During our visit to the Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides set, Johnny Depp took some time to have an unscheduled chat with us. Although brief, Depp covers some interesting points, including filming in London, working with Penelope Cruz and having input into the script.
Q: Have you enjoyed London here, how was the filming in Greenwich, it looked like a lot of fun?
Johnny Depp: Yeah Greenwich is beautiful, Greenwich is gorgeous. You know the thing about filming in Greenwich for me was basically all stunts, so it’s kind of hopping from one carriage to another… I prefer scenes myself, but you know…
Q: Is it, is it important for you to do that yourself, you like to actually get involved with the action?
Depp: Yeah, I mean yeah sure because there’s a, there’s a physical language to the character that I think is important. You know, so even though the stunt double, Chris [Leps], has got [it] down to a fine science, it’s still times you got to see Captain Jack’s head in there I suppose, and now and again.
Q: How are you enjoying working with Rob Marshall. Is it so much different?
Depp: Oh what a treat, you know what a, what a, I mean different, every filmmaker’s different, every filmmaker has a different approach, but I mean, a treat, a real gift. He’s, he’s truly uh
I mean first and foremost, he’s a very, he’s a wonderful man, like very kind and, and collaborative, but with fantastic ideas. And, a brilliant sort of
handle on, on scene and story and shape, I suppose. Shape, yeah I know he’s really special.
Q: You contributed to the script yourself this time largely, how did you enjoy that?
Depp: Well, I mean all, I just you know it’s like, you know going into a think tank basically you know, and just kind of throwing ideas around. If something sparks, it sparks. You know and if they accept it, they accept it, and luckily, you know or thankfully they did, I mean hopefully for the better. But no, they were very receptive to, to just kind of throwing ideas around, just to keep it, to make it different and to keep it very fresh. As opposed to just, well here comes another one, you know another sequel or something. But just to try to keep things a bit different you know.
Q: How do you do Captain Sparrow this time. Could we see any new aspect of him this time?
Depp: Well, there was a sex change
I mean, you know, I honestly think you know this whole thing about characters and character arcs and finding themselves and this and that. I honestly think old Captain Jack has found himself a long time ago. I don’t, I don’t think there’s any more room to… He can’t go any further, I think he’s at the, he’s hit a wall as it were.
Q: How’s it been working with Penelope? Is she a match for Captain Jack?
Depp: Oh yeah, she’s, she’s a serious force to be reckoned with Penelope, I mean we did a film together years ago called “Blow”
I could’ve said we did “Blow” together years ago
Q: That would have been a headline there, wouldn’t it?
Depp: Yeah so we did this film “Blow” together, which was wonderful, I mean she’s really a treat, she’s, yeah, she’s a heavy hitter. You can throw all kinds of stuff out there into the atmosphere and she’ll snatch up something and throw a curve ball back at you, so she’s… It’s very stimulating, she’s someone I adore, you know one of my best friends, so yeah it’s been great, it’s been great having her.
