The formula for getting nominated for an Academy Award is quite simple: intense emotions plus a few tears shed equals cinematic gold. Jude Law, Ben Kingsley, Bill Murray and Sean Penn followed the traditional route to the Academy Awards with noble and very serious roles — the kind other actors salivate over. So how exactly did a nautical dandy searching for treasure and cursed pirates figure into the equation?
Perhaps the first pirate to ever be nominated for an Oscar, Captain Jack Sparrow, played by the eccentric Johnny Depp in “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” is the most memorable character seen on the silver screen in 2003 and the most worthy of recognition. Depp paid attention to his role’s every detail, from the off-kilter swagger to the inane rigmarole.
“Pirates of the Caribbean,” by all rights, should have bombed — anyone remember “Cutthroat Island?” — but because of Depp’s performance, it became one of the year’s biggest hits. It was impossible for audience members to tear their eyes away from the enigmatic Depp, who oozed talent and a mind that is somehow above us all. Who would think to channel Keith Richards for such a role, unless he was either clinically insane or a brilliant maverick?
This is not to say that the other nominees didn’t produce wonderful performances. That can hardly be disputed. However, there is little that distinguishes them. There are many talented actors who can replicate human emotion — it just depends on who was injected into their respective roles.
But Johnny Depp was Captain Jack. He didn’t heave a sigh of relief when he got the part, sit back and recite lines. Captain Jack was never words on a page to him. Depp’s further defined the character to the extent where only he fully comprehended the role. It wasn’t written in the script that Sparrow should have gold teeth. It was Depp’s own epiphany that encouraged him to get the caps for his canines. His flamboyant enhancement of the character was what made it noteworthy.
Most films only require an actor who can portray a character verbatim, and therefore they are fairly disposable. Could someone other than Jude Law have played “Cold Mountain’s” Inman without sacrificing the quality of the performance? Probably. Could anyone else in the world have played Captain Jack and still produced such a memorable and stunning figure? Absolutely not.
And now Johnny Depp has his first-ever Oscar nomination. He didn’t even need to cry. He couldn’t, actually, or else his eyeliner would have run.
Medill sophomore Lindsay Sakraida is a writer for PLAY. She can be reached at [email protected].
