We asked Knightley why she thought the first movie was such a hugely popular hit. “I have no idea. It’s still a mystery,” she admitted. “What’s amazing is that there’s such a wealth of stories there–you know, the pirating stories–and if you can tap into it and if you can do it well then it’s just that spark of imagination. There’s all those films when you’re a kid that you kind of remember as part of your childhood that you’ve sort of lived through.
On suggesting that the popularity of Johnny Depp’s outlandish performance as Captain Jack Sparrow might have a lot to do with the first film’s success, she agreed, “Oh, absolutely. It wasn’t written like that. The character, as it was written, was completely straight, so that character is entirely his and Gore Verbinski’s. They totally came up with that and none of us knew if it would work when we were doing it, because it was so off-the-wall and so not what was on the page.
It’s daring, and talk about risks, a.) you’re making a pirate movie, that hasn’t worked in God knows how long, b.) you’re making a film based on a Disney theme park ride and c.) you got Johnny Depp going mental over there, and you’re just thinking, ‘How is this going to work?’ I think you’ve got to take the risks. There’s no point playing it safe, because either you’ll get bored or the audiences will get bored. Sometimes, you’re going to make mistakes, and that’s fine, but you have to take the risks.
I think Pirates is one of the prime examples of that with Johnny Depp’s performance, and part of the reason that people love it so much is that you watch it and go ‘Gutsy, really gutsy'”
