Exclusive Interview with Geoffrey Rush – Barbosa in Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales #PiratesLifeEvent #PiratesOfTheCaribbean

I get to meet some amazing people during these wonderful trips with Disney but never had I met such a warm and welcoming person who made you just want to sit and talk for hours with. I could have sat and listened forever about his stories behind the scenes with Pirates of The Caribbean. We are always hearing about how grand these movies are and how they are filmed in many different locations. Just to hear what it’s like on set in these locations including how something come to life in the movie that we never thought to question is amazing.

Photo Credit: Louise Bishop / MomStart.com

There was a part of the interview where you will read how Geoffrey got squirted in the face with a water pistol. Yes! You heard that right, read down further you will see how that came into play behind the scenes. It was truly a joy to see Geoffrey in person and to see how he his self is basically a polar opposite of the character Barbossa that he plays in the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies. In this edition Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales he was so fabulous I couldn’t help but cry at the end. Yes, I’m a punk and no I’m not spoiling anything for you so you better make sure you head to the theaters May 26th, 2017 to see this epic adventure in person.

To refresh your memory of what you’re in store for, check out this full trailer below.

You can read my full Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Movie Review (No Spoilers) as well as check out my My High Sea’s Adventure at The Pirates Of The Caribbean Dead Men Tell No Tales Blue Carpet Movie Premiere.

How It Felt To Take On A Different Barbossa In This Film

Well, it’s sort of something that happened over the first four films, you know. I think in the first one before I actually entered into the story, he was described rather fearfully by the two pirates that are now my assistants. He’s spat out from the mouth of hell. Which is to me the key line, I thought, well, whenever I enter into this story, if you don’t see that then he’s a liar. So, he was pretty much the dark villain of the piece, he had to break the curse.

How Barbosa Came Back To Life In Dead Man’s Chest

I think it was a great twist of the story that we were actually having to put all of the treasure back to reverse the curse, which I think I then enjoyed having all my senses back for about 30 seconds. Then I got shot. There is a sort or poignant but rather ridiculous comic madman. And I thought that was fun, some months later, Gore Verbinski, who was the director in the first three, phoned me up and said look it’s been such a success. And it was fun.

Gore phoned me up and said, look we’re gonna go to Asia and everything. I said, well, that’s great. You’ll all have a marvelous time. It was really fun being in the first film. He said, oh, no, no, no. We’ll go to Asia. We’re gonna have a new sort of Asian villain that Chow Yun-fat played. But he said you’re gonna come back as a very secret surprise right in the end of the second film. I said, oh, right. How I’m dead? He said, well, no, it’s gonna be voodoo. I went what do you mean?

Move magic. No. He said Tia Dalma needs you to get all the global pirates together to break the curse. It’ll become a big part of the story. So, I sort of became a politician. I was the guy getting the global pirates to meet. And that was fun to play because he’s a control freak and he loves thinking he’s the most powerful person on the planet. And then I worked for the king. I liked that in Pirates 4.

Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Bringing These Characters To Life

It was just fantastic to think someone like Johnny was the king of the independent films here, great characters like Edward Scissor Hands and What’s Eating Gilbert Great and all of the things that he did. For him to create such a unique, unpredictable pirate, there’s nothing like it in literature or cinema before. And he got nominated for a Best Actor, which is just fantastic, you know. ‘Cause these actual adventure films just don’t really get a look in on that territory. But I remember him telling me when we shot the first film, he said, you know, we can’t be stereotypes. We’ve gotta create really imaginative kind of people that an audience will get very engaged with.

And he said I’ve been toying with an idea, I like the British rock stars of the ‘60s ’cause the pirates always had sort of clear-cut identities. The real black beard used to have fuse wire burning in his beard that when people saw him they thought he was the devil. So, that would go from ship to ship from port to port. So with Barbossa, I wanna make him very arrogant and very pompous and very superior and maybe a bit slightly self-diluted about how bright he actually.

Barbossa and His Flamboyant Outfits and Wig’s

Penny Rose (The Costume Designer) gave me this great kind of flamboyant outfit from another — I was a bit more like a glam rock star. And I said, you know, I really insist that I have a very elaborate wig (For Pirates 4) and lovely makeup and a beauty spot.

The teeth were always the same. And then, unfortunately, when he put on the courtly makeup with his crusty skin, he didn’t look any prettier. So that sort of shift has always been there. And I did it love it when I read the fifth script that he had become so wealthy because he’s got black beards, Magic Sword that is the most powerful thing on the planet. And I like that it brought out the vulgarity. Barbossa isn’t somebody with any sense of personal style whatsoever

Penny Rose offered me a costume, and I said this is great. He wouldn’t care if he mixed checks with strikes. And what else does he spent his money on, you know? I love the fact that the wooden leg, I said this is a great way to show how ridiculously wealthy he is. It’s a bit like Saddam Hussein having gold everywhere on the bathroom taps and probably shaped like fish or something ridiculous. And then the extra bit where they brought in a sort of deep secret from even before the first film started that there was something that Jack and Barbossa knew about. (You Must See The Movie To Find Out What The Secret Is!)

