OPLA! #11: "He Might Be a Giant" (with Brendan Sean Murray)

Summary

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The One Piece Podcast — OPLA! #11: "He Might Be a Giant"

Date: March 25, 2026
Host: Maji Media
Guests: Brendan Sean Murray (actor, plays Brogy in One Piece live-action), Raphael Motomayor (writer/reporter)

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into Brendan Sean Murray’s journey of becoming Brogy the giant in Netflix’s One Piece live-action adaptation. The conversation explores Brendan’s casting story, physical and emotional preparation, memorable on-set moments, and his genuine enthusiasm for manga, anime, and the One Piece universe. Raphael Motomayor joins as co-host, offering insight and connecting on shared nerdy passions.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Life as a Parent & Physical Prep for the Role

Time: 01:53–07:14

• Brendan and Raphael swap humorous anecdotes about the physicality of parenting young children.
  • Brendan used lifting his kids as core training to prepare for Brogy’s strength (“I figured out my kids were heavier than the ax and the shield combined…” — Brendan, 02:41).
  • They joke about “dynamic weightlifting” and speculate on using kids as gym equipment, but with permission (“It’s good to, you know, lift children…your own. With permission.” — Raphael & Brendan, 04:28–04:39).
• Brendan shares a comedic story about almost trying to ride a rocket swing at a San Francisco playground, contemplating how odd it would look as a grown adult.

2. Casting Story — Becoming Brogy the Giant

Time: 07:14–13:09

• Brendan explains the unique cast-audition process:
  • He first engaged with the One Piece project reading stage directions for an internal script reading.
  • Auditioned for several smaller roles in Season 1 but held out for something “bigger.”
  • Audition notice for an unspecified role (with code names), involving a comedic scene and shirtless audition—eventually realized it was Brogy after receiving a second scene.
• On-set chemistry:
  • The final audition involved pairing with Werner (who plays Dory); their immediate camaraderie (“just that brotherly love, man, I felt it…because he played rugby when he was younger…that’s the camaraderie there. Brotherhood of battle.” — Brendan, 11:16).
• Distinct comedic and physical approach won him the part.

3. Physicality & Day-to-Day Transformation into Brogy

Time: 13:09–19:04

• Pre-shoot: Three months of prep focused on movement, weight, and size illusion for “giants.”
  • “We wanted to have the size, the scale, the weight. Stunt department…had us train with wrist and ankle weights everywhere.” — Brendan, 13:24.
  • Used his kids as functional weights for daily training.
• On stunts:
  • Only one and a half hours to learn choreography with the actual stunt team, back-to-back with Werner’s final day.
  • “I went in for stance training, and I was like, I’m utterly broken. My body does not work.” (16:05)
  • Required “giant scale” movement—big, exaggerated ballet-like swings rather than normal fights.
• Daily makeup/suit ritual:
  • 3:00 a.m. wake-up, three and a half hours in prosthetics; armor weighed ~50 lbs; long days ending around 8:00 p.m. (“You get home about 8 o’clock at night, just after the kids are in bed…and you gotta be up at 3 again.” — Brendan, 18:00).

4. Filming Logistics: Shooting as a Giant

Time: 19:04–21:48

• Filming required “shooting both sides of the coin”—giant scale and human scale, sometimes on back-to-back sets.
• Details about performing with Usopp (Jacob Romero Gibson) and capturing authentic reactions, striving to match the manga’s iconic shots and emotional beats.

5. The Secretive Casting & Audition Experience

Time: 21:51–23:25

• Brendan describes the partial knowledge actors had—script scenes with code-names, realizing his role only after reading the beach farewell scene.
  • “As soon as they sent the second scene, which is Brogy and Dory on the beach… I was like, it’s Brogy.” — Brendan, 22:15.
  • Reread manga chapters to align with the audition.

6. Brendan’s Anime & Manga Background

Time: 24:33–31:14

• Discovered anime via Dragon Ball Z on South African TV, then into Berserk, Naruto, Bleach, and Fullmetal Alchemist.
  • Memorable moment: describing Bleach episode 54 (Rukia’s execution, Ichigo’s bankai) and how its kabuki theater influences paralleled his theater studies ([27:06]).
  • “...For people who don’t know Kabuki theater, it’s amazing. It’s basically watching anime live.” — Brendan, 27:15.
• First encountered One Piece while in Japan post-Marineford arc; started reading the manga to catch up after his casting.
  • Currently at Fishman Island arc while working on Season 2.

