The rum-chugging, wisecracking pirate Capt. Jack Sparrow is back, and Johnny Depp couldn’t be more pleased.
In “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” the sequel to the 2003 hit “The Curse of the Black Pearl” that opens at 12:05 a.m. Friday, Depp again wears the horrid dental implants, sea grime and dreadlocks of Capt. Jack.
Depp is thrilled to get dirty again.
“I kind of like everything about playing him, you know? I feel like, I mean he’s just good fun to play,” Depp recently told reporters at an L.A. hotel. “You get to play around with it a little bit and add stuff and try things and get away with it.
“I’ve been very lucky so far. I certainly wasn’t ready to say goodbye to him after ‘Pirates’ 1. I felt like there was a lot more that could be done, more fun to be had.”
Capt. Jack has survived the curse of the black pearl but faces an even more daunting challenge in the second installment of this franchise. He’s doomed for an afterlife of perpetual slavery unless he can find a way to settle his “blood” debt with Davy Jones (Bill Nighy).
Sounds like a job for a tough guy. But some critics argue that Depp’s portrayal of the pirate hero is a little on the soft side. Translation: Jack Sparrow acts like a guy who is proud to wave the rainbow flag.
Depp laughed at the suggestion he made a conscious effort to play Capt. Jack gay.
“Uh, no, it might just be happening naturally,” the father of two said. “Uh, yeah, God only knows what’s on the horizon. The Mae West story?!”
“No, I didn’t make a conscious effort to put a spring in his step or frankly make him more gay,” he said. “But gay used to mean something else, didn’t it? Um, God, I’ll have to see. Maybe he is gay. I don’t know. I’ll check in. I’ll let you know.”
Regardless, Depp’s two kids with French actress-singer Vanessa Paradis still dig their dad as a pirate. Depp says Lily-Rose and Jack, who are being raised in France, often ask him to recite lines from his films.
“My daughter will say, you know, ‘what was that line in ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?’ ” Depp said. ” ‘You know, about the hepcats and motorbike riders and stuff … will you do that? Will you do the voice?’ I’ll do it, and then she’ll go, ‘OK, thanks.’ You know, she’ll move on to the next thing, you know?”
She has many films from which to choose. Since breaking through on TV’s “21 Jump Street,” Depp has been critically acclaimed in films such as “Finding Neverland,” “Donnie Brasco,” “Blow,” “Edward Scissorhands,” “Chocolat,” “Ed Wood” and “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?”
Next up on Depp’s plate is a third “Pirates” flick, which he’s shooting now. He’s also set to star in “The Rum Diary,” a love story penned by Hunter S. Thompson, and a crime drama called “Shantaram.”
That’s an impressive list of credits, yet it wasn’t until “Curse of the Black Pearl” that Depp scored his first Oscar nomination. The accolades for his performance were important for an actor who is, for the most part, a Hollywood outsider.
“I can’t lie and say it’s not nice for the moment,” Depp said. “… I just feel like–you know what–it wasn’t like that for a long time, and if it’s like this for a little bit, that’s great.”
Depp admits that the phenomenally successful first “Pirates” film, which took in $650 million worldwide, validated him in the eyes–and wallets–of Hollywood studio execs who for many years shunned him.
“Even when the studios didn’t want to hire me, and I was kind of a box-office poison and all that stuff, I was still able to do the things I wanted to do. I was still able to do all those films that meant so much to me,” Depp said. “So if, you know, if I’m a decent flavor, you know, this week and next–if in three weeks it changes–well, I know how to do that. I’ve been there. That’s OK.”
