Barbossa assembles his henchmen from the dangerous ports he visits and the mysterious islands he invades. They’ve floated up from all over the place: one character is from the Orient, another is from the Caribbean, one is from Dover and yet another is from West Africa—the list goes on and on.
“Casting a group like this is akin to creating a bouillabaisse,” continues Verbinski. “Each character is distinct and adds to the overall flavor.
“Because of the curse they’re forced to live under, their frustration brings out a football-hooligan, glue-sniffing type of madness,” he adds.
“Pintel and Ragetti are Laurel and Hardy on acid; they’re dangerous villains, but you like them because they’re funny,” the director laughs. “Koehler and Twigg are a pair of assassins, and Mallot and Grapple round out the core. Bo’sun is Barbossa’s first mate; he runs the ship. They’re all demented in their own way.”
Jack’s crew is a sight more obscure. His intrepid team includes Kevin R. McNally as Joshamee Gibbs, David Bailie as Cotton (along with his better half, his parrot), and Zoe Saldana is Anamaria. “They’re the dregs,” says Verbinski. “It’s like ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.’ They’re not about to kick any serious hiney or compete with Barbossa. They’re just a great contrast to Barbossa’s motley group.”
For some inexplicable reason Norrington selects Lieutenant Gillette, played by actor Damian O’Hare, and a pair of bumbling subordinates, Mr. Mullroy and Mr. Murtogg, portrayed by Angus Barnett and Giles New, respectively. Although Barnett and New had never met before, the two actors clicked immediately and a comedy team was born.
Then, of course, there were the animal actors, who had their own special requirements. Barbossa’s monkey is played by two identical Cabochon monkeys, a female and a male, whose naturally white faces had to be darkened with vegetable dye to make them look more evil and spooky.
“The monkey was sort of like my id,” laughs Geoffrey Rush. “The monkey is actually the smartest person in the film, because he never loses sight of the goal. Everyone else has human frailty and betrayal and jealousy and vanity; but the monkey knows we need to get each and every last medallion back into that case.”
But the monkey had to do more than just spend time with Rush. Watching the actor at every stage as he got into his costume so that the animal understood that he was still working with Geoffrey, but just in character, was just one part of a very specific training process.
“I was trained to have no relationship with the monkey, even though on film it looks as though we actually have a deep, rather symbiotic rapport,” explains Rush. “The monkey worked always with the trainer—she didn’t care that I existed. I thought, great, my co-star is difficult!”
The parrot that sits on the shoulder of the mute pirate Cotton, played by David Bailie, was played by three birds: a sitter, a talker and a flyer. One of them was particularly fond of nibbling Bailie’s ear because he liked the texture.
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