7. Closing: Life as a Working Actor & Where to Find Brendan

Time: 31:14–32:46

• Brendan alludes to ongoing theater/film work in Cape Town, possible NDAs for new projects.
  • “That’s the actor’s plight, right? When you’re working on something amazing, you cannot talk about it. And once you can talk about it, you did it like three years ago…” — Brendan, 32:10.
• Promotes following his Instagram for updates.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Parenting as Training:
  “I figured out my kids were heavier than the ax and the shield combined…”
  — Brendan Sean Murray, 02:41

• On Stunt Training:
  “When you fight as the giants, you gotta be dancing ballet instead of just doing short little rabbit punchy bar fight jabs.”
  — Brendan Sean Murray, 15:37

• On Makeup Process:
  “…They would stick on the nose first. That would take about 45 minutes to get it perfect. And then would come the beard and all the other layers… So we would be in that makeup trailer until about half past seven in the morning.”
  — Brendan Sean Murray, 17:16

• On Capturing Brogy in Live-Action:
  “There are these beautiful frames that Oda has, and there are these poses, these shapes…you just offer it for a split second and they can slow it down or freeze frame it…or do nothing, and you just look like a live action version of a really cool dude.”
  — Brendan Sean Murray, 14:15

• On Anime & Kabuki Inspiration:
  “For people who don’t know Kabuki theater, it’s amazing. It’s basically watching anime live.”
  — Brendan Sean Murray, 27:15

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Parenting & Lifting Kids as Training: 02:00–04:39
• Audition & Chemistry with Werner (Dory): 08:30–12:59
• Physical & Prosthetics Prep: 13:24–19:04
• Filming as Giants: 19:04–21:48
• Anime & Manga Background: 24:49–31:14
• Outro & Where to Find Brendan: 31:14–32:46

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Tone & Atmosphere

Laid-back, humorous, and heartfelt. Brendan and Raphael share personal stories, mutual respect for the source material, and a clear sense of joy in adapting beloved manga and anime to live-action. Their rapport makes for a compelling listen for any One Piece or anime fan, and Brendan’s anecdotes illuminate the unsung physical and emotional effort in “being a giant.”

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For More Brendan

• Follow Brendan on Instagram ([name not specified]) for updates on Cape Town stage and film work and future international projects.

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A fun, insightful episode for One Piece fans and aspiring actors alike—offering a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse at the challenges and joys of bringing giants to life.

Transcript

[Brendan Sean Murray]

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[Raphael Motomayor]

Great brands, great prices.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

That's why you rack. Hey, what's up? Let me quickly.

[Raphael Motomayor]

That's the background.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

Yeah. What's up? Yeah. So if you guys have another background you want me to use, I totally can, but I got different. How many different programs, which is pretty. Exactly. It reminds people how I look. But I'll show you what my, what my background looks like with. With no background. That's okay.

[Raphael Motomayor]

That's fine. That's fine.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

I think this is better. Does weird stuff to my hair, but, you know, that's what, that's what being in your early 40s is all about.

[Raphael Motomayor]

I'm almost there. I'm only a couple of years old.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

Oh, man, you're going to love it. It's fine, it's fine. It's like, it's like your 20s if you, if you do it wrong and you're messing it up every night and not going to the gym, you're going to probably feel pretty terrible. But I got two kids. My boy's eight. I play football better than I used to. I play cricket better than I used to. I basketball better than I used to. You know, you just, you grow them into your body. It's. It's how much you use it.

[Raphael Motomayor]

And yeah, I have a 4 and a 1 year old, so I'm like, there you go, dude. Yeah, I, I feel, I feel that already, though. Like, just keep picking them up every

[Brendan Sean Murray]

day, no matter how big they get.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Yeah, I just try.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

Do like a couple of reps. Exactly over your head. Let them climb you. That's how I prepared for the role, dude. I literally, I figured out my kids were Heavier than the ax and the, and the shield combined. And so I just started doing like weird core exercises, like holding them very in my body, just trying to like figure out exactly how to get stronger in the middle.

