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Total Film 9/03

Anchor management.
A gold-toothed wannabe rocker, a former elf and a Disney theme-park ride…. Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom welcome Total Film to the set of 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl'. (by Robert Abele)

"Joy, mayhem, chaos," is a grinning Johnny Depp's explanation of what makes a great pirate movie. "Total freedom. Pirates were the rock stars of their time." Well, Depp certainly looks the part. Skin tanned, goatee braided, eyes kohl-rimmed and with a few of his teeth sporting gold veneers, he's taking a moment to chat with Total Film during downtime for shooting a climatic scene with co-stars Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightly and Geoffrey Rush.
We're in an elaborate cavern set at Disney's Burbank, California studios. Piles of gold, silver, chandeliers, pearls, chains, urns and statues are strewn throughout this massive pirate lair. Everything's fake, though, or else the crew guy shipping doubloons across the water would surely be sent to a studio dungeon. Depp, however, is imagining a healthy thieving background for his character, Captain Jack Sparrow. "I can't speak for all pirates, but my pirate, I think, stole everything," he says. Even those gold gnashers? "Probably out of somebody else's mouth."
Jack Sparrow is a cagey seafarer who, with the help of blacksmith Bloom, sets out to retrieve his ship The Black Pearl from evil pirate Rush and his band of ocean-going criminals. The willfully iconoclast Depp may be an unlikely choice to head a $125-million Jerry Brucheimer-produced adventure movie inspired by a popular Disneyland attraction, but that, apparently, was the point.
"We needed an actor that said this is not just a Disney ride, that it's darker, edgier," says Bruckheimer. "So we went to France [where Depp lives] to convince Johnny to do it." Little convincing was needed. Depp was a wide-eyed boy once, too - as he reminds us. "I love the Disney theme park," says Depp. "I remember going to it as a little kid: I wanted to talk to those mechanical pirates. I went again and took my kids, and you get the same sensation. Only this time I don't have to talk to the pirates. I get to be one." He pauses, the laughs. "I'll just talk to myself and people can stare at me."
Initially Depp's performance - a Keith Richards-inspired, buoyantly slurred oddity that's equal parts masculine swagger and feminine wiles - shivered the timbers of Disney studio executives who had probably hoped for a conventionally yo-ho-ho portrayal. But Depp didn't want a movie that, as he puts it, "makes people instantly think 'Aaarrgh'. There's got to be something else, you know?"
And if there's one genre that needs shaking up, it's the pirate movie. Years ago, Douglas Fairbanks Sr and Errol Flynn defined the kind of rogues cinema was made to exploit, but for a long time now swashbucklers have been distinctly treasure-less and marked by sunken spectacles such as Roman Polanski's Pirates and the soggy Geena Davis-starrer Cutthroat Island. When Disney decided to turn one of its most popular theme-park exhibitions into a summer family movie, it hoped the name alone would revive the genre, but Bruckheimer knew he'd need something cooler for teens. So the clever screenwriting duo of Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott, who famously sent up the fairytale world in Shrek, where brought on board to give the swachbuckler a jolly, if gentle, rogering.

