Johnny Depp Was Pissed at Disney for Pirates of the Caribbean, Almost Got Fired
Johnny Depp was fired from the franchise over his controversial divorce, but few people know that actually, Disney’s been trying to get rid of the actor for a long time…for the most bizarre reason.
Pirates of the Caribbean started off as an experiment, but the audience all over the world fell in love with the fascinating world of pirates and monsters.
Following the overwhelming success of the first movie, Disney promptly decided to turn Pirates into a trilogy — and then, into a full-blown multi-installment franchise.
To this day, Pirates of the Caribbean is adored by millions of fans, and this is mostly thanks to Johnny Depp ’s phenomenal portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow.
The charming pirate made his way into all our hearts, sure; however, many fans agree that the movies were getting incoherent at times with all the various subplots.
Johnny Depp was extremely discontent with that, too: he kept clashing with the Disney bosses over the numerous story arcs he felt were unnecessary.
“Why must you have these f*cking heinous subplots? It’s convoluted. There is not a f*cking soul that wants to see Captain Jack Sparrow sad,” Depp told RollingStone.
Johnny Depp wasn’t the only one who didn’t see the reasoning behind the plots at some point. As Disney decided to turn Pirates into a franchise, they had to invent the movies’ premises out of thin air, and neither Johnny nor director Verbinski could understand where the story was going.
“It was plot-driven and complicated. I remember talking to [Gore Verbinski] at certain points during the production of 2 or 3, and saying: ‘I don’t really know what this means.’ He said, ‘Neither do I, but let’s just shoot it.’ This guy is this guy’s dad, and this guy was in love with this broad. It was like, ‘What?’” Depp told EW.
But it wasn’t a one-party war as apparently, Disney execs were really unhappy with the actor, too. They specifically couldn’t put up with his approach to playing Captain Jack Sparrow.
“Disney hated me. [They were] thinking of every way they could to get rid of me, to fire me… ‘Oh, we’re going to have to subtitle him.’ ‘We don’t understand Captain Jack Sparrow. What’s wrong with him?’ ‘What’s wrong with his arms?’ ‘Is he drunk?’ ‘Is he mentally f*cking stupefied?’ ‘Is he gay?’” Johnny shared with GQ.
Admittedly, the entire production of Pirates of the Caribbean was a massive war between Johnny Depp and the Disney execs, and they were probably quite happy to fire him after his controversial divorce.
But we’re glad that Johnny managed to stand up for his vision and deliver Captain Jack Sparrow in his own way and bring us one of the most iconic characters ever.
Source: GQ, RollingStone, EW