[Raphael Motomayor]

I tell my wife all the time I should be in the best shape of my life. I don't understand why I'm not. Because just like lifting up my 4 year old just to like get him to do whatever it might be, you know, I.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

Anything. And to get him to do anything to get him, you know, maybe they want to wash their hands themselves today. So now you've got to hold them at like a 45 degree angle sort of over the treacherous blades or whatever it is you got right next to your kitchen sink. And they don't care. They're wriggling around that shift in weight constantly. I'm telling you, dude, that's like, it's dynamic weightlifting is what it is.

[Raphael Motomayor]

I'm glad, yeah, I'm glad that that is working for someone because I feel like it has it. Like, I don't feel, I don't like. Oh, I'm not like marketably more in shape than I've been in my life. The opposite, if anything. But they also, it's because they eat stuff that tastes good, but then, you know, leftovers.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

But anyway, it's because also that they're little. Wait until your kid is eight and weighs like 60 pounds then.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Yeah, that's a workout.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

And you just stick them over your head. No. So that's why just keep doing it every day because they're gonna. Other things will get lighter. Your kids won't get heavier.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Yeah, my one year old's only like £20, so that's not really much of a weight. Yeah, yeah.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

Are we losing weight? And they do arm raises.

[Raphael Motomayor]

I feel like this is. If you're okay using this part. I can.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

Out of mind, buddy.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Okay. Because I think for everyone out there, it's good to, you know, lift children as an exercise your own. As an exercise your own.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

With permission.

[Raphael Motomayor]

With permission.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

I was once in San Francisco before I had my own children. And we were in this beautiful park and I had like a climbing wall. And the most cool thing about it was it had this swing in the shape of a rocket that could take six children or two fully grown men. But you're not allowed, you're not allowed near the park. They have a sign there, he says, no, no unaccompanied adults allowed. And for the first and only time in my life, I considered just trying to get some strange Kid's attention like, hey, you in the Batman shirt. I see you're on a company. You want, you want to go on the rocket swing? I need a hookup. You know, that happened to me once. It's the only time in my life that I've considered just walking over to a kid and going like, hi, I'm a stranger and you shouldn't be talking to me. But have you seen that rocket swing?

[Raphael Motomayor]

Have you tried doing that in your brogy, like the full brogy outfit that.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

No, to be fair, the person that I saw and then one of the reasons I absolutely couldn't do it so I was like, okay, let's just say, let me see. If I were to do this, which child might I approach? And literally the first child I saw was four years old little girl wearing a Batman T shirt. And the thought honestly crossed my mind because, you know, like, it's, it's awkward to start a conversation. So what if I just went up to her and said, I am Batman. Like, I don't think I'd get the rocket swing. I think I, I would get a trip downtown, maybe a free holiday.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Yeah, you know you would. Something like that, it's.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

It doesn't translate. You gotta leave some rocket swings alone. But pick up your own kids. Your own kids get heavier and heavier and you will slowly get stronger and

[Raphael Motomayor]

stronger and taller and taller, which I assume is how you've, you know, gained height.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

That's in the camera angle. That's. Just make sure the smallest kid is holding the camera and then you'll look big. You look big when you play it back.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Oh, there you go. That's what happened. So you just had children doing this in photography for that?

[Brendan Sean Murray]

Well, luckily, look, my kids, they want to act because they're a very lax child labor laws and they want to buy like electric scooters and things that I personally will not buy them. But they're like, if it's my money, will you let me buy it? I'm like, sure, get a job. And they're like, well, I could be an actor. And I'm like, oh, no. But no, there were no actual children on set when I was there. They used regular sized adults, but giant sized props. That's how we did it for one piece.

[Raphael Motomayor]

No, yeah, I know.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

It's about child labor. It's so, you know, 18th century. Let's keep it 22nd century and have everything made by grownups with a big fat smile on their face.

[Raphael Motomayor]

I agree. So we are talking today with Brendan Sean Murray, who is Brogy in the One Piece. Live Action. And I gotta say hello. We also have with us Rafael Motomayor, who is a writer and reporter on many outlets, who is joining us today. And Raphael, I think you. When we, like, you got to see the season before I did, before it came out, and you said, I. My question was, what characters that, you know, do or. Sorry, which actors, you know, really stand out to you that, you know, secondary characters that I just wouldn't know about right now. And I think Brendan was the first person that you named. Oh, man, I'm going to blush, and I deservedly so. I thought you were fantastic. I was like, thank you so much, man. Yeah, the laugh came naturally. Everything was. And Brogy is such an endearing character. I'll first ask, how did you find yourself becoming a giant?

