StudioLA Talks Pirates with Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp on Pirates of the Caribbean with Jim Ferguson.

Johnny Depp chats with StudioLA about his latest swashbuckling role as roguish Jack Sparrow in The Walt Disney Pictures/Jerry Bruckheimer Films' Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

StudioLA's Mike Kai, Steve Joe and Marissa Becker joined lead Hollywood correspondent Jim Ferguson chatting with the stars of Pirates of the Caribbean on the world's largest red carpet premiere at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

Read Jim's exclusive interview with Johnny Depp and watch the video by clicking Johnny Depp's image.

Directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the master of live action adventure blockbusters, this is Disney's first foray into PG-13 films. The film stars Depp, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, and Keira Knightley.

Jim: Would you agree with me that this film kind of winks at the amusement park theme ride?

Johnny: Oh absolutely. There are a series of stories in the theme park ride. And I thought it was brilliant how the way the writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio gave a wink, a little nod to elements of the theme park ride.

Jim: As a kid, were you into these kinds of pirate movies? Did you always want to play a swashbuckling Errol Flynn-like pirate?

Johnny: Absolutely, Absolutely. I can remember being a little kid, having gone to the theme park. But before that, I had a record album of Disney's "Black Beard's Ghost" with Peter Ustonov. And I had never seen the film, but I knew the record verbatim. And I just loved it. Such a wonderful genre. It's a great opportunity to play a great character.

Jim: What it does take from the writer a little bit, is it's humor. Most of us didn't expect that, Johnny. We were laughing! This guy, Captain Jack Sparrow, what is he, is he a con man?

Johnny: He's some sort of weird living organism, you know. He's just sort of molds himself into whatever situation he may be in. He's able to run between the raindrops to get whatever he needs. He's kind of a conman, kind of a good guy, kind of a bad guy, always a bit slimy.

Jim: Knows how to market himself.

Johnny: Oh very well. He's a guy who understands the idea that the myth is the most important.

Jim: In the fencing scenes, I know in the [1995 movie] Don Juan de Marco, you worked at that, so that had to help you too?

Johnny: Oh yeah, having had some experience fencing was very, very helpful. But on Don Juan de Marco it was minimal compared to what we did for this. This was really physically demanding, amazing. We were lucky to have had terrific swordmasters there to get us through.

Jim: And this works if you have a good bad guy. Geoffrey Rush, I thought totally committed to his role as the evil Captain Barbossa.

Johnny: He's wonderful. Geoffrey is amazing.

Jim: He is, and you are too, in this film.

Johnny: It's funny, people are saying that this is the first Disney film that got the PG-13 rating. I see it as a film for literally people of all ages. Young kids, old kids.

Jim: No bad language, the violence is controlled pretty much. No sex. Except he loves his ship. Thanks, Captain Jack!

Johnny: Thank you. Really nice seeing you again.