Johnny Depp on CBS's THE EARLY SHOW: "It's very emotional" to say goodbye to Captain Jack Sparrow

Johnny Depp appeared on CBS’s THE EARLY SHOW on Friday morning, May 25th, in a taped interview with Tracy Smith, to promote the release of PIRATES OF CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END. Answering the inevitable question about how it felt to bid farewell to his most famous character, Johnny conceded that “it sounds ludicrous” to talk about missing “an imaginary being” like Captain Jack Sparrow. Still–miss him he will. “Having been that character for, you know, a good number of years–for sometimes 12 to 14 to 15 hours a day, for months on end or years on end–it’s like saying goodbye to a person,” Johnny explained. “So . . . it’s very emotional.”

Johnny also spoke at some length about the challenge of playing Captain Jack in front of Keith Richards, whom he has acknowledged many times as an inspiration for his portrayal. “It was a little frightening,” Johnny said with a laugh. But it was also “fascinating” to “introduce Keith to Captain Jack. He seemed very good about it. You know, because he could have [. . .] just said, you know, ‘How dare you base a character on me?’ ” With another chuckle, Johnny concluded, “But he was great. He was a real gentleman about it.”

Many thanks to Susanne for THE EARLY SHOW story and video clip; you can read a longer story on the Tracy Smith interview on the CBS website and see their video here: http://tinyurl.com/39rsbk –Part-Time Poet