Netflix show made in SA rockets to number 1 — these are the South Africans involved
Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the beloved One Piece franchise is currently the most-watched show in the world and has received an overwhelmingly positive response from super-fans and newcomers alike.
Shot in South Africa at Cape Town Film Studios, Netflix relied extensively on local film production skills, stunt performers, and acting talent to create the finished product.
One Piece is Japan’s best-selling comic series, or manga, with over 500 million copies sold worldwide since 1997.
It is also a wildly successful Japanese animated series (anime), which has run for 20 seasons since 1999 and is still on air. The anime spans over 1,000 episodes and several animated films.
Netflix and Disney have produced several live-action remakes of well-known animated shows and films, to mixed response from fans.
One Piece stands apart from the rest of the field, receiving praise from critics and fans alike.
Fans credit the show’s success to creator Eiichiro Oda’s involvement in the production.
Speaking through an interpreter during a recent interview, Oda explained his relationship with the show in greater detail.
“Thankfully, Netflix agreed that they wouldn’t go out with the show until I agreed it was satisfactory. I read the scripts, gave notes and acted as a guard dog to ensure the material was being adapted in the correct way.”
Netflix executives said the live-action adaptation was a close collaboration between teams in the US and Japan, with Oda presiding over the cast and characters.
The Japanese team ensured the production stuck to character narratives and nuances, while the US team worked on the storytelling. It was Oda’s decision to do the show in English.
The company also sees this cross-cultural playbook — with US teams helping to develop popular stories from other countries — working for projects beyond anime.
“It has expanded the possibility of live action not only in Japan but also in the world,” said Kaata Sakamoto, Netflix’s vice president for content in Japan.
While there is no doubt that respect for the source material is the primary reason for the show’s success, fans have noticed the phenomenal contributions of South African actors, stunt performers, costume designers, make-up artists, and set-builders.
One example of a recurring character that has resonated with fans globally is the pirate warlord Mihawk, portrayed by South African actor Steven John Ward.
One Piece. Steven Ward as Mihawk in season 1 of One Piece. Cr. Casey Crafford/Netflix
One Piece. Steven John Ward as Mihawk with make-up artist Annie Butler. Courtesy Steven John Ward/Instagram
One Piece. Stuntman Shaun Verth with Steven John Ward as Mihawk. Courtesy Steven John Ward/Instagram
Ward’s make-up was done by Annie Butler, whose Instagram page also shows her doing make-up for Taz Skylar, one of the leads who portrays Sanji.
Ward’s stunt double was Shaun Verth, a South African performer whose thrill-seeking credentials include participating in a 32-person full-body burn to break a Guinness World Record.
South African Franz Spilhaus was the production’s stunt coordinator, and Netflix recently released a video in which he explains the training the main cast members underwent to do their fight scenes.
Another fast favourite was Aidan Scott as Helmeppo, with fans praising his casting and performance.
This is great news for the South African actor, as the original manga leaves a lot of room for character development alongside one of the main characters, Koby, portrayed by Morgan Davies.
One Piece. (L to R) Morgan Davies as Koby, Aidan Scott as Helmeppo in season 1 of One Piece. Cr. Raquel Fernandes/Netflix
An incomplete list of South Africans in recurring roles is as follows: Aidan Scott, Langley Kirkwood, Kathleen Stephens, Armand Aucamp, Ntlanhla Morgan Kutu, Laudo Liebenberg, Celeste Loots, Alexander Maniatis, Bianca Oosthuizen, Albert Pretorius, Jandre le Roux, Brett Williams, Steven John Ward, Len-Barry Simons, Chioma Antoinette Umeala, Kylie Ashfield, Grant Ross, and Rory Acton Burnell.
South African actors in guest roles include Ben Kgosimore, Nicole Fortuin, Chanté Grainger, Nathan Castle, Milton Schorr, Litha Bam, and Genna Galloway.
In addition to the dozens of South African actors making up the One Piece supporting cast, an army of set builders and costume designers were involved in successfully bringing Oda’s world to live-action.
Over the past two weeks, Netflix has released several behind-the-scenes videos delving into the sets, costumes, stunts, and effects, featuring some of the hundreds of South Africans who worked on One Piece.
These include costume designer Diana Cilliers and hair and make-up designer Amanda Ross-McDonald.
Diana Cilliers, One Piece costume designer
Cilliers and Ross-McDonald also appear with visual effects supervisor Victor Scalise in a video on BAFTA’s YouTube channel explaining how they brought the iconic characters from One Piece to life.
Cilliers said they made around 35 straw hats for lead actor Iñaki Godoy to wear during various scenes.
Godoy portrays upstart pirate captain Monkey D. Luffy, whose straw hat is an iconic part of the One Piece lore.
