What If Hugh Jackman Had Been Jack Sparrow?
%photo13% There was a time when Johnny Depp wasn't a superstar. He's been a star and a respected actor for quite some time, but it wasn't until he donned a bandanna and put on eyeliner to play the colorful Captain Jack Sparrow in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" in 2003 that he graduated to the level of a Will Smith or Tom Cruise. Well, it turns out that if things had worked out differently, Depp would never have gotten the opportunity. If one of the film's writers had had his way, the part would have gone to Hugh Jackman.
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Speaking at the Advance Lounge Chair series this week, Stuart Beattie (who is credited as one of the "Story By" writers for "Black Pearl") said, "I initially wrote that character with Hugh Jackman in mind." Just how committed was he to the idea of casting Jackman? He named the character Jack in his honor. But according to Beattie, Disney didn't think Jackman was a big enough star, eventually going with Depp, who at the point had only had one $100 million movie to his credit: "Sleepy Hollow."
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Whenever a film becomes enormously successful and launches a lucrative franchise, there will be that inevitable moment down the road when we learn who was originally meant to play the characters we've come to know and love. (Honestly, how many paragraphs into Tom Selleck's obituary will it take before they mention that he was almost Indiana Jones?) Usually, people tend to favor the actor who ended up getting the part because that person is so ingrained in our consciousness as that character. But in the case of Jackman, we actually think it could have worked with him in the role. As he's demonstrated in the "X-Men" series, he has the right combination of brawn, swagger and humor that would have served him well as Captain Jack.
But whereas in earlier cases of an actor getting passed over for a big role -- like Eric Stoltz in "Back to the Future" -- we don't need to feel sad for Jackman or lament the glorious career he could have had. Jackman's doing just fine: He's busy currently working on "Wolverine" with "Black Swan" director Darren Aronofsky and is a Tony-winning Broadway actor. (Ironically, one of his biggest duds was "Australia," which was co-written by Beattie.)
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As for Depp, Captain Jack will probably end up being his signature role, for better or worse. Genuinely funny and compellingly larger-than-life in a way that movie stars rarely are anymore in blockbuster films, Depp helped make the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" as supremely entertaining as it was. (Amazingly, it was that role that finally earned him his first Oscar nomination after a decade of underappreciated work in everything from "Ed Wood" to "Donnie Brasco." Not bad for a performance that Depp recently said the Disney bigwigs initially hated, insisting he was "ruining the movie.") At a time when most A-list stars weren't actually great actors, it was really satisfying to see Johnny Depp become part of Hollywood's upper echelon. Sadly, the subsequent "Pirates" sequels got progressively lamer, and Depp's hammy shtick grew tiresome. In the end, though, both actors arrived at the same place: Depp will forever be linked with Captain Jack, and Jackman shall always be Wolverine. It's the trade-off you have to make to become a superstar. And, really, isn't that better than ending up a cinematic footnote like Tom Selleck?
EXCLUSIVE: Jack Sparrow Was Named After Hugh Jackman, Not Intended for Johnny Depp [Fox News]
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