GASP: Johnny Depp almost didn’t play Captain Jack Sparrow

Okay, think about Pirates of the Caribbean. What is the first thing that comes to mind? If you frequented Disneyland as a kid your mind might go to the very fun ride. But for the rest of us the first thing we think of is Johnny Depp as the swashbuckling Captain Jack Sparrow.

Now imagine if someone else had played Captain Jack. Mind blown, right?

Well, it turns out, Johnny Depp was pretty convinced he was going to get fired from the role way back when they started. That’s right, the sometimes confusing, but always lovable character of Captain Jack as played by Johnny Depp was not initially to the studio’s liking, according to Depp.

“I was really expecting to be fired. But they wouldn’t for some reason. They were actually going to subtitle my character – they couldn’t understand Captain Jack,” Depp said at the AFI Fest 2015 conference, according to People.

Granted, he does give an other-worldly performance as the pirate but surely they must have expected that when they hired him. Johnny Depp is FAMOUS for losing himself in his roles and having a flair for the dramatic. As someone who’s personally loved him since Edward Scissorhands, I can’t quite imagine what anyone would think he’d do with the role of the drunk pirate other than what he did. And now, who could even imagine that film franchise without him?

So, pirate hat’s off to Johnny Depp who against all odds kept his job and gave us just one more costume we’ll always see on Halloween.