Good article about Johnny Depp from
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1553/3966178.html that the good pirate might even appreciate.

It wasn't mascara, it was charcoal! :
Johnny Depp swashes a very different buckle in 'Pirates of the Caribbean'
Jeff Strickler, Star Tribune
Published July 6, 2003 MOV06
LOS ANGELES -- Disney hired Johnny Depp to give them something different in "Pirates of the Caribbean," and, boy, did he deliver.
"It probably scared some of the [studio] executives the first time they saw the dailies because he's so far out there," producer Jerry Bruckheimer said. "I'm sure they were saying, 'Oh, my gosh, we've got a pirate with mascara on! What are they doing down there in the Caribbean?'"
Bruckheimer wasn't making fun of the nervous execs. Most of the people involved with the project were taken aback the first time they encountered Capt. Jack Sparrow, a freewheeling rogue pirate whom Depp describes as a cross between rock 'n' roller Keith Richards and cartoon skunk Pepe Le Pew.
And that's not mascara, although Depp admits it might look that way. But more about that later. First, the star had to deal with the executives' impending ulcers.
"They were worried that I was ruining the movie," he said of the comic adventure, which opens Wednesday. "I told them: 'You hired me to do a job. I know this character, and I think I can build a character you'll like. But you've got to trust me. And if you can't trust me, you've got to fire me.' "
The studio backed off, but there were still plenty of raised eyebrows over Depp's freehand characterization.
"I don't think anyone was expecting that," writer Ted Elliott said. "If I were forced to choose between the Jack Sparrow I wrote and the Jack Sparrow he created, I'd pick what he did. But it was nothing at all like I imagined."
Shattered expectations are exactly what Bruckheimer, whose previous movies for Disney include "Remember the Titans" and "Pearl Harbor," was looking for when he hired Depp, Geoffrey Rush and Orlando Bloom to star and Gore Verbinski ("The Mexican") to direct.
"Those are not names you usually associate with Disney," he said. "That's why we went after them. When you hear those names, you realize that something is different."
One big difference is that it's the first time the Disney logo has been on a movie rated PG-13. In the past, the studio's harder-edged movies were released under its Touchstone Pictures banner, preserving the "family film" image of the Walt Disney name. The studio went back and forth on the issue, but because the movie is based on a
Disneyland attraction, executives figured people would assume it was a Disney movie regardless of what the credits said.
Of course, the name of the movie could have been changed, but the studio wasn't about to give up such a strong marketing tie.
"The Pirates of the Caribbean [ride] is a piece of mental real estate that everyone has," said Elliott, one of the writers of "Aladdin."
Nor did the studio tell them to tone down the violence. There are no scenes of blood spurting or heads exploding, but people do get stabbed in sword fights and hit by cannon fire.
"The studio never told us that we had to try to get a PG rating," Elliott said. "We wrote the story we wanted to write."
Then the studio called in Depp, a force Bruckheimer jokingly referred to as the anti-Walt Disney. Take one look at Capt. Jack and it's clear that he's no Snow White.
"The first scene we shot, he comes staggering up the dock and I think, 'Oh my gosh! He's playing the character drunk!' " recalled Bloom ("The Lord of the Rings" trilogy).
No, Capt. Jack is not drunk, Depp said. He's fried.
"Here's a guy who has spent his entire life standing in the sun," Depp explained. "Some of his brain cells have burned off from the heat."
That was just one of the ideas that hit the actor as he pondered where he could go with the character.
"As I was reading the script, I started to get waves of images and ideas," he said. "I started making notes right away. I knew that this was something I could do something with. Pirate characters have been done before, but here was an opportunity to come up with a new version of a pirate."
He was re-reading the script while sitting in his sauna -- he says the heat helps him think -- when he came up with the idea of patterning the character after Richards, the Rolling Stones guitarist.
"Pirates were the rock 'n' roll stars of the 18th century," Depp said. "And the coolest rock 'n' roll star of all time, in my opinion, is Keith Richards."
But that still leaves us with Pepe Le Pew. Where does the cartoon skunk fit in? Again, from Depp's perspective, it's a natural: Capt. Jack is a very bad pirate who's convinced that he's a very good pirate.
"What I love about Pepe is that no matter what's happening around him, he sees what he wants to see," Depp said. "He's a guy who believes he can run between the raindrops."
And as for that mascara, it's supposed to be charcoal.
"It's not eyeliner," Depp said. "I got the idea from football players who put black under their eyes to cut down on reflections from the sun. Jack spends all day in the sun, so it makes sense that he'd do that. But he doesn't use a mirror [to put it on], and he doesn't wash it off at night. So it starts to build up and get messy."
Depp's costars said it was fascinating to watch him work.
"He created this incredible character who doesn't exist on paper" in the script, Bloom said. "That's what Johnny does, he creates these incredible characters and morphs into them."
Keira Knightley plays the female lead. She admitted to being in awe of Depp, admiring the way he has veered from such diverse projects as "21 Jump Street" to "Edward Scissorshands" to "Chocolat" to "Blow."
"He's one of the few actors around these days who will take huge risks," said Knightley ("Bend It Like Beckham"). "As a young actor, I really admire that. Not that I could compete with what he was doing. When I was in a scene with him, I'd just say my line and move on. But it was great to see someone having that much fun."
Depp was having fun, he said.
"There were moments when Orlando and I would look at each other and say, 'Do you believe we're getting to do this?' I don't think it gets much better than being Capt. Jack. I loved the character. I'm not one of those guys who becomes the character, but when we wrapped, I got depressed. I'm going to miss him."
Did he take part of the character with him? Or perhaps it was there all along. Is there a bit of the rogue pirate in Depp?
"I hope so," he said. "I certainly hope so."