[Brendan Sean Murray]

Oh, well, it's a long and crazy story because when One Piece started filming in South Africa, before they'd even started filming, about maybe three months, months before, they had an online script reading of the first two scripts. And because it was being done here, a South African production company was busy running that. And I had the rare privilege of being asked to be the stage directions reader on the scripts, reading the actions and introductions and all of that stuff. And when I read the script, obviously, I knew exactly what it was, and my mind was blown. I did wonder, is Oda going to have the fish as his zoom icon? But I never got to find out. It was just the lead actors. And I got to see Inaki, Emily, Jacob Macinyu, like, literally just almost raw. And my mind was blown. I loved it. From that very split second, I was like, this is going to be amazing. So I auditioned for a bunch of parts in season one, and I did have to turn one or two of the parts down because I would audition for the role. And then you get the role and you're like, but this is a wonderful part. But I will be there in two seasons of one episode. Maybe I can just wait for something bigger to drop. And when season one finished casting and there was nothing, I kicked myself in the pants a bit. But I was like, no, no, it was really good. There'll probably be a season two. Then season two gets confirmed and they start putting out casting calls. And I'm busy looking at the characters in the upcoming arcs. And I am not. What? I'm not built like the statue of David, okay? I'm built like a very happy potato. You know, I'm fine with that. But when a script came in and obviously there's code Names and code words. But this is very early on for season two, so I didn't know that it was for one piece. It said, have to audition with your shirt off. And I was like, ah, no, this isn't going to work. This isn't going to work for me. Okay, let's take a look at the scenes. And I took a look at the scene and it wasn't immediately obvious from the scene, but it was a comedy scene. It's the scene in the cave where there's the misunderstanding about like, I'm going to eat you or not. And I read the scene and I was like, you know what? I may not have abs, but I'm a big dude. I played rugby and I can play the hell out of this comedy scene. I just have to be funnier than all the other guys. And then maybe I'll get a callback. And then I did get a callback and I had to get off of a production of Othello that I was busy doing at the time. Luckily it was during the daytime and during rehearsals. Didn't cancel performances or anything crazy, crazy like that. But went. And there were about 20 dudes being paired up into brogies and dories and they'd flown in from all over. And I. I got in there with. With my first Dory and it just. It didn't quite work. What he was, he was, he was. He was a very. A very tender gentleman, let me say. He, he really. He. He was rooted in like the. The emotion of the. Of the scene. And right towards the end of the day, they start letting people go and then we keep hanging around and get put into different groups. And I gotta tell you, like, they hooked me up with Werner, who ended up playing Dory right at the end of the day. Just before we went into the room, we hadn't. We'd said like hello to one another, but that was about it because you're all just sitting there waiting to go in and you don't want to disturb anyone's process. But I said, can we just quickly run the scene? And he's like, okay, but like half energy and we start like just softly going. By the time we got to the end of the scene, we were like in there. Because the scene we're auditioning with is the final scene where they do the hakoku and they let the straw hats sail away, but then begin brawling again. And just that brotherly love, man, I felt it. And it's maybe also because he played rugby when he was younger, so I'm not afraid to just lay my hands on him and just be a little bit more physical, because I know that's the camaraderie there. Brotherhood of battle. It might just be a rugby field, but it is war. But, yeah, that's. That's how I became cast as Brogy. And then becoming Brogy is another matter entirely. You know, there's the. The laugh, there's the look. There's the. The physical prep for the stunts. You know, it was. It was.

[Raphael Motomayor]

How long did it take? I know we talked to. It was, I think, Jessica. Right. Who did. Who does the makeup, hair, and design?

