One Piece’s Taz Skylar did “absolutely every single one” of Sanji’s leg kicks
Netflix Actor Taz Skylar took his role as the manga and anime character Sanji with extreme dedication for Netflix‘s One Piece and devoted himself to doing all of his stunt work.
Luffy, Nami, Zoro, and Sanji are all skilled fighters in their unique ways in the original source material. Luffy has his stretchy abilities thanks to the Devil Fruit, while Nami is handy with a bo staff. It goes without saying that Zoro is a skilled pirate hunter capable of wielding three swords in combat.
When it comes to Sanji, the well-dressed and exquisite cook is known for his powerful kicks. The One Piece live-action required a cast of actors that could physically embody those skill sets.
Actor Mackenyu perfectly executed Zoro’s fight sequence from the anime and did almost all of his stunt work. For Skylar, it was no surprise that the actor took on the same rigor of stunt work to bring Sanji to life. He even trained for eight or more hours a day learning martial arts.
Taz Skylar revealed there is no CGI in his kicks as Sanji for One Piece
One powerful kick from Sanji can send any pirate through the wringer, and One Piece actor Taz Skylar went through hours of training as he had no martial arts background.
Speaking with Games Radar, Skylar proudly admitted the kick fans see in the live-action was the result of his hard work. “Yep! I did absolutely every single one of my own kicks in the show. There is no CGI on my leg, and my stunt double was my trainer and was very enthusiastically cheering me from the side,” said the actor.
He explained that One Piece was the type of role that he had to give it his all. Before traveling to South Africa for filming, he trained with a friend who’s a black belt in TaeKwonDo. The Korean martial arts style is heavily influenced by kicks and leg work. After arriving in South Africa, “It was evident it wasn’t going to be enough because I didn’t really have any sort of martial arts background. I had an athletic background, but not a martial arts.”
Sooner rather than later, Skylar upped his training hours but the One Piece stunt team didn’t have enough time to train him. Instead, Skylar flew in his crew from London and worked in tandem teams with him.
“No, when I say eight hours, it’s one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. As in every single day. I really want that to land because it hurts. [laughs] And it’s not an approximation. Eight hours is, if anything, a round down because sometimes it’d be 10. And it was every single day, seven days a week – I had straps on every single joint on my body. It was the most ridiculous process I’ve ever been through in my life. But! I did do every single kick, and I’m proud of it,” said Skylar with pride.
You can read more One Piece news in our hub here, new about Netflix TV series and movies here, and why it was difficult to adapt Zoro’s fighting style here.