"It wasn't written like that:" Keira Knightley talks about PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN and its sequels

In a refreshingly candid interview with Edward Douglas of ComingSoon.net, Keira Knightley talked about her present gig–shooting two sequels to PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN–and the magic of the first PIRATES film. “It is my life now. There is nothing else,” she told ComingSoon. “We’re doing them both at the same time, and we were halfway through as of yesterday. We were at 100 days yesterday, and we have at least another 100 to go.”

Keira credits the success of the first film to Johnny Depp’s creative, courageous performance as Captain Jack Sparrow–a character that she says was invented during the shooting of POTC: “It wasn’t written like that. The character, as it was written, was completely straight, so that character is entirely his and Gore Verbinski’s. They totally came up with that and none of us knew if it would work when we were doing it, because it was so off-the-wall and so not what was on the page,” Keira explains. “It’s daring, and talk about risks! (A) You’re making a pirate movie, that hasn’t worked in God knows how long; (B) you’re making a film based on a Disney theme park ride; and (C) you’ve got Johnny Depp going mental over there, and you’re just thinking, ‘How is this going to work?'”

Still, Keira endorses the method in Johnny’s acting madness. “I think you’ve got to take the risks,” she told ComingSoon. “There’s no point playing it safe, because either you’ll get bored or the audiences will get bored. Sometimes, you’re going to make mistakes, and that’s fine, but you have to take the risks. I think PIRATES is one of the prime examples of that with Johnny Depp’s performance, and part of the reason that people love it so much is that you watch it and go, ‘Gutsy, really gutsy!'”

You can read the full interview with Keira Knightley on the Zone’s News & Views forum; we thank Gilbert’s Girl for posting the story. As for DEAD MAN’S CHEST, due in theaters next July, Keira declares, “You have no idea what’s going to happen in the second one, and I promise you, it will surprise you.” We can’t wait!