Interview: Taz Skylar Reveals his WORST EVER JOB and One Piece

Taz Skylar returns to our screens once again but not as a composed pirate aboard a ship, but as someone more sinister, with his new film 'Cleaner’. Radical activists hijack an awards gala and an extremist within the group plans to kill everyone, but it is up to a former soldier, now window cleaner, to bring everyone to safety. This is his most unique film yet with it being solely shot in one location for the entire runtime and may prove to be rather challenging.

To get a better understanding of what Cleaner has to offer, we got to speak with lead actor, Taz Skylar. We get to talk about how it felt to transition from Big Netflix titles like One Piece to smaller grounded projects, his early experience with jobs, how it felt to play a dark villain and much more. Check it out down below!

Raks:

The Film is called The Cleaner, but what I noticed is that the language from the characters wasn't the cleanest. So I'd like to know who had the most fun time swearing on set?

Taz Skylar:

How long were you trying to think of that line from the opening line? 

Raks:

I'll be honest, I was up all night trying to think about it.

Taz Skylar:

Do you pick up girls in the same way? Do you pontificate the line that you're gonna open with? That was brilliant.

Raks:

 I mean, Valentine's Day is approaching, so it might be perfect timing. 

Taz Skylar:

Yeah, pontificate on a line for me. Pontificate on a line. I need a great pick up line for Valentine's Day. That was awesome. 

Raks:

Swearing on set. I think I lost count of how many times people said the F word in their film. 

Taz Skylar:

You know what? I don't know. It's a tight competition because I think I don't recall anybody not swearing very much. I think I definitely added a few more F bombs in there than most people. Like Simon, bless Simon the writer. He's such a talented guy. He has such a way with words. I think he definitely wrote something more eloquent than the F-bomb filled version of it that I ended up doing. And we definitely took some of the fucks away. 

Raks:

Did you guys have a swear jar on the set? 

Taz Skylar:

Yeah, like you can use it here, you can use it there, but like pick one of them and then stick to it. 

Raks:

And so you've come off playing a selfless hero as Sanji. Now you've come in to play this vindictive villain. What was it like trying to shift into this character whilst coming off someone that's like completely the opposite? 

Taz Skylar:

Dude, I think like as, maybe as biased as this is, because I'm always trying to understand people. I think everybody is a selfless hero in their mind. It's just a case of whether everybody else sees you like that or not. And you may see yourself as a selfless hero and you may be wrong. Sometimes it's easier to be objective about things than others. But I think in his mind he has a very noble cause that he's fighting for, has a very particular set of goals and a very particular set of villains in his head. And he's doing his best to do right by his word and what he set out to do. And I think... Vindictiveness is a trait that he has more so than something that he completely personifies. Okay, yeah, I get that. Like, it's a crazy character. He's also very inconsistent at times. Like, I think he's trying to figure himself out just as much as act on the things that he's said. 

Raks:

Like, at first I was like, this guy's a bit relatable. He's a cleaner. He's got some jokes on him. I'm thinking damn. He's got a regular job like most people. So I'd like to ask. Were there any jobs that you had that you didn’t like? 

Taz Skylar:

I've been fired from every regular job. I know Yeah, I've never been able to hold down like a regular Just like a normal stable way of making a living. I used to work at a surfboard factory The manager there, that was a vindictive man. He was a villainous, vindictive man. I wonder if he'll ever see this. And he used to make a point of going to the bathroom and taking a dump before asking me to clean it. And he'd do that every day. And instead of Taz, he'd call me Spaz. And he'd come out, he'd be like, Spaz, I just took a dump, go clean the toilet. And I'd go do exactly that. And then after that, I'd clean the machine room. And the machine room was this room filled with like white polyurethane dust. And it was like, I was shorter than I am now. I was only like 15 at the time. And it was no joke, like the depth of my shoulder going in there. So I'd go in there with ski goggles and a mask and like a bandana wrapped around my face and gloves. I would just shovel for hours trying to get this dust out. I hated that job. That job was horrible.

Raks:

 I definitely couldn't work that. And if you were to be in a hostage situation, what would be your survival plan?

Taz Skylar:

Ooh, that's such a good question because I honestly believe I would be a nightmare if I was a hostage. I would just, because I'm just, by nature, I'm such a little crafty, I'm just such a little crafty annoying little animal. You know what I mean? Like I can't, it's really difficult to put a cage on me because I would just find a way to pick the lock or bend the bars or like tunnel my way out the bottom. My strategy, honestly, I think would wait until they relax for a second and then put them in a rear naked choke. And if my hands are tied up, I don't know, I'd figure out a way to either cut it or slide my legs in front of me and hide it to the best of my ability and then use that to real naked choke. I don't know, I'd put someone in a rear naked choke. 

Raks:

Sounds more like the person that's taking the people hostage.

So transitioning from big Netflix IPs like One Piece to coming down to more grounded London based films like Gassed Up and The Cleaner. What was that like?

Taz Skylar:

Honestly, there wasn't that big of a difference. I guess like you're working more practically, instead of working on a pirate ship that they've built or a village that they've built where everything around you is make believe. You're kind of shooting on streets in London and there's like a sense of it being real and the sense that...

It's sort of any version of which you, any version that you choose to represent this story, makes a very particular social comment. But I don't know, honestly, it didn't feel, none of it feels that different because whether there's loads of money to make something or like just an adequate amount of money to make something, the level of the amount of problems,

that come on the set are exactly the same. If anything, I'd say the amount of problems that come inherently with really big budget stuff is more actually than the low budget ones because as soon as you have more money, you're trying to achieve more things. And the more you're trying to achieve, the more problems it comes with. And I guess on an indie film, the biggest issues you come up against are like, I don't know, someone didn't show up. So you got to rewrite a scene.

you know, you lost the location, you need to figure out how to make it work in another place. But at the end of the day, it's all problem solving. And I think Touchwood, I've been blessed to just have wonderful cast members on everything that I've done. And so it's just, it's always a blast to try and do something cool with a set of people that are cool. 

Raks:

What's your favourite action thriller film? 

Taz Skylar:

Ooh, favourite action thriller film. Ah, favourite action thriller. Damn, that's so specific. I don't know. Point Break doesn't count, does it? It does? Yeah, yeah. All right, Point Break, I love Point Break. 

Raks:

Who's a favourite movie villain that you would have loved to have played?

Taz Skylar:

The Joker.

Raks:

That's perfect! And Taz, it was lovely speaking to you, congrats on everything. And I can't wait for One Piece Season Two and anything else that you work on as well. Keep on shining.

Taz Skylar:

Have a good rest of your day, okay? You’re a legend!

The Cleaner is out Now!