Lee Arenberg Talks 'Pirates' 3

JewReview offers an interview with Lee Arenberg, the actor who portrays the pirate Pintel in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. In it, Arenberg discusses working with Johnny Depp:

"Johnny Depp is one of the greatest actors for his talent, his intellect, his choices, and also just his look – he’s got the ‘ace face’ to back it up; if you’re going to call bullshit, you’re a good looking man. He always says the fans are the boss of him, and he works for the fans; I think it was really interesting to me. One of the things about him that was so magical about him on the first one, Curse of the Black Pearl, was here you have one of the greatest actors – although corky and probably many of the audience hadn’t caught many of his pictures, or if they saw him, he was under scissorhand make-up or a pretty elaborate make-up job; to see him there, just nailing a character - in a way, very few actors in film actors ever have. There’s very few actors nominated for Oscars for a comedy; it’s Chaplin-esque. It’s legendary, it’s like Bob Beamon jumping three feet farther than anyone. The studio didn’t want to do it because they were afraid of the sexuality of his character, they didn’t know what to make of the teeth thing; but he sees three steps ahead. The romantic pirate is like a rock and roll star, so I’m going to base my character on my favorite rock and roll star, Keith Richards – and put in a little Pepe Le Peu for the kids."

He also discusses the experience of having Johnny Depp and Keith Richards together on the set:

"What’s interesting is the dynamic – how we act around Johnny is how Johnny acts around Keith. It was more about him hanging out outside Keith’s trailer like the rest of us poor shmucks – it was pretty neat. That’s the great thing, Johnny’s layer of humanity; he sees himself as a regular dude with a superstar gig. I don’t think he buys into his own bullshit either really; he’s got a beautiful family, and it’s given him a different perspective. When his daughter came to the set on the first one, he was worried she’d be scared of the pirates, but she loved them – the nastier, the better and that’s what was another good kudo for the project."