[Brendan Sean Murray]

Yes. Yes. Amanda is Amanda. Amanda.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Amanda Ross McDonald. Right.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

Yes.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. So how long were you getting ready to become Brogy? When.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

Oh, Lord. Well, so my prep actually started, like, three months before we started shooting. What we were busy chatting about was, how are we gonna get the effect of these giants? And we spoke about, like, who'd done giants well on film, what had they done to film it in that manner? And we decided we really wanted to have the size, the scale, the weight. And so the stunts department was like, wait, we've got it. So you guys now need to be training with little wrist weights on and ankle weights just wherever you go? And like we were chatting about before, Zach, I just picked up my kids because they were of the perfect age.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Weights with that. That's the weights.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

So that's it. So I started doing, like, weights on my wrist, but then they started getting weird and chafey. And then I realized if I just moved my kids, like, we just made a. Where I just, like, pick them up and fly them around and move them over so that I. I just started getting stronger. And I'm really glad I did, because the. My first day of stunts was Wagner's last day of stunts, so he had to go and shoot something else. So they. They rehearsed him in with. With stunts at the beginning, and then literally his last day was my first day. We. We could overlap, and so I had an hour and a half with the stunt department to just, like, learn the choreography, and then I had an hour and a half with Werner to just, like, mess around and see if we could do it. And. And to our credit, we did. I've got that fight on film. I'll probably post it on Instagram one day. Like, we got through the whole choreography just to show, like, a previs to everybody back home in the production trailer. I must say, the very next day, I went in for stance training, and I was like, I'm utterly broken. My body does not work. And so we went straight into an ice bath and then got out the ice bath, and I felt like a little better, started limbering up. And we realized it's just my core had managed to do everything, but then just locked up entirely. Because when you fight as the giants, this is what I didn't realize. Because you want to go for such a large scale, you can't be fighting like close quarters. The camera is going to be far away, but you're still going to be filling the whole frame, you know, so you really got to give that full swing. You got to be dancing ballet instead of just doing short little rabbit punchy bar fight jabs. And the axe has got 90% of its weight, like right at the end. It's got that big giant ball on the end and the actual blade. So we had like a safe version, which was so. And then like a real version. And the safe version was supposed to weigh a lot less, and it ended up weighing just a little bit more. But to stay. To stay safe, you know. But I had two solid weeks of just intense stunts pretty much every single day to get the choreography right. And then we had a week's break. During that time, I was also doing all the costuming and when it comes to, like on the day, man. So I'd leave my place at about 3am I would get in the car and I'd go and I'd probably be watching or like reading one piece probably on Shonen Jump, just looking at our scenes, because I really wanted to honor. They did it so well in season one, and they've done it so much in season two. There are these beautiful frames that Oda has, and there are these poses, these shapes that these characters have that you can just totally use to your advantage. And because we're live action and you're moving the whole time, you can't sit there in like the perfect thing. But you got to just offer it for a split second and then they can slow it down or freeze frame it or do whatever cool thing they want to do with it, or they do nothing. And then you just look like a live action version of a really cool dude, you know? So I'd ride into studio and then at about 4am we would start with prosthetics. We would start by. Oh, man, I had the worst beard this whole time because to put the nose on and the mustache, they had to shave my moustache off. So I had like a full

[Raphael Motomayor]

facial hair anyway.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

Good facial hair. I did. I Looked really Amish. I could, I could have gone on tape for a lot of Amish stuff at that time. So they would stick on my, the, the nose first. That would take about 45 minutes to get it perfect. And then would come the beard and then all the other layers of everything else that goes on your face. So we, we would be in that makeup trailer until about half past seven in the morning. It would take about three and a half hours with a little 15 minute break. Some breakfast sausages. Because the sausage you can pick up and just kind of like feed it in sausages, boiled eggs cut in half, like anything that fits in the beard. Because if you get a piece of sausage or you know, barbecue sauce or something in the beard, it's, it is a major, it's, it's a major issue because they want to be looking at it that close in, you know, an hour and a half's time. So after doing that till about 7:30, then I would have half an hour to get into my armor, get into all of my, my wardrobe. And the armor weighs like 50 pounds. You know, it had all sorts of weights se into it to give us again that, that weight. And because it's real leather, I felt like a tank when I put it on. I grew in every direction. It was amazing. But then it was 8am and 8am you go to set. They want to start doing like a camera rehearsal at like five past eight. And we'd normally do like what's known as a rolling lunch. So we could shoot as much as we could until 6pm so it's like a 10 hour day, 45 minutes to get the makeup off. You're driving home. You get home about 8 o' clock at night, you know, just, just after the kids are in bed and you get to like have a shower stretch because your body's sore. And then you go to bed and you got to be up at 3 again. You know how many days you want to get to bed by about 10pm at the latest.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but how many days of filming was it around?

