At a recent press day in Beverly Hill, I had the honor of speaking with some of the award-winning talents behind the new Disney blockbuster PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES (now playing).

DH: How was it having Javier Bardem as an acting partner?

Geoffrey Rush (Captain Barbosa): Javier is an actor’s actor […] Salazar is terrifying, almost like a major terrorist metaphor. The rage behind him wanting to obliterate every pirate from the surface of the Earth. I was paired with Javier for interviews in Shanghai and Paris. It was great to hear him talk about the Andalucian naval code of honor in the XVIII century. He was working on a blend of pain and rage, that’s great for an actor. He was very scary to look at on set. The first scene we have is very dialogue-driven, and I am off camera thinking ‘Jesus Christ!’ He gave me something to work with, because I had to be nice to Salazar. I told him that he looked like a prawn that has gone off under the sun. He loved it! The hair looks very menacing and grand. I always had to work on getting into the good side of his brain. He is a psychopath. He would approach me on his sticks, looking like a crustacean; and I have my wooden leg, and the two of us are kind of dancing around each other. We look like two crabs about to have sex!

DH: Can you talk about adding Spanish words to your dialogue?

Javier Bardem (Captain Salazar): They asked me to play this Spanish Captain. I did some research and those Captains were mainly from the South of Spain. So, I thought it would be fun to add a Southern flavor to the accent, which is not an easy task when you are doing the movie in English. Some words came out because my body needed to express himself in Spanish. They were fine with that, and it went well. There is something fun in there.

DH: There is an element of fantasy horror in all of the movies. How did you balance that in a family-friendly film?

Espen Sandberg (Co-director): You are right. It is supposed to be scary. The kids like that. I think that it is OK because it’s in a very fantastical setting. And “Pirates” has an unique mix of action, spectacle, humor, horror, and heart, which is something that we really worked on in this one. We wanted it to have a strong emotional core. But the scary part needs to be there too.

DH: Were you always on board with Johnny Depp’s take on Jack Sparrow? There are some tales about executives were like “I don’t get it.” He was very unique in terms of big action heroes.

Jerry Bruckheimer (Producer): You put it lightly. There was panic in the halls. Some people at Disney thought that he was a gay, drinking pirate. That doesn’t quite work with the Disney brand. When you talk to Johnny, he says that Sparrow is not always drunk; he just spent so much time on the sea that he is always off balance. Her daughter was instrumental in how he created the character because he was watching a lot of cartoons with him. He fell in love with Pepé Le Pew, so between him and his friend Keith Richards, he came up with this character. In the first camera test, all of his teeth were gold, and that also sent an alarm through the halls of Disney. So we convinced him to take some of those out. It was fun!

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES is now playing in theaters nationwide.

-All images courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures.

Captain Jack Sparrow finds the winds of ill-fortune blowing even more strongly when deadly ghost pirates led by his old nemesis, the terrifying Captain Salazar, escape from the Devil’s Triangle, determined to kill every pirate at sea…including him. Captain Jack’s only hope of survival lies in seeking out the legendary Trident of Poseidon, a powerful artifact that bestows upon its possessor total control over the seas.