"There hasn't been a good pirate movie since The Crimson Pirate," claims Rossio, referring to the 1952 adventure starring the former circus acrobat Burt Lancaster. "We wanted to make the best pirate movie that's ever been made, and what had never been done before were all the supernatural elements. There's a great tradition of spooky stories being told in that particular environment and Pirates taps into it."
What the duo came up with was a curse on 300 gold coins, swiped and spent over the years by dastardly Captain Barbossa (Rush) and his motley crew. Now condemned to sail the seas as dead men walking, they become flesh-dripping skeletons (thanks to Industrial Light & Magic) whenever moonlight hits them. Kidnapping a port-town governor's daughter (Knightley) they set off to break the spell - with Depp and Bloom in hot pursuit. The two scripters worked in gags that riffed on all pirate clichés - from plank-walking to archaic words like "Avast - as well as iconic images from the park ride, and the added 'ick' factor of hellish ghost pirates so that adolescents wouldn't fell left out. With the arrival of director Gore Verbinski, coming off the successful frightfest The Ring, the movie had a helsman who could steer the right course for both gags and gasps. "Gore has a wonderful sense of humour for a guy who can scare you," says Bruckheimer.
Depp also knew he had a comrade-in-weirdness with Verbinski. The actor's first idea for Sparrow, he says, was that he would sport a blue-hued nose - due to having been lopped off during a past battle and then sewn back on. "The things that he feared were not swordfights or cannon fire," recalls Depp of his concept. "But the common cold. Or pepper." Right… Instead of getting nervous, says Depp, Verbinski just sat and smiled. "He looked like a seven-year-old boy. He was like, 'I don't know what Jerry or Disney's going to say, but if that's where you want to go, man, I'll back you.' I trust him. He's wonderful."
The blue-schnozz notion went south, but Depp did get a grin's-worth of gold caps. When the Mouse House flipped, though, Depp shrewdly kitted himself out with some disposable additional gnashers. "They said, 'The gold teeth have to go,' and I said, 'No, listen, I'll take this one off and this one and that'll be better. That's the compromise.' So I took two off, knowing they were going to go anyway."
Orlando Bloom wasn't hired for such leftfield eccentricity - the handsome heartthrob was asked to trade in his elfin gleam from Lord Of The Rings for the romantic panache of the story's young hero, Will Turner, in love with Knightley's heroine. "He's the boy from the wrong side of the tracks, in love with the girl from the right side, nervous at the beginning and unsure of himself," says Bloom. "It was a nice arc to develop." Watching Depp, Bloom was both awed and envious. "At one point, I said, 'God, I'd love to do an impression of Jack,' and Johnny said, 'You should, you should!'" The writers added it to the script, and Bloom got to do it. "I felt like Johnny and I were the odd couple a bit. It was a lot of fun."
What everyone else saw in Depp and Bloom, though, was a dashing double-act that could rival Hollywood's golden age of derring-do. Rossio remembers looking at dailies one day on a black-and-white monitor that had an old-time flicker to it and getting especially excited. "We went, 'Oh my God, Orlando Bloom is Errol Flynn - his motion, movements, smile… And Johnny Depp is Douglas Fairbanks Sr, with that mischievous attitude.' We were going, 'Hey, we got Errol, we got Douglas, we're in good shape!'" Not wanting to feel left out, Geoffrey Rush told the filmmakers he may be the bad guy on screen, but he was Burt Lancaster on the inside.

For moviegoers, however, a pirate yarn lives or dies by the sword, especially if the actors don't look too sharp when they're swinging a blade. Enter the man who doubled for Errol Flynn 50 years ago in 1953's The Master Of Ballantrae: expert swordsman Bob Anderson. "He's an amazing man,' says Jack Davenport, who reveled in the coaching he received to play the law-obsessed Commodore Norrington. "When he tells you something, you listen - on pain of death. He played Darth Vader in the scenes when he's fighting, and he was in his 60s when they filmed that! I kept calling him Yoda. He took it with good humour."
Anderson - he was fensing sage on The Mask Of Zorro - had also previously lent his wisdom to Bloom on Lord Of The Rings. "When you're doing a sword routine, it's easy to lose a sense of the character," says Bloom. "It becomes all about the blades. One thing Bob was keen for us to do was maintain the relationship between the characters." For Bloom's elaborate four-minute duel with Depp early in Pirates, when neither is sure of the other's intentions, Anderson's advice was "to maintain that rivalry and character as if it were a scene, not just a swordfight." And Depp admits his preference for not planning the day's acting ahead of time doesn't work when you're dealing with sharp edges. "It's got to be exact, otherwise you'd wack somebody's ear off,' says Depp, who trained four hours a day for a couple of months before lensing began. "It's exhausting."