“We had a team of milliners. Each hat was made from scratch,” Cilliers said.
“Because he had to do so much action in the hats, we had to have some that were lighter, some that were heavier, some that were smaller, some that were bigger…”
They also had to work with Godoy to ensure the hats were comfortable, whether the hat was being worn on or behind his head.
Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy during an action sequence while wearing one of his many straw hats. Right: Ilia Paulino as Alvida. Cr. Casey Crafford/Netflix
Ross-McDonald said they had to decide whether to keep Godoy’s hair as-is or try and straighten it.
“In the manga and the anime, [Luffy’s] hair is kind of straight, and Iñaki’s hair is very curly,” she said.
“We knew straight off the bat that we weren’t going to fight a curl. Because we are on open seas, and will be in water… and trying to fight curl is not smart.”
For Emily Rudd, the actor who portrays Nami, the decisions were trickier because her character has orange hair.
“Obviously, we could not colour Emily [Rudd]’s hair and have her walking around Cape Town with orange hair,” said Ross-McDonald.
“It would have been a dead giveaway that she was Nami, and fans would have bombarded her. So we had to go for wigs, for her and for all of our characters.”
Ross-McDonald said they did several tests for each wig to see which colour combinations worked the best.
“The most challenging part of translating the page to the screen was bringing the colour and the life into our characters without it looking like cosplay. The manga is black and white, so Oda’s Colour Walk became our bible,” she said in a separate behind-the-scenes video released by Netflix.
Amanda Ross-McDonald, One Piece hair and make-up designer
Cilliers said that working from Colour Walk opened many possibilities for the costume designs.
“It gave me the opportunity to introduce texture and tailoring without in any way compromising the look of the manga,” she said.
Showrunner and executive producer Steven Maeda said that one of their major decisions was to do as much as possible without special effects.
“There was a conscious choice to use prosthetics as much as possible, particularly on the Fish-Men,” he said.
For this, they used a local prosthetics team.
“With prosthetics, one of the trickiest things was to try and keep all the designs as close as possible to honour Mr Oda’s work — and then bring something to screen that looks like it could live in the real world,” said South African prosthetics designer Jaco Snyman.
Jaco Snyman, One Piece prosthetic designer
As for the set design and construction, showrunner and executive producer Matt Owens was full of praise.
“Our crews down here in South Africa are incredible, and it’s been so rewarding to see them taking Oda’s world in bringing it to life,” Owens said.
“The attention to detail that everyone has and just the talent of our individual departments… it’s just incredible.”
One Piece has accumulated over 280 million hours of watch-time by 37.8 million viewers in less than two weeks of its release.
Netflix said One Piece was its biggest-ever production in Africa, and that it spent over $48.7 million (R897 million) on local suppliers.
This is according to Netflix’s socio-economic impact report for South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya. Currency conversions between US dollar and rand were done in April 2023.
The company said it used 625 local suppliers, with the majority being small, medium, and micro enterprises.
It estimated that One Piece created 1,000 full-time equivalent jobs in South Africa.
Aerial view of Cape Town Film Studios, where One Piece was shot.
One Piece action scene. Cr. Raquel Fernandes/Netflix
One Piece. Mackenyu Arata as Roronoa Zoro in season 1 of One Piece. Cr. Casey Crafford/Netflix
One Piece. (L to R) South African actor Ntlanhla Kutu as Lucky Roux, Peter Gadiot as Shanks, Stevel Marc as Yasopp The Great in season 1 of One Piece. Cr. Casey Crafford/Netflix
One Piece. South African actor Langley Kirkwood as Captain Morgan in season 1 of One Piece. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix
One Piece. (L to R) Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy, Emily Rudd as Nami, Mackenyu Arata as Roronoa Zoro, Jacob Romero Gibson as Usopp, and South African actors Celeste Loots as Kaya and Alexander Maniatis as her butler Klahadore in season 1 of One Piece. Cr. Casey Crafford/Netflix
One Piece. Emily Rudd as Nami in season 1 of One Piece. Cr. Casey Crafford/Netflix
One Piece. Jeff Ward as Buggy The Clown in season 1 of One Piece. Cr. Casey Crafford/Netflix
One Piece. (L to R) Taz Skylar as Sanji, Mackenyu Arata as Roronoa Zoro in season 1 of One Piece. Cr. Casey Crafford/Netflix
One Piece. (L to R) Vincent Regan as Vice-Admiral Garp, Michael Dorman as Gold Roger, Director Marc Jobst in season 1 of One Piece. Cr. Casey Crafford/Netflix
One Piece. Christian Convery as young Sanji eating a big piece of biltong. Courtesy Netflix
One Piece. South African actor Milton Schorr as Don Krieg with the Hottentots Holland Mountains in background. Courtesy Netflix
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