and used her karate experience in the development of the character. Rudd, whose character Nami is an expert with the Bo Staff, grew up learning karate and constantly pushing Spilhaus and his crew to let her do more stunts. The stunt coordinator and Rudd’s stunt double were both impressed. She said:
“Nami is a pro at Bo staff and that’s something you see in the manga and we wanted to bring more into the live-action series and god, the fight sequences are so fun to do so I am like “Throw’ em all in, I’ll do them all”. I grew up doing Karate so it’s a really fun thing to be able to do again”
Rudd believes she was born to portray Nami because she is a navigator in real life. Rudd recently thanked the fans for “making her dream come true” in a heartfelt new statement.
One Piece Director Explained the process of casting Emily Rudd as Nami
Marc Jobst, the director of One Piece in an interview with ScreenRant, applauded Emily Rudd’s portrayal of the legendary character. He discussed how “important” it was to cast Nami in Netflix’s live-action remake. He said:
“The other lovely thing about Emily is she’s beautiful, obviously, and Nami is a beautiful character, but she has so much depth to her being. We were keen that all our actors weren’t just beautiful, we weren’t really after that, we were after beautiful spirits.”
“Again, it’s the thing that you can’t create on the screen, the screen knows when it’s there, and the film will find it in you if it’s there. With all these actors, all the actors that we cast, I feel they have that extra element. And with Nami, it was really important, again, that you cast somebody who has depth to them somewhere in their soul, for the character not just to be two dimensions.”
Many fans voiced their emotions on Twitter claiming that Emily Rudd was the perfect cast for the character of Nami and her portrayal was spot on. Fans have loved Emily Rudd as Nami, Mackenyu as Roronoa Zoro, Jacob Romero Gibson as Usopp, Taz Skylar as Sanji, and Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy, and have high hopes for the next season.
Source: Twitter
