Johnny Depp Says He Would Play Captain Jack Sparrow at Kids' Birthday Parties to Continue With the Character

While Johnny Depp has played a few iconic characters in his nearly four decades-long acting career, there is perhaps none as beloved as Captain Jack Sparrow, one of the main characters in Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. It's a character Depp has portrayed in all five of the Pirates films though his appearance as the pirate in 2017's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales may be his last within the franchise after reports that Disney "balked" at bringing Depp back for a cameo in the in-development sixth film. However, Depp has no plans to stop bringing Captain Jack Sparrow to life - even if that means he's playing the pirate at kids' birthday parties.

During a press conference at the San Sebastian Film Festival before his reception at the Donostia Awards, Depp answered questions about cancel culture and at one point was asked about Captain Jack Sparrow. Depp explained that the character "will never leave" him and affirmed that he was always ready to make people laugh before taking things a bit further, telling reporters that he'll play Jack Sparrow any chance he gets, including kids' birthday parties.

"I suppose this is the positive side of having, in a strange way, given life to those characters like Captain Jack or whatever character that I was lucky enough to locate and bring to life the beauty of Captain Jack Sparrow," Depp said. "I'll go to somebody's house, man, I'll perform at your kid's birthday party at this point."

He continued, "I don't need a company to do that. I can just do that myself and nobody can take that away. That's the greatest pleasure of Jack Sparrow. I can travel with Captain Jack in a box - literally Captain Jack in a box - and when the opportunity is right and I'm able to go and visit people and places where the smiles and the laughs and the things that are important, the most important things in the world are on the line."

Late last year, it was reported that Pirates of the Caribbean producer Jerry Bruckheimer had attempted to include a cameo appearance for Depp as the beloved pirate in the in-development reboot film set to star Margot Robbie, but that Disney wasn't having it - a decision that many speculated is a result of Depp's recent, high profile public controversies, including his ongoing, controversial legal battle with ex-wife Amber Heard including a libel lawsuit against British tabloid The Sun over the publication referring to Depp as a "wife-beater" in a 2018 article. Following a highly-publicized trial in 2020, Depp lost both the initial suit and the subsequent appeal and, days after the verdict resigned from his role as Gellert Grindelwald in the Fantastic Beasts franchise. Depp seemed to touch on the matter in other comments during the film festival press conference.

"It can be seen as an event in history that lasted for however long it lasted, this cancel culture, this instant rush to judgment based on what essentially amounts to polluted air," Depp claimed. "It's so far out of hand now that I can promise you that no one is safe. Not one of you. No one out that door. No one is safe. It takes one sentence and there's no more ground, the carpet has been pulled. It's not just me that this has happened to, it's happened to a lot of people. This type of thing has happened to women, men. Sadly at a certain point, they begin to think that it's normal. Or that it's them. When it's not."

"It doesn't matter if a judgment, per se, has taken some artistic license," Depp continued. "When there's an injustice, whether it's against you or someone you love, or someone you believe in - stand up, don't sit down. 'Cause they need you."

h/t: Movieweb 

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