Johnny Depp has been out of the Hollywood limelight in recent years, instead enjoying the cheers from the crowd through his music, as he tours with his band Hollywood Vampires.
However, such is the legacy he has created through the iconic franchise Pirates of the Caribbean that even if he never returns to make another mainstream Hollywood movie, he’d continue making new fans through his character Captain Jack Sparrow for many years down the road.
Depp’s brilliant and hilarious portrayal of the eccentric persona has made Captain Sparrow one of the most famous and loved antiheroes, so much so that it’s almost impossible to imagine any other actor even daring to wrap up the famous red bandanna around their heads and portray the character.
Johnny Depp Feared Getting Sacked From Pirates of the Caribbean
The idea of making a trickster the most important facet of a movie and hoping he becomes a likable character among fans was certainly a bold move from writer Ted Elliot.
Johnny Depp‘s comic timing and at the same time his ability to retain the seriousness needed in the context of pirates and their pursuits made things tick brilliantly. But not everyone was convinced with Sparrow’s slurred speech and laid-back persona. At one point the Cry-Baby actor thought he was getting fired by Disney. He recalled:
“It trickled back to me that Michael Eisner went on some sort of bent about how ‘Goddamnit, Johnny Depp’s ruining the film! Is it drunk? Is it gay? And so I fully expected to be fired, and I got a call from the upper echelon at Disney who were courageous enough to ask me, ‘What are you doing?’…They were actually gonna put subtitles under my character, they couldn’t understand Captain Jack.”
Moreover, Depp, now 60, wasn’t the only choice to play the controversial character, as Jim Carrey was also considered for the part. Things didn’t work out for some reason, and Carrey instead did Bruce Almighty.
Carrey who himself is a master of physical comedy would have certainly made Sparrow a funnier pirate, but it’s unlikely it would’ve been as good as Depp’s version, which seems perfect for an action-adventure movie that is filled with comedic elements rather than the other way around. The fact Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has made over $4 billion attests to the same.
Jim Carrey Missed Out on Edward Scissorhands to Johnny Depp
While Pirates of the Caribbean is Depp’s most prominent work, it was Edward Scissorhands that gave him his breakthrough opportunity. Turns out that even in this movie Carrey was in the running for the lead role.
Depp wasn’t an established star at the time and was way down the pecking order to star as the titular character in Tim Burton’s movie, which also featured Winona Ryder.
The Liar Liar star, along with names like Tom Cruise and Robert Downey Jr., was considered for the part but ultimately Burton went with Depp, who fantastically brought the empathetic personality of artificial man Edward Scissorhands onto the big screen.
Source: Vulture