[Brendan Sean Murray]

We were pretty blessed because the, the challenge of shooting the giants properly meant that we needed to shoot both sides of the scene. You had to shoot it, we called it both sides of the coin. You got to shoot giant scale and then you've got to shoot human scale or you shoot human scale then giant scale. And normally that means we would just be, would move from a giant scale set to a human scale set and backwards and forwards. And it was much Easier to keep the performances continuous if we did it one after the other. So if I was up first, Jacob and Emily could really just look at me and lock in and see what I was busy doing. And normally what would happen is they would go first because Jacob, bless his heart, he would always do such amazing stuff as Usopp. And I really wanted to have Brogi's reactions to be as genuine and as close to what I'd really seen. Because when he's busy doing it up there and I'm crouched down, when we're in my cave, on the giant version of the cave, they're sitting on a ledge that's like three stories up. So I'm hiding down in the cave Canyon, basically where Ms. All Sunday is at the end of the scene. And I'm busy doing my lines to them from there so they can hear me. And we're getting the timing right. And then I. I got into a spot so I could just see exactly what he was doing. And it was so hard to not laugh because I'd seen him we. We'd done it in like the run through. But then when he was. He was doing his takes, he just put an extra little like poses or pauses. It's when he's telling the story of the mole monster. And yeah, that's the exact one that I'm busy thinking of. And you'd have to watch him so closely because he's got so many cool little things and you don't know which one they're going to put in. But he always does it in roughly the same spot in the scene. So you can, if you time your wonder, it comes across perfectly. And so when we've got to do that, you really don't want to only be shooting like one scene in a day or two scenes in a day, or be shooting other scenes in between, you know, because it is such a rigmarole to get all the makeup and the armor and things on. So we ended up shooting for a little over two weeks every single day from 8am until 6pm Monday to Friday, just to just doing giant work. And that was just for me. Like they'd been working with Werner doing dory stuff in the week or two before. And so that was sort of my stuff in one week, week and a bit. And then the fight and our time together in another, like I'd say three, four days. And then my time with Usopp also took a couple of days just to get it all in there properly.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Rafael, I don't want to monopolize Yeah.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

I want to go back really quickly to the audition specifically. You mentioned they were using code names and things to keep it secret. So what did you know about the role going in? And so what was the moment where you realized, oh, like, this is the character. This is who you're auditioning for? Yeah, yeah. So when. When I read the first scene, because all I had was the scene in the cave, you know, I was like, okay, this could be. This could be just a body horror thing. This could be a horror film. This could maybe be, you know, one Piece. Because they are supposed to be casting around. You know, this seems very much like the. The behavior of a really good production that's trying to keep things under wraps. So I was definitely interested. But then as soon as they sent the second scene, which is Brogy and Dory on the beach, you know, saying their final goodbye to the straw hats, I was like, it's Brogy. It's Brogy. And then I went back and I reread those chapters of the manga because I've got a Shonen Jump subscription. So I went straight there and I read it, and then I was like, oh, my goodness, he does. There is the misunderstanding about having them for lunch. It's him. It's Brogi. And then I just had to try and forget all of that when it came time to audition, because otherwise I'd be freaking out way too much. Brogi doesn't care about things like auditions. He cares about where his next meal or maybe ale is coming from. That's about it.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Well, now I'm imagining Brogie at an audition. What's your experience with one Piece? Well, we'll get to that.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

I guess they make an amazing Juliet. I think he's got the tender eyes and the range. If we did a giant pirates version of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, I think. I think he would want to go up for Juliet. He might not get it, but he's the captain, so they might give it to him.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Giant Shakespeare, like EL Baffe and Shakespeare is an amazing concept that I hope takes off. It's like the.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

Me too, man. I would definitely go see it.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Oh, yeah. Well, you'd be in it. I think you'd have to be in it. Yeah. You got the part.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

I'd produce it. I'd go 50, 50 with anyone who's out there. Let's go.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Okay. Yeah. Werner doesn't want to do that with you.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

I don't know. I don't know if he's got the classical Shakespearean training that I have, yeah. I'm not sure I'm like, all about Shakespeare. He might be like, oh, yeah, cool. Romeo and Juliet. I know that story sounds cool. Can I be Romeo? Oh, no.

