Tall, dark and handsome, Jack Davenport is the epitome of the dashing soldier in his role as Commodore Norrington. The English actor has gained a following for his role as Steve Taylor in the popular U.K. comedy series “Coupling.”
“Jack Davenport really caught the nuance of what it is to conspire to do the right thing, but know that it’s not being done under the right circumstances,” says Verbinski. “He’s actually one of the strongest characters in the movie and also plays the foil in many comedic moments.”
Davenport was impressed with the complexities of what could have easily become a stereotypic, onesided character. “Norrington is basically the scourge of piracy in the eastern Caribbean. If you’re a pirate and you see me coming, you’d better be scared,” he explains. “What I liked about my character was that he wasn’t just a snarling English villain. There was more to him than just looking fierce.”
Davenport, always quick with a joke, allows, “brocade is hard to make fierce,” referring to his costume. “I saw this picture of Johnny with his bandana and dreadlocks. The pirates just looked so cool,” he laughs. “I’ve got this ridiculous garb on; I look like an ice cream.”
With the principal actors in place, the filmmakers then rounded out the cast with an assortment of colorful supporting players. During the casting process, it is commonplace for filmmakers to receive many inquiries from agents and managers soliciting work on behalf of their clientele, but in casting a pirate movie, the level of interest seemed to increase exponentially. Casting Barbossa’s crew was particularly time consuming and took the filmmakers and casting director Ronna Kress halfway around the world, from Los Angeles to New York to London.
“Ronna has a knack not only for finding interesting faces, but for discovering raw talent,” says Bruckheimer. “She is meticulous in casting every character and puts the utmost care and effort into even the smallest roles. Ronna’s been an invaluable asset on many of our projects and continues to introduce us to promising new actors.”
“We got a lot of phone calls,” says Verbinski. “We wanted fresh faces because these characters give a richness to the entire film. When you watch each of these guys, you feel like the film could just take off and start telling that person’s story.”
Barbossa’s crew includes Isaac C. Singleton, Jr. as Bo’sun, Lee Arenberg as Pintel, and Mackenzie Crook as Pintel’s cohort, Ragetti. Treva Etienne plays Koehler alongside his murderous partner, Twigg, portrayed by Michael Berry Jr. Trevor Goddard is Grapple and his sidekick, Mallot, is played by Brye Cooper.
Similar to the actors themselves, Barbossa’s crew is an assembly of mischief-makers from all over the globe. A talented and fun group, they spent countless hours together on and off screen. “They were great. Every time I was on set, there were 20 pirates with me,” explains Geoffrey Rush. “We were a kind of mad gang while shooting. A lot of these guys stayed together in one apartment block in the Caribbean. They lived like pirates.”
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