I'm being featured over on It is a big deal, it is to me! And I'm talking about, you guessed it, Jack Sparrow.
What? Is this not an everyday type of conversation for you? Well, it is for me... go check it out!
First, look:
That's the best use of guy-liner ever. Seriously, ever. I'll admit, there's not a lot of stiff competition in this category. I mean, there's Pete Wentz and Adam Lambert and Boy George and that's about it, right? But Captain Jack Sparrow certainly takes the cake in the guy-liner competition, hands down. It's smoky and smudgy and smoldering hot.
Now, let's talk about that fact that the character is one of the first original Disney characters in... one hundred thousand years. OK, that's a slight exaggeration, but Disney does have a knack for reinventing old characters: fairy tales, legends and remakes make up the bulk of their wheelhouse, and to see a completely fresh character based on an original Disney ride is awesome.
Once this entirely fantastic character had been laid to paper, Depp breathed life into it by basing his interpretation of it on Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones. While we're on the subject of Keith Richards, how fabulous of a guy is he to step in and make the cameo appearance in the third film as Sparrow's dad? Talk about being a good sport, right? Most celebrities would balk at the caricaturization, but Richards embraced. Good man.
Jack Sparrow oozes confidence- he literally rode a sinking ship right up to the harbor, and walked off as if it had been the QE2. He walks into the clutches of danger and negotiates his way into his version of safety time and time again.
I mean, come on, the man convinced an entire pirating community that he had used his own back hair to lash together sea turtles and ride them away from an island he had been marooned on. Now, I know he was lying, but the fact remains that people believed him capable of this feat. And, in leadership, having your subordinates believe you are capable of something is as important as actually being capable of it. That's charisma.
By the middle of the third film, I was so tired of the back and forth, wishy washiness of Elizabeth and Will, that I kinda wanted Elizabeth to wind up with Jack. Am I alone in this? Good to know.
OK, I'll admit, the cannibal scenes got a little... silly and out of control. But, I won't hold Jack responsible for that. That's just poor writing. Everybody knows cannibal jokes are in bad taste.
Here's to Captain Jack Sparrow, the worst pirate I've ever heard of. But at least I have heard of him ;)
Gina blogs over at Fantasy Casting where she's usually spouting her opinion about who should be cast in the film versions of her favorite books. You can contact her here.