As for shooting on the open seas, Pirates was a huge undertaking. Three ships are featured heavily in the film: HMS Interceptor, a clipper played on screen by a fully functioning 18th-century replica called Lady Washington; HMS Dauntless, a British warship that was actually a set constructed floating barge off Long Beach, California; and finally, the pirate ship The Black Pearl, another fake vessel that had to be pulled around by a tug. Since The Interceptor was a real sailing ship with a real crew, it was particularly tricky to manoeuvre. "It's like being in some kind of matchstick boat," says Knightley. "The slightest ripple in the water makes it rock and when you o out 20 miles, there are some very big waves - and it's a small boat." Bloom says he didn't succumb to seasickness but Knightley took pills. "What they don't tell you about seasickness tablets is that they make you drowsy," she says. "So there are outtakes where I've literally fallen asleep in the middle of the scene, and everybody else is puking. They weren't the best days, out at sea."
Neither were the scenes when Knightley had to wear a corset. Her character gets to complain about in on film too, but here she expounds. "You can't really eat, because the food stop there," she says, pointing to her sternum. "You just think it's going to come up again. No wonder ladies used to faint a lot - they couldn't actually eat or breathe properly."
So it's never a breeze shooting a pirate movie, but will Pirates of the Caribbean lift the hex that's fallen on these skull-and-crossbone sagas for the past 50 years? Will it bring in adults as well as kids? "Look, it has the fun and excitement of a big movie, and everything you expect from a pirate film,' says Bruckheimer. "It's got swordfights, ships, the monkey on the villain's shoulder, the parrot. We're doing this as real as we can make it."
Demographics aside, Rossio reckons it's high time kids got to enjoy a pirate movie as it was meant: as a thrilling story of rebellion. "Children are always being told to do the right thing - don't do this, don't do that," says Rossio. "Of course, they're natural savages. They just want to rebel and pirates get to do that. They're the classic anti-heroes operating outside society's usual laws."

Extra Virgin.
Real-life seadog Stuart Thomson thought he's hit the big time when he landed a gig as an extra on 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. But, as he reveals here, not everything went as planned…

Stuart Thomson…Stuart Thomson…No, that won't do. The first question on the application form for extras work on Pirates of the Caribbean and I was panicking already. I had to make an impression. Stuart Thom… Tom Stuart… Tom Stuson… Tommy… Studson. TOMMY STUDSON! What a name. That'll get me in.
As it happened the casting woman didn't even look at the firm and instead peered at my face. "HMMM. Maybe a sea captain?"
Yeah, a sea captain. Sounds good.
"No, he's too tall," said the wardrobe guy. "Nelson was only 5ft 3in, you know."
Before I could work out the logic of that, the casting lady spoke up again.
"A Marine, then?"
Marine, eh? Not as good as a captain, but, hey, this is my first movie. Beggars can't be choosers.
"No, he's too old for a Marine," said Wardrobe.
If I didn't get it, Wardrobe was going to see the sharp end of his coat hanger. But rather than attack him, I just gave Ms Casting my best Disney Marine smile (toughness with a hint of cartoon cuddliness) and, hey presto! I was in.
So here I was, Tommy Studson, walking around Walliabou, a beautiful small bay in the Caribbean island of St Vincent, which had been transformed by Hollymagic into a perfect, 18th-century port complete with docks, town, shops, ships, donkeys and goats. I was about to star alongside Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Ruch, Orlando Bloom, Jonathan Pryce and Keira Knightley in a huge Bruckheimer blockbuster.
Well, I say walking, but crawling's more apt. this was due to the ridiculous costume Wardrobe had found for me. You want to know why we Brits lost an empire? Look no further. With the temperature in the high 80s we 18th-century British Marines were wearing knee-length socks, thick trousers, long-sleeved shirts, waistcoats, thick red tunics and, to top it all, wigs and big felt hats. Plus belts and those belty things that cross over your shoulders. Along with a leather bad. And a bloody big, heavy musket, complete with bayonet. Just moving was an effort. Shuffling on to the set, I headed towards the other Maring for my first scene.

