Research paper help - is Captain Jack Sparrow gay?

[Avalon_toon]

I know he's a fictional character, so its all just speculation, but I'm writing this research paper on Pirates of the Caribbean, talking about how the film series plays with and inverts some commonly accepted themes like good/evil, life/death, male/female, etc.

I was planning to include a discussion of Captain Jack Sparrow as sexually ambiguous if not outrightly gay, but I was having a conversation about this today with my husband, and he says I'm reading too much into it - Jack isn't gay, he's just eccentric.

So - am I reading too much into the character, or did Johnny Depp really play the character as gay?

(sorry if this has been discussed before, but I did a search and couldn't find anything...)

 

[rpmdfw]

Speaking as a gay guy who loved all three of the movies . . .

I never got a gay vibe from the character at all.

Drunken, sure.

Odd, you betcha.

Self centered, absolutely.

Gay, not so much.

 

[spacemermaid]

Nah, he's not gay...in the movies, he's got women who remember his previous antics (which I am pretty sure don't include stealing their boyriends!) in various ports, giving him an earful or maybe even slapping him!

 

[bubie2.5]

Sorry, but I don't think he's gay.

 

[I<3EvilQueen]

Nah, not gay.

Now I will admit that his mannerisms were a bit "fluid" and not what you would say were majorly "manly". But I think that is because he projecting an air of drunkeness and being an oaf to through people off from his cunning and con artist ploys.

 

[Timon-n-Pumbaa Fan]

zero ping

The character isn't gay.

 

[soulmates]

He was doing the KEITH RICHARDS thing..not gay, sorry...however, he IS pretty to look at!!

 

[tig82174]

really? HMMM......I guess I'll be the one voice of dissent here and say that yes I think you could make a case for Captain Jack being something outside the traditional boundaries of heterosexual. My read of the Johnny Depp Jack Sparrow was always at LEAST as pansexual and/or bisexual....and I know lots of other people who thought the same thing.

Interestingly, one of my very best friends is a PhD in film and queer theory who teaches at a university in Canada.....and we're both really into queer cinema, active in queer film festivals, etc. I had NO interest in the POC films when they first came out and the only reason I ever even watched the first one was because my friend said, "Oh you HAVE to see it! Johnny Depp is the queerest pirate ever!!" (of course that was before Robert Deniro's character in Stardust... ....but still).

 

[Goofyluver]

Gay? Nah.

Fabulous? Yup.

 

[I<3EvilQueen]

really? HMMM......I guess I'll be the one voice of dissent here and say that yes I think you could make a case for Captain Jack being something outside the traditional boundaries of heterosexual. My read of the Johnny Depp Jack Sparrow was always at LEAST as pansexual and/or bisexual....and I know lots of other people who thought the same thing.

I would have said the same thing, except that we never really even saw him make allusions to any attraction to any of the men in movies. But in this day and ago Capt Jack Harkness (from Torchwood) his pansexuallyness pales in comparison, but then again that could also be the difference between the more liberal BBC and the conservative Disney.

 

[Avalon_toon]

Wow, this has been eye-opening for me! Thanks for taking the time to respond. I'm surprised more people didn't read his character this way, but I guess its no where near as evident as I thought it was!

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

Nope. No bisexuality, pansexuality or ominsexuality vibe at ALL.

Remember the scene before he's locked to the ship with the kraken coming? Definitely het boy.

Depp did play the character as Keith Richards, from timbre of voice, to slight accent, to physical actions and mannerisms...even the eye liner! LOLOL!

 

[ConcKahuna]

I would have said the same thing, except that we never really even saw him make allusions to any attraction to any of the men in movies. But in this day and ago Capt Jack Harkness (from Torchwood) his pansexuallyness pales in comparison, but then again that could also be the difference between the more liberal BBC and the conservative Disney.

Didnt a man slap him along side a woman in PoTC3? I seem to remember somehting like that along with a "Long story" type response from Cap'n Jack.

Robert DiNeiro played the best gay pirate ever!

 

[MonorailMan]

I still haven't seen the movies.
But from what I could tell from the audio animatronics versions of him, he's not gay.