IAN MCSHANE (Deadwood) talks about cornering the market in movie villainy and Blackbeard‘s flaming beard at the London press conference for the fourth movie in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
***PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES is in cinemas from 18 MAY
MMM: How have you managed to corner the market in villainy in recent years?
McShane: My early life! [Laughs] If I wasn’t an actor now I’d probably be in jail!
MMM: You make such a great smiling rogue. Is that just having great fun with the parts?
McShane: This was fabulous… to be asked to play an iconic character like Blackbeard. I had lunch with Jerry [Bruckheimer, producer] and Rob [Marshall, director] and we talked about it and I read the script and it was terrific… literate, funny, it has a linear line that’s gone back to the first film in terms of the simplication of the plots and characters. And who the hell doesn’t want to play Blackbeard? Is Penelope [Cruz’s character] Blackbeard’s daughter? I don’t know. All the characters lie to each other. I mean, I’d love it if Penelope hadn’t been my daughter. [Laughs]
McShane: This was fabulous… to be asked to play an iconic character like Blackbeard. I had lunch with Jerry [Bruckheimer, producer] and Rob [Marshall, director] and we talked about it and I read the script and it was terrific… literate, funny, it has a linear line that’s gone back to the first film in terms of the simplication of the plots and characters. And who the hell doesn’t want to play Blackbeard? Is Penelope [Cruz’s character] Blackbeard’s daughter? I don’t know. All the characters lie to each other. I mean, I’d love it if Penelope hadn’t been my daughter. [Laughs]
MMM: Is it true that you bottled it playing Blackbeard, who’s alleged to have gone into battle with his hair on fire?
McShane: Well, we tried that over many months! [Laughs] But, of course, we couldn’t do that because of safety. Then we tried this rig which produced smoke, so I had this rig up my back and one night we went out on the bow of the ship and we started the scene and smoke came out and, of course, it blew straight away. It looked like I’d been having a crafty fag underneath my beard. So, that magic line came up, ‘We’ll do it in post.’ And that’s what we did.
McShane: Well, we tried that over many months! [Laughs] But, of course, we couldn’t do that because of safety. Then we tried this rig which produced smoke, so I had this rig up my back and one night we went out on the bow of the ship and we started the scene and smoke came out and, of course, it blew straight away. It looked like I’d been having a crafty fag underneath my beard. So, that magic line came up, ‘We’ll do it in post.’ And that’s what we did.