This was set on the end of the jetty, where our hero Johnny has just rescued unconscious Keira from the sea, rips off her corset (what a job) and then gets arrested by the Marines. It was a tough opening scene for Tommy Studson's first stab at showbiz but I thought he could pull it off.
The assistant to the assistant to the assistant to director Gore Verbinski came up to me. "Where are we going to put you?" she wondered. I looked past her shoulder to the dock where Johnny was getting into character by rolling himself a fag. It was bloody obvious where they were going to put me. There was a nice space just to the right of him begging to be filled by a tough, yet strangely cuddly, Marine. Instead she looked over my shoulder and saw the perfect spot for a too-tall and too-old Marine.
"I want you up there,' she said pointing down the jetty, past the palm trees, to a fort that was actually made of polystyrene, plywood and scaffolding. I followed her finger to the top. There, silhouetted neatly against the skyline, it was possible to just make out the battlements. That was where she wanted me…
Once I finally got to the fort and worked my way around back, climber the ladders, negotiated the scaffolding poles and reached the top of the tower, I was a long way from the action. But I had my megaphoned instructions. When the director shouted "Background action!", I was to run along the battlements, down the steps at the front of the building and jog along the dock join the other Marines who were themselves scampering over to arrest Johnny.
I gave her the thumbs-up. Tommy Studson could handle that. "Cameras rolling" came Verbinski's shout. I tensed up. I was that Marine. And then… "Background action!" I started running down the stairs, looking like I was on a mission. Then - THWACK! Straight into a fake brick wall. The steps went nowhere! I looked around in panic. I noticed a small window cut into the polystyrene nearby. I started to squeeze my way through. The whole structure shuddered alarmingly. I forced my way through the opening, bits of polystyrene ripping off in the process, but my rifle had somehow managed to lodge itself on the other side. I put my head back through to free the bayonet from a bit of netting and knocked my hat off in the process. I quickly put it back on and turned towards the scaffolding poles.
I cleared the first and ducked under the second. My hat came off again and while turning to grab it, my tunic got caught. I untangled myself and threw my hat on again, in the process shoving my wig down over my left eye.
Once I'd struggled down the ladder, I only had to run around the back of the building to the jetty. I jostled through the bemused doughnut-eating crew and around the side of the building to the home straight. There it was: the jetty. Down the end I could see the other Marines surrounding Johnny with their bayonets. He was kneeling beside Keira, saying his lines. I set off, puffing. I hadn't noticed this before but, it was amazing how loud my leather-soled boots were on the wooden jetty. Clomp, clomp, clomp, clomp. It sounded like an escaped carthorse was galloping down the dock. Johnny stopped mid-dialogue and looked around at the source of the noise. The director, the assistant director, the assistant of the assistant director and all the other assistants looked over their shoulders to see Tommy Studson staggering up the jetty. Keira Kinghtley sat up just in time to see a wheezing trooper with his wig covering one eye and his hat at a jaunty angle join the party. I was now supposed to point my musket at Johnny in a threatening manner, but as everything had stopped and there was no way I could have lifted the bloody thing anyway, I merely leaned forward on a nearby barrel and panted furiously. There was a shocked silence. Everyone was staring at Tommy Studson in exactly the way I hoped, but for exactly all of the wrong reasons. It could have gone one of two ways then. I could have been banished from Hollywood forever or I could meet a director with a sense of humour. Luckily it was the latter.
"Nice of you to join us," said Verbinski. Everyone laughed like this was the funniest joke they'd ever heard. Comedy? Comedy? Yeah sure, I can do comedy. It's all in the timing, you know…
Assistant person took me by the hand as if I was seven years old and walked me back over to the fort. She suggested that next time, I simply "duck down behind the wall at the bottom, like you were going down another flight of stairs".

