WAMG Sits In On PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES Press Conference With Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane, Rob Marshall & Jerry Bruckheimer

On Thursday, May 5th, WAMG attended the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES press conference at the swanky Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills. Speaking to a room of over 300 members of the media, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, along with director Rob Marshall and the entire star-studded cast talked about their experience making the film.

In attendance were Johnny Depp (Jack Sparrow), Penelope Cruz (Angelica), Geoffrey Rush (Barbossa), Ian McShane (Blackbeard), Astrid Berges-Frisbey (Syrena), Sam Claflin (Philip), Rob Marshall / Director, and Jerry Bruckheimer / Producer.

Photo: From Penelope Cruz’s Star On Walk of Fame.

Pete Hammond from Deadline.com was the the afternoon’s moderator. Below is a sampling of the press conference which includes insight on PIRATES 5 & 6 and where things stand on THE LONE RANGER project.

Female Speaker: Hi. My question is the Captain Jack. You are saying you enjoy playing Captain Jack because you have [inaudible] and absolutely abstract. How do you see the similarity between the actual you and Captain Jack, and another question, if you have a chance in the future to be director, would you consider to play a lead role in that movie?

Johnny Depp: Do I consider to play a lead role? Oh, yeah. No, no, I tried that once. Yeah, first one’s free. No, no, if I ever thought of directing again, I mean – I don’t know, even the idea of directing a film is a strange one for me, because I sort of – I feel kind of anti mathematics in a way in the that sense. Anti – I don’t like when things make sense, I prefer if they don’t so if I made a film it wouldn’t make any sense and no one would see it. So maybe I’ll just make little films at home with my phone never to be released.

And in terms of any connection to the character of Captain Jack, was that it? We’re completely – we’re totally different. Nothing that I can relate to in Captain Jack whatsoever. With every character you play, as these guys will tell you, any character you play, there’s a part of you goes into that in terms of the ingredients of making this stew. There’s most definitely a part of me in Captain Jack and now, fortunately, or unfortunately, there’s a great part of Captain Jack in me as well. Basically, I can’t shake it. He won’t leave me alone. He just sort of keeps showing up at odd times.

In fact, he arrived this morning when I was getting my kids ready for school. I had to shoo him away. Yeah, thank you.

Female Speaker: We’ve heard that you’ve already gotten the scrip for the next film so I guess my question to Jerry is, and anybody else who wants to chime in, what’s the timeline for 5 and 6 in terms of getting those films going considering some folk’s schedules coming up, and in regards to changing your type, what’s your barometer for success once it opens when you’ve got a sequel to a franchise that’s made billions of dollars?

Jerry Bruckheimer: Well the success part is up to Disney, but if it makes them a lot of money, it’s a success and we’re all hoping it makes them a lot of money. As far as the timeline, it took awhile to get this script to a place where we all were comfortable with it, and we just got a great rough first draft in and it’ll take some time, and hopefully we can bring it to you quicker than we did in the past, and we hope that happens but it’s going to depend on getting a great piece of entertainment that everybody will enjoy, and that’s what it’s about. It’s about quality.

Male Speaker: You mentioned earlier, Rob and Johnny, can you talk about the London escape scene like jumping on the heads and the carriages and stuff and how much choreography and rehearsal went into that and how much fun was that to shoot?

Johnny Depp: It was horrible. It was grueling. No, I mean, that’s a very obtuse, it’s a very strange little sequence. I’ve never quite – I thought of doing many things in my life under the influence of, well, life. And I’ve never actually thought of – yeah, straddling two characters while they’re moving before, and so that was an interesting experience.  And jumping on people’s heads and jumping onto charts and then the thing catches fire, and – it’s all a bad dream, isn’t it? And this is how daddy brings home the bacon.

What I was going to say before is there’s the very clever idea that is being hatched in terms of Pirates 5 and 6 where you’re going to actually shoot them on the ride. Just going around in circles, nonstop kind of like Andy Warhol’s Sleep. Just close shots on everyone.

Pete Hammond: Geoffrey, this is your fourth time around here. You’re a veteran of this. What is it about this particular script, and taking your character forward that really attracted you to come back?

Geoffrey Rush: I have to thank Johnny because I think in the development of the screen play, we must keep the Barbossa of Sparrow as an old married couple constantly bickering. Because it goes back to the first film, the ownership of the pole is at the heart of that conflict, and I think it was only on this film that we started to talk about the black pole as a sort of shared girlfriend because it kind of made that plotline a little bit more interesting than taking about a boat. But they keep shape shifting the character which is quite good. I start as the outright villain spat out of the mouth of hell.

And then in 2 and 3 sort of became more of a diplomat, and I think now he’s really landed on his feet, or foot. Barbossa’s vain and arrogant and pompous enough to think that he actually does belong in the court, and that gave me a terrific new set of variables to play with which was a lot of fun.

Male Speaker: This is for Penelope. What was the key thing for you in creating this character as far as was it the clothes or learning the sword play, and did you have anyone that inspired you in the way that Keith Richards inspired Mr. Depp?

