Geoffrey Rush, an Oscar, Emmy, and Tony Award-winning actor plays the staple salty pirate Captain Hector Barbossa in The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Barbossa has been sparring with Jack Sparrow since the beginning, but this time he may need to work with Jack. His encounter with Salazar, an undead ghostly pirate, proves that Barbossa is still a tough old seadog who is quick thinking. Barbossa can surely understand Salazar’s feeling of wanting Jack Sparrow dead.
“I have heard stories of a mighty Spanish captain who’s hunted and killed thousands of men” ―Barbossa
Barbossa always considered himself the most fearsome of the pirates, although over the years he has shared that he could be polite and a gentlemen if he wanted to. Always persuasiveness to get what he wants, Barbossa is extremely wealthy and has many ships, oh and let’s not forget that he’s a control freak.
Barbossa is the character that you love to hate and hate to love. With this film you will be introduced to yet another side of Barbossa and you will finally learn the secret that only him and Jack know.
Our exclusive interview with Geoffrey Rush was in Los Angeles the day after the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean opening May 26th. I was so excited to meet Mr Rush and once he started chatting, I could have sat with him for hours to listen to his stories.
T2T: You and Johnny have a great back and forth. Was that natural, or did you have to work on that?
GR: The scripts are always pretty good. They know what the relationship is, we’ve sort of decided now that the black pearl is our mutual girlfriend and we both want her, you know. Then chances are that Jack Sparrow will end up with the ship…… (This is a spoiler so I’m cutting the answer mid-sentence, you’ll need to come back if you want the spoilers)
Let’s Talk Monkey Business
Rush talked very fondly of the monkeys, “Yes, the monkey’s great. The monkey’s trained to really have no relationship with me. Because if it did it would just be looking for things to eat in my wig. They’re very loyal to their owner if trained correctly. If I pulled a sword or somebody yelled fire or whatever, the monkey would just go ……….the monkey is completely in the hands of the trainer. And the trainers are brilliant.”
Rush told us a memory from the first film, “the trainer would squirt the monkey with a water pistol and sometimes would get me in the eye.” In this film Rush shared how he worked with two monkeys Pablo and Chiquita, “Chiquita was slightly smaller and she was better for fitting under the hat. Pablo was slightly bigger and he was supposed to do all the stunt work. There was one scene where the monkey had to swim from one boat to the other, and Pablo got on the edge of the boat and just froze and thought, there’s no way I’m doing this. So Chiquita jumped in and swam. They were a good team. But what was lovely was that they would always be eating their peanut rewards or little bits of dried banana and stuff like that. I used to love it. It was very comforting, I’d feel them on my shoulder going, eee eee eee eee eee eee ehuh-eee eee. Making all those little noises. You just get very warm soft, aromatic, peanut breath. So, every time I had the monkey in the scene there was a real kind of connection.
Barbossa’s Fashion and Style
GR: 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. He wouldn’t care if he mixed checks with strikes. I really insist that I have a very elaborate wig and lovely makeup and a beauty spot.
Movie Magic
There were so many pieces of movie magic but I was very interested in finding out about Barbossa’s leg.
GR: I went down that path and talked to a prosthetician who specializes with amputees. If you see people that have a leg from the knee down, it’s molded beautifully in titanium or whatever. They’ve now got a machine where the feet kind of ripple and it’s amazing engineering. He said it takes these people maybe 12 to 18 months to really get all their musculature and their core muscles to realign.
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. I wore a blue screen stocking that I made sure that we made the heel of it like the point that it would be. I got good at having that leg have no life in it.
Fun Fact:
The capstan of the Black Pearl is the very same one which was seen in the earlier incarnations of the ship in the first, second and third films, a true salty survivor of the seas! (For you landlubbers, the capstan is a mechanism that turns so that rope or cable can wind around it and move or lift heavy weights, such as a ship’s anchor.)
“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” opens this Friday, May 26th in theaters nationwide.”
Want more about Pirates in the Caribbean?
Check out:
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES Red Carpet Premiere and Review
Exclusive Interview With Javier Bardem – Captain Salazar Pirates of the Caribbean
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