[Raphael Motomayor]

So what's your experience with One Piece, besides your knowledge of the live action series? I know it really made a splash in South Africa, obviously during the first season, but how much have you read? You said you read the Shonen Jump app, so I have to ask.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

Yeah, well, so I cannot spend as much time as I used to now because I do have two little ones and I'm a responsible adult. But there was a time where the South African national television broadcaster, in the afternoons after school, they would have Dragon Ball Z. And so that was kind of like South Africa's first exposure to Dragon Ball Z. And who could forget his power level is over 9,000. I felt that I was young enough and naive enough that that was very meaningful to me. But then unfortunately, it lost me when it was more about see numbers go up, everyone's just getting more powerful, and the stor not going forward. And then I had a buddy's older brother who was just like, yeah, man, well, that's not. That's not the only anime out there. Yeah, watch this. And I was like, what is this? He's like, watch it. Don't tell anyone where you got it, but you got to give it back to me when you're done. And he had a cassette tape, a number of cassette tapes. Okay. And this, this is sort of. I think I know a number of cassette tapes of berserk. Oh, the hand drawn, beautiful, amazing Guts and Griffith. And I watched that and that fell right into my sort of love of Shakespeare and big stories. And it just raw human emotion. Just normal people thrust into these incredible circumstances and just having to do the thing. And so from there, I obviously got into more like serialized stuff. Was hugely into Naruto Bleach as well. Watching it as a camera, like Bleach episode 54 hit me at like an amazing time. You had to remind me or know the episode.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Dude, I was a. I'm around your age. So like, I was also extremely into bleach, like, particularly in college. I remember I'm trying to. What's 54? That's Soul Society.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

So 54 is when Rukia is on the. The execution platform.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Right.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

And you think all hope is lost. And Ichigo shows up with his new bankai.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Yeah.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

And then you get to see him begin fighting the older brother who whips out his bankai. Shide Senbon Zakura and then he just lets go of his sword and it shatters into the thousand cherry blossoms. And I. It was. For me, I was like, okay, this is a style that I really enjoy. And one of the reasons it hits so hard is because that was the year in my theater studies that I was learning about Japanese theater, specifically Noh and Kabuki. And I could just see how much of like classic kabuki was in Bleach. Just the music, the style, the rhythm, the way they did the fights. You know, they've got those fabulous freezes that they'll do and the koken will roll out the costume and stuff. And for people who don't know Kabuki theater, it's amazing. It's basically watching anime live.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Have you seen, have you seen or heard of the one piece Kabuki? They had it.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

I've heard of it. I have not even seen a stitch of it. I would love to watch that live.

[Raphael Motomayor]

I think they have the video too. They. I don't know if they're still touring. It was a while ago.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

I'm hoping to go back to Japan one day, so. To bring it all back. So at this point in my life, about two years after that episode of Bleach, I found myself in Japan for two months. I was visiting a friend who. He had been teaching English there so I could stay with him. That was my accommodation sorted. And I was obviously looking for Naruto merchandise. I was looking for bleach merchandise. But all of the pachinko parlors and everything, they were all flooded with one piece stuff that I'd personally never heard of. And so I started getting into the. The. I. I wanted to see the manga. So I got like one from the. The. I think I got it from a law. And I asked my friend to translate it for me. Because then I got the Shonen Jump app that day to look at the translations. And it was just after Marineford. It was right in that between time. I think it's the sort of Ace Sabo Luffy pre time skip. And I was busy looking at that and I was like, okay, this might be cool. But then they went into the time skip and I was like, okay, no, no, I've got to go back and I've got to check it all. Let me not like dive halfway in. This story's about to change a lot. I need to know what's been going on. And so then I watched a little bit, I read a little bit, and then got distracted by beautiful acting projects and a beautiful lady who Became my wife. And then the last anime that I watched while it was sort of current and coming out was Attack on Titan, you know, which was absolutely awesome. The way that they did the fights were amazing. But I mean, if I got to say life changing manga out there or anime out there, rather, definitely the. The ovas of Helsing, the old Ovas, like some of the camera work and those fights where they're fighting like the digital zombie vampire things, there's just amazing stuff. And then Basilisk was another one that I really enjoyed.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Yeah. I'm getting a team here. Right. Like these all. Yeah. Which I fit for you and your character, I think.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

I think fit for me and my characters. I was definitely like a big fan of the genres. I mean, I've also watched Full Metal Alchemist and things like that. I've gotten into all sorts of different things. But when you have so many other things to do, I trust you got to pick one. Right. You got to pick one and you got to love it.

