Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead men Tell No Tales introduces us to Captain Armando Salazar.
Armando Salazar was the legendary Spaniard pirate hunter who murdered thousands of pirates. He sailed the mighty Silent Mary through the Caribbean over-powering all pirates and their ships. He was outsmarted by the young Jack Sparrow who lured him into the mysterious Devil’s Triangle to his death. Salazar was to find upon his death he and his crew would be “undead” and be ghosts for eternity under the curse of the Devil’s Triangle.
When he finally escaped the hold of the Devil’s Triangle, he would relentlessly hunt Jack Sparrow with vengeance to eliminate him once and for all.
Javier, an Academy Award® winner is no stranger to playing a villain and he brings Salazar to life as he floats toward his victims with no mercy. His ghostly hair and clothes almost seem to have a life of their own, as black lava drools from his mouth.
Our exclusive interview with Javier was in Los Angeles the day after the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean. When he came in he lit up the room and it was hard to believe that this was the same man as Salazar.
T2T: How long did it take you to get makeup on every day and how was it talking through the black goo coming out of your mouth?
“I once knew a Spaniard named — something in Spanish.”―Jack Sparrow
JB: Three hours. (As he spoke about the black goo in his beautiful accent) …… It was a liquid. They told me it was supposed to be like chocolate, chocolate my ass. That tasted worse than that, so, and they was supposed to put it on the teeth. I said give me that, so I drunk it and then I went to play the first scene, I think it was with Geoffrey Rush and it starts to pour out of my mouth and he was very disgusted. [LAUGHTER] And I thought it was like a rage pouring out, right? It’s not blood. It’s like the rage of the character coming out, like-like something more physical, like a bull.
He explained his vision of Salazar’s character, ” I’d always thought the character was like a bull, like a wounded bull with the blood and like moving like wounded and breathing like out of, out of breath and with a very strong idea for revenge…”
T2T: You do a lot of artwork that’s really stunning, at the end of a long day do you ever go back and draw or paint anything that inspired you during the film?
JB: Yeah, some of — no most, I would say always, I bring my own sketches and not because I want to impose that but it’s how I see it, and then of course somebody that draws better than me just does it. But, it’s like I studied painting and I wasn’t very good at brushes. I was more into the pencil and the ink. I’ve always been drawn into faces and bodies and expressions so I guess that’s why I’m an actor, rather than landscapes or motorcycles, —– I like to bring that part into my process because it’s something that I imagine and yeah, and I brought that but of course they maybe, they did it better.
“I’ve heard stories of a mighty Spanish captain who’s hunted and killed thousands of men.“―Hector Barbossa
Check out Captain Salazar in the clip!
Leave a Reply