So that's how I spent my first morning of shooting. I must have run and ducked about 20 times, by which point Hollywood was beginning to lose some of its glamorous appeal. It was hot up there on the battlements. At one point, assistant person shouted up through her megaphone, "Remember your motivation!"
"Yeah right!" I shouted back. "Eighty dollars a day and as much food as I can eat!" But she didn't hear me. She was too far away.
It did get better, though. From then on, I spent the best three weeks of employment I'd ever had. I dressed up in silly clothes, I got to mess around in boats, I spoke to movie stars and I may even end up being in the film. In fact, I was enjoying myself so much I volunteered for everything going. I managed to become a sailor and a villager, as well as a Marine.
When you watch the movie, peer past Deppo's sinking ship at the start… There, looking uncool in a rowing boat's Tommy Studson. When Deppo steps off his sinking boat on the dock, there's Tommy Studson, unloading a box! When Deppo's about to be arrested by the Marines, glimpse over Jonathan Pryce's shoulder - that Marine looking older, taller and more bemused than all the others is none other than… Tommy Studson! So I made it after all. Sort of.

Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl
Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom leap on board for a gleeful swashbuckler of the highest order. They'll fire a broadside into summer's other blockbusters…

You're expecting this to suck, aren't you? You may as well admit it - we were, too. After all, if any of this summer's big movies seemed to have 'turkey' clearly stamped on its mangy, feathered butt, then Pirates of the Caribbean was the potential Christmas dinner in question. A pirate movie? Starring Johnny Depp? With a pointy-ear-free Orlando Bloom? Adapted from a bleeding Disney funfair ride? Critics were roasting the potatoes and preparing the cranberry sauce the moment it was announced.
But, shiver me timbers, isn't it a relief to be spectacularly, magnificently surprised every once in a while? Singlehandedly dredging the splintered carcass of the buccaneer flick out of Davy Jones' locker, Pirates of the Caribbean sets off on a roister-doistering, swashbuckling, avast-ye-me-heartying adventure that pillages the best bits from movies as diverse as The Crimson Pirate and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Then it lashes them all together with sparky dialogue, lavish stunts, some corking running gags and four core performances that much up the scenery with pantomime abandon. Turning the barmy-setting to 11, Depp is Captain Jack Sparrow, a mincing, gold-toothed, black-eyed, mockney-accented lunatic with Mick Jagger's wardrobe and Keith Richards' grasp of reality. It's a performance that shouldn't work - all contradictions and ragged ends - but Depp massages it with ballsy charisma until he's shaped one if the best buccaneers since Errol Flynn.
Up against Sparrow is Geaffrey Rush's lup-curlingly evil Captain Barbossa, leader of a crew of cursed men doomed to a half-life as skeletons (they switch from men to walking bonebags whenever moonlight hits them) until they can recover the final piece of a horde of magical gold coins. A final piece which just happens to belong to Keira Knightley's tomboyish governor's daughter, Elizabeth. One kidnapping later and the bony brethren have both her and the trinket and are ready to head of to the Isle Of The Dead for some quick and bloody curse-breaking. Can Orlando Bloom's blacksmith Will (a performance that should cement his rep as a rising star) stop them? If Sparrow agrees to help him, he might just have a chance… With swordfights that challenge The Princess Bride, glorious sea battles and some flawless effects - take a look at the battle set in a cavern illuminated by shafts of moonlight - this is everything a pirate movie ought to be and a dollop more. Twenty minutes of this action-stuffed, gag-packed swashbuckler and you'll forget Cutthroat Island ever existed. Okay, so the mean-spirited might argue that it's too long and even a touch repetitive, perhaps cramming in a fight too many before shipping into top gear for the rousing climax. But can you have too much of a thing as good as this?

Verdict
Batten down the hatches - the pirate movie is back. And back with bang, bluster and balls aplenty. One of the best blockbusters of the summer by a nautical mile. * * * *