Penelope Cruz: For sure in a character like this it really helps to have those costumes, to be in the real locations. It was very helpful that we didn’t go into a studio until after we shot already for like two or three months in Hawaii, and then they build a beach in Universal Studios. And when they told me, I thought it was my English, that I didn’t understand what they said, but then when I went there and there was really a beach at Universal Studios. And then we went to Puerto Rico and we shot on a private island, and then we went – we ended up in London. But all of that helped me a lot to try to imagine what the pirate world in that time was.

Because it’s so far from our reality, to create a character to like is all about your imagination, and I think it really helped to be in those beautiful places

Male Speaker: Yeah, I don’t know if it would be for Rob or for Jerry but what were some of the things you guys wanted to address that maybe were sort of criticized in the last two in terms of them being a little bit too confusing and what was the balance that you guys had to strike in terms of making sure everything was clear but you didn’t want to use too much exposition or explanation to make sure the audience understood what was happening?

Pete Hammond: Okay, Jerry, you want to?

Jerry Bruckheimer: I think that 2 and 3 get bashed a little bit, but you have to understand that 2 is the biggest of the bunch. It was an enormous success and 3 reached almost a billion dollars. So they were enormously successful movies even though the media didn’t understand them as much as the audience did, and that’s who we make movies for. So I think one of the things we tried to address here but we didn’t really have to address because we started fresh, we finished our trilogy and we paid off all our characters so we started introducing new characters and it makes it much easier to not have as long of a movie because you have less characters and less plot lines to deal with each character, and so this is something that Rob accomplished very well by making a picture that’s shorter, not quite as complicated because you have less characters to deal with.

Pete Hammond: And let’s hear from the two new characters that we haven’t heard from yet. Astrid, what was it like walking into this incredible pirates world here for you, as a mermaid? And you make a great mermaid.

Astrid: Well, unreal. When I went to the first audition, I even don’t speak English so it was quite really unreal and I think I learned so much, and I felt so lucky and was an extraordinary experience to work with Rob, with Jerry, with all – with everyone around this table, and it was amazing for me to act this very interesting character because the moments in the movie are very different that every moment we have seen before, and the mermaid I play is different from the others because she meets Philip and I think that relationship symbolized something really great and powerful like kind of two cultures meet, and try to trust the other one, and take up all the protection, and it was just a pleasure.

Pete Hammond: Was it a pleasure for you, Sam?

Sam Claflin: Even now my heart’s beating. I mean right from the get go really, I never kind of imagined that this was even possible. I mean the moment my agent called me to say, you have an audition today for Pirates of the Caribbean, I was like, oh, what’s the point? It’s never going to happen, it’s impossible. And then two days later flying myself out to LA to meet Rob and Jerry, and even getting dressed in Rob’s office. John Palucko kind of got me dressed for the audition, and from the get go I’ve been so nervous the whole way through and so anxious to see what people think about it and my first sort of step on the ladder.

It’s nerve wracking but at the same time there’s a very fine line between nerves and excitement, so I think it’s a big of both. Or huge amounts of both, I think, actually. I mean, it’s a true honor to be working with the ensemble that we have. We really came like a family unit when we – especially when were in LA, and at Hawaii. We were all away from home, and it was nice to have everybody be so welcoming. I actually felt like I belonged there as opposed to living a dream. So I’m very thankful for everyone.

Male Speaker: Hi, congratulations everyone, this is the best movie of the summer. And I know some of this team is going to bring us The Lone Ranger too. What kind of movie can we expect from that? Will it be funny like this, and you confirm, Jerry, any of the casting rumors we’re heard recently for The Ranger?

Pete Hammond: Jerry?

Jerry Bruckheimer: Nothing new yet on the casting. We’re in process of meeting people right now, so it’s just starting for The Lone Ranger.

Male Speaker: [Inaudible].

Jerry Bruckheimer: I think it’ll have its own tone, it’s going to have a whole different kind of feel to it than what we’ve done in the past but it’ll be special because Johnny’s in it, and so he’s got a real interesting beat on the character of Tonto.

Johnny Depp: I mean I feel like what we’re creating in these story meeting and script meetings in terms of character and in terms of story, yeah, I couldn’t say you could compare it to Pirates but I supposed tonally there is a relationship because there is a kind of fascination with the absurd that’s involved in The Lone Ranger as well, semblance of a reverence. But you need that, right, you’ve got to have that

Rob Marshall talks about joining such a successful franchise and working with Johnny Depp.

Johnny Depp commented on the success of the films and the future of his character, Capt. Jack Sparrow.

Ian McShane was asked how he approached the role in such a “family” type Disney movie, as opposed to some of his other, more “adult” roles

Among the PIRATES Goodie bag booty were the CD of Hans Zimmer’s fabulous soundtrack and a skull shaped flask of vodka.

Look for Johnny Depp’s guide to Captain Jack’s style in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, on stands now.

Johnny Depp was engulfed by people looking for a photo with the star, but yours truly got an audience with Captain Barbossa himself (Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush), only after invoking the right of parlay!!

“Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” is rated PG-13 and opens in theatres on May 20, 2011. For more information on the film, please visit www.disney.com/pirates, follow on Twitter @DisneyPirates and “like” it on Facebook: www.facebook.com/piratesofthecaribbean