Exclusive Interview with Kaya Scodelario -Carina Smyth Pirates of The Caribbean

The Pirates of The Caribbean fifth installment introduces us to Carina Smyth, a young adventurer and astronomer played by Kaya Scodelario. Accused of being a witch and sought after, she finds Henry Turner who in turn finds himself saving her life. Their paths are taking them both on a quest to find the Trident and will need to partner with the untrustworthy Jack Sparrow. Carina has the knowledge of the map to the Trident from the stars which she has been set upon from her father. On her journey she ends up in the wrath of Salazar.

The Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales opened this weekend in theaters everywhere!

At our exclusive interview with Kaya, we asked;

T2T: When you get dressed in your costume, how do you feel, does it make you feel beautiful or does it give any more motivation for the scene?

KS: There’s something really cool about a corset, it does feel quite empowering actually, because you have to sit up strong, the first day is awful. I’d get my husband to secretly loosen it up at lunchtime so that I could eat, but actually it does feel very strong and I like that Carina’s dress, it isn’t perfect, it’s tattered and old and ripped up and dirty, that helped me understand a bit of her back story. I think this is a dress that she’s held onto because it’s kind of the only one she has, and she’s managed to make it as practical as possible to her.

T2T: Carina comes in as a brand new character in this movie for the franchise and she’s a really strong feminine character, which was actually really refreshing to see. And she can hold her own. What was it like bringing that into a completely male dominated storyline?

KS: Every role I look for a woman that I would have liked to have seen at thirteen on the big screen. It’s a huge responsibility because people forget in blockbusters that we’re not simple, there are multi layers and there’s a lot going on and she has a lot of that. She’s an orphan, she’s a survivor. She’s also stubborn and argumentative and she’s also funny and flirty and there’s so much to her. And I’m grateful that they wrote her this way…………. I made a real effort with her to try and hit all those beats, it’s something that I hope my son grows up watching and respects in women and understands in women, that we aren’t just the Disney princess or the love interest or the damsel in distress and she’s certainly not any of those things.

Kaya Scodelario as Carina Smyth DeadMenTellNoTales — photo credit momstart.com

T2T: There was a lot of action and stunts in this film, do you do your own stunts and if you do what was that like?

KS: I do really love to do all that stuff. Because it’s not things you do every day in life. If you get the opportunity to do it, especially when you have a great crew that you know it’s going to be safe and it’s going to be done the proper way. I actually injured my shoulder, I popped out something in there on the black pole of all places. Afterwards it was kind of tough, we had about four weeks of filming still so I had to wear a sling in between takes and I had to go quite easy on it.

But I did all the swimming, I swam in the Australian ocean with the sharks and every other thing that can kill you there. And it was a lot of fun, I love having the opportunity to do that stuff.

T2T: What was your favorite Disney classic movie?

KS: I was always obsessed with the Dalmatians, I don’t know why I just loved A Hundred And One Dalmatians, and I actually had a Dalmatian themed bedroom growing up, my poor mother had to paint white walls and black splotches everywhere- I’ve always loved the animated Dalmatians movie and then also the live action I think was really-really good. Yeah I’ve always loved that.