Chatting with Javier Bardem aka Captain Salazar From Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales #PiratesLifeEvent

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Disclosure- I was invited by Disney to attend this all expense paid press trip but all opinions are 100% my own.

javier bardem

Photo credit- Louise Bishop at MomStart.com

We sat down for a candid interview with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales newcomer Javier Bardem. Javier plays Captain Salazar, the villainous ghost captain who is searching for Captain Jack Sparrow to exact his revenge. I think we scared him a little when he walked into a room of 25 applauding women. He said he was only expecting 1 or 2 women but we promised to go easy on him. Here’s what we learned:

DeadMenTellNoTales58e6b3c15b2b9Javier told us it took 3 hours to get his makeup applied. We asked how he was able to portray really intense emotions through all of the makeup and Javier replied,”Very good question, that was one of my concerns to see if my facial expression can go through the mask. The makeup people did an amazing job and once I had the mask on my face, I realized that I could express myself through it, which is important. Otherwise, your performance is killed by it. One of the things that these special effects people have done so well in this movie is that they brought magic into the performance without killing it, like the hair, it’s fantastic.” It was done in just the right way that it didn’t “kill the physicality of the performance”. I have to agree with Javier on this. The hair is “hypnotic“. The directors came up with this amazing idea. Wait until you see how his hair just floats in the air as if it were underwater. It is one of my favorite special effects in the movie.

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©Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Ever wonder what it would be like talking with the black goo coming out of your mouth? Javier said it was like talking through monkey poo.  We all laughed at that. “It was a liquid. They told me it was supposed to be like chocolate, chocolate my ***. It taste worse than that and they were supposed to put it on the teeth. I said give me that, so I drank 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.

"PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES"..The villainous Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) pursues Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) as he searches for the trident used by Poseidon..Ph: Film Frame..©Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Javier described the intensity and drive of his character so well “I thought it (the black goo) was like a rage pouring out. It’s not blood. It’s like the rage of the character coming out, like something more physical, like a bull. I’d always thought the character was like a bull, like a wounded bull with the blood and moving like wounded and breathing like out of breath and with a very strong idea for revenge towards [Jack Sparrow].

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Photo credit- Louise Bishop at MomStart.com

Javier got involved with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise in 2010 when he went to the set to visit his wife Penelope Cruz who was in the 4th movie and he was very envious. He was jealous of special effects, the sword fights, wardrobe, etc. So Javier said to Jerry Bruckheimer, “Jerry, please give me a job!” 5 years later he was finally given the role. Javier loved the idea that he would get to play the same character in 2 different ways- alive and dead. His character is all about pride and honor when he was alive and then pain and revenge when he was dead. Javier pulled inspiration to portray his role from the idea of a wounded animal. He wanted to bring bullfighting culture to his part and bring some of that flavor to his role.

"PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES"..The villainous Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) pursues Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) as he searches for the trident used by Poseidon..Ph: Film Frame..©Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

How does Javier like to spend his down time? He enjoys drawing faces, bodies, and expressions. He loves using a pencil and sketching. I’d love an original Javier Bardem sketch, wouldn’t you?

"PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES"..The villainous Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) pursues Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) as he searches for the trident used by Poseidon..Ph: Film Frame..©Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

©Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

One question on many of our minds was what it was like to work with Johnny Depp. Javier said he met Johnny in 1999, on the set of the movie, Before Nightfall. He said that Johnny is caring, funny, a gentleman, and he doesn’t give himself much importance at all. I remember that it was so hot, we were sitting on a roof and it was summertime. It was 3 p.m. People were like fainting out of the heat, and there was only one umbrella and of course the production went running to give him (Johnny) with the umbrella and he was like no. The umbrella is not for me. The umbrella is for Javier because that’s the guy who has to keep shooting when I leave. You need to protect him. And that was without making too much noise about it, but I saw that and I thought that talks a lot about him.”

When I do the movie now, in 2015, he was the same guy except that he’s playing Jack Sparrow which is an iconic character. He becomes Jack Sparrow and he’s so funny to watch and he will do and say anything and he will be brilliant. I had to cut the scene sometimes because I was laughing. He’s a great colleague and a beautiful guy.

"PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES"..The villainous Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) pursues Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) as he searches for the trident used by Poseidon..Pictured: Javier Bardem (Captain Salazar)..Film Frame..© Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

© Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Make sure to check out my upcoming interviews of some of the other actors in this movie. They shared a similar sentiment about Johnny Depp’s ability to make everyone around him laugh.

javier group2Photo credit- Louise Bishop at MomStart.com

Check out my Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales review and Los Angeles Premiere experience. Go see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales starting May 26th.


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PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES opens in theaters everywhere May 26th!

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