[Raphael Motomayor]

And so that's what I did. And that's why I'm not caught up in like anything else when everyone.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

Since. Since season one was shooting in Cape Town, I've been reading the manga and getting into the anime One Piece. And I'm now finished watching Marineford. I'm starting Fishman island now. So. So I've done. I'm now basically back where I was when I was doing the. When I was sitting there in Japan reading the. The. The Shonen jump at the time.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Yeah.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

So, yeah, man, what else would you like to know? Because unfortunately I have to go and make some dinner with some lovely children now.

[Raphael Motomayor]

No, that's reasonable. No, this was great. I think all I want to say is that first pleasure to have you here. What an amazing journey.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

Honored to be here. I listened to one or two EPs of your podcast. Obviously I haven't had much time to sort of prep for this, but you do amazing work to. Dude, please keep flying that jolly Roger high.

[Raphael Motomayor]

We will. And if you haven't checked out, where could people find you? Are there any work that you want

[Brendan Sean Murray]

to promote for me at the moment? I'm still doing film and theater in Cape Town, so you can follow me on Instagram. I'll let you know if I'm doing anything cool over there. Like I've got some local films and things coming out, but international things. There's stuff that might be coming out, but I might be signed to NDAs, so I cannot talk about it. That's the actor's plight, right? When you're working on something amazing, you cannot talk about it. And once you can talk about it, you did it like three years ago. It's, it's beautiful problems to have.

[Raphael Motomayor]

I know. Yeah, it's, it's a. Yeah, it's a good problem. But Brendan, thank you so much for coming on. It was really awesome talking to you. Really great work. Really great work.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

Great talking to you. Hopefully we'll see you back in season like 15 or something.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Oh, we will, absolutely.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

And if you guys want a longer interview at another time, you just let me know. We can pick up where we left off.

[Raphael Motomayor]

If you need more to talk about about with Brokey, let us know anytime you want.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

Hey buddy, you just hit me up and I'll oblige anytime. Get in the game with the college branded Venmo Debit card. Wreck your team with every tap and earn up to 5% cash back with Venmo Stash, a new rewards program from Venmo. No monthly fee, no minimum balance, just school pride and spending power. Get in the game and sign up for the Venmo debit [e-mail] the Venmo MasterCard is issued by the Bancorp Bank NA Select Schools available Venmo Stash terms and exclusions apply at Venmo me stash terms max $100 cash back per month.

[Raphael Motomayor]

Huge thanks to Raphael and of course Brendan for coming on again. Again. If you want to hear more from Brendan, we have a whole several hour long podcast where he is in most of it. That is our 911th episode that we just posted for those listening when this is released. And if you're listening in the distant future, I'm sure it's available wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube.com one piece podcast which speaking of you may not have known but these OPLA episodes are also available with our faces on them and also really cool little images that Alex has drawn for each of the characters or setting or whatever it might be for for each of these interviews. So this one features an awesome brogy that he designed and check out opla. We release new episodes every Wednesday to all all and every Tuesday currently for our Patreon subscribers. That's only $5 a month. You get access to those early episodes as well as a sticker of the month club for with some of the amazing art that our co host Steve Yurko does. Subscribe support our our endeavors here at the One Piece Podcast and at opla we have some some really insanely amazing guests coming up and you'd be remiss if you missed it. We have Mark herilic who plays Dr. Hiriluk on our upcoming episode and it's a really just phenomenal interview for those who haven't again. Patreon.com One PiecePodcast subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts and follow us. Subscribe all that stuff people tell you to do for [e-mail] onepiecepodcast cast and we'll see you next time. Very excited for our interview with Mark Herlick. And again, huge thanks to Raphael and Brendan for this one. We'll see you next time everyone. Goodbye.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

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[Raphael Motomayor]

That's the og.

[Brendan Sean Murray]

It kicked off this whole zero sugar energy drink thing, but Ultra is a whole lineup now. You've got Strawberry Dreams, Blue Hawaiian Sunrise and Vice Guava and they all bring the Monster Energy punch.

[Raphael Motomayor]

So if you've been living in the

[Brendan Sean Murray]

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