Barbossa’s Secret

And I don’t know. I probably needed to go through therapy to un-repress that memory but he had obviously blocked it out, but I looked back at all the other films and just looked at it in the light of if that secret had been there, it’ll all still make sense, you know. The obsession for, you know, the grandeur of his own persona is someone asking this guilty secret that he has.

This is all a surprise to the audience. But I had a guy interviewing me yesterday and he was tearing up while we were chatting. He said I just went the last 25 minutes of the film sobbing. Oh, grow up!  just like the way thematically in the whole film. It’s all to do with parenting and, you know, it’s Will Turner and his son.It means I didn’t just have a monkey’s substitute child. Or that could’ve been powerful.

Thoughts About Kaya and Her Performance

And Kaya is such a gorgeous actress, and she’s got a very feisty, natural funky quality. My daughter worked on the film in the costume department, and they’re the same age. I don’t know if Skin’s shown here in the states. It was very popular teenage series in the UK, and Kaya played one of the main characters in that. And I love the fact that she’s, excelled as being this really brilliant, female astronomer. And the fact that she for all of her rationale, empirical, scientific aspiration, she still has to deal with the fact that somebody like Salazar existed as well, who’s supernatural. That’s always been a part of the series.

Jack Sparrow and Barbossa Movie Magic Relationship 

The scripts are always pretty good. They know the relationship, we’ve sort of decided now that the black pearl is our mutual girlfriend and we both want her. Then chances are that Jack Sparrow will end up with the ship, which he does, but that sense of harmony’s never always gonna stay there.

That Peg Leg, Did He Really Walk With One?

No. I think back in the days when Robert Newton played Long John Silver I think he did with the leg strapped up. So, I went down that path and talked to a prostheticians who specializes with amputees. The engineering they do now if you see people that have a leg from the knee down, it’s molded beautifully in titanium. I saw something the other day that they’ve now got a machine where the feet kind of ripple.

And it’s amazing engineering. But he said it takes these people maybe 12 to 18 months to really get all their musculature and their core muscles to kind of realign to train it to be a good part of you. And when I had it strapped up, I couldn’t stand up. I mean it was just impossible. And I said you know what? I’ll act the leg. Because I wore a

How Barbossa Lost His Leg

And there were shocking bits. Do you remember in the fourth film Jack and I are both tied up in trees and you think this is one of the situations where Jack Sparrow he will not or cannot get out of this scenario. They’re surrounded by Spanish guards and I suggested the idea We’ll just wait and see what I happen. I said to them can I unscrew the leg and take it off.

And I had rum inside and was using it, which was kind of nice. At first, I said maybe I’ll take it off and it’ll sort of spring a weapon or something like but rum seemed good. But they made up the end of my knee to look like kind of pulpy like a wound that was ugly. They would’ve sawed it off. Well, he actually took his own leg off to escape from Black Beard’s ship. So, I quite like that there was that ruthlessness that he would damage himself to stay alive.

Jack The Monkey and Barbossa

The monkeys are great. The monkeys are trained to really have no relationship with me, or else tt would be looking for things to eat in my wig. I remember in the first film we’d shot the first meeting with Elizabeth Swann and I’d come down with the monkey on my shoulder, and we had a big dialogue between us. And suddenly when they came in for the closeups, there was this massive, deep, black-skinned guy called Isaac Singleton Junior.

Water Pistols Oh My!

He was this gentle giant but from Flordia. He hadn’t been there in the earlier shots. And the monkey was kinda going I don’t like this person and I thought, oh, what are we going to do, ’cause we’ve shot some of the dialogue and close-ups and everything. And the trainer said I think it’s okay, She had this idea of just squirting a water pistol onto Tara’s chest. She had a little vest and everything. And Tara would squirt the water pistol.  So everything looks like she’s looking at Elizabeth Swann listening to the dialogue.

And then I’d say to Keira don’t say any of your lines. I know what I’m questioning. We’ll make sure we get my side of the shot. And then when we’re shooting over the shoulder, we don’t need the monkey over there. And Ursula’s sort of down on the ground going Tara, Tara, Tara, (Squirt). And I’m going, oh, you know, Mrs. Swann, you’re doing (Squirt) Oh, sorry, Geoffrey!

It was hilarious. I thought we’re gonna have to dub all of that scene, but we got it done in and around, it’s very funny. There was one scene where we’re going into the scene and Ursula she was quite an attractive blonde woman was down lying on the floor between my legs in the boat sending all of these commands out to Tara.

All Good Things Must Come To An End

That wraps up the interview with this wonderful talent man Geoffrey Rush, what was your favorite part of the interview? Are you excited to be catching this epic new adventure in Theaters Everywhere May 26th, 2017?

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PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES opens in theaters everywhere May 26th, 2017.