A funny game goes on among journalists at round table interviews, as everyone tries to act nonchalantly about the experience of meeting some of the world’s most iconic actors. Speaking as though they’re close personal friends is crucial to the process and so you hear a lot of statements like “Leo was in great form. I’m so relieved, the poor boy was exhausted the last time I saw him – he must have taken my advice about that lavender oil.” So when journalists literally leap from their seats, running towards an actor so fast that they dodge the grasp of shouting security men just to beg the star for a photograph, you know you’re in the presence of someone really special. You’re in the presence of Johnny Depp.

Over in London to promote On Stranger Tides, the fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Depp deals with the crazed fans like the professionals they aren’t, somehow managing not to run away in terror. In fact he seems buoyant, clearly still buzzing from filming the latest fantastical adventure in the series, which to date has grossed over two-and-a-half billion dollars. “Yeah, it’d be really interesting to make a film that everyone would hate for a change,” jokes Johnny, “I’ve done that before haven’t I? You’re just too kind and don’t want to mention the film, do you?”
But though his career has been littered with all manner of quirky characters, from the awkward Edward Scissorhands through Willy Wonka to the bipolar Mad Hatter, he admits that returning to his tic-laden Jack Sparrow is both a blast and a luxury.
“It also gives me the opportunity to wear women’s undergarments beneath my costume,” he kids. “It’s just so much fun to get away with things you’re not normally allowed to get away with, to be totally irreverent, to play as absurd as you like – so it’s a very special opportunity.”
Depp’s inspiration for the character (cross-dressing aside, we assume) came from Rolling Stone guitarist Keith Richards, who makes cameos as Jack’s father in At World’s End and On Stranger Tides. Depp admits he was nervous playing opposite him. “It was very strange initially when getting the character’s main ingredients together, and thinking about mixing Keith Richards and Pepe Le Peu. I didn’t fear Pepe Le Peu, but I was worried about Keith – because it could have gone either way! But he was very nice about it. To then be able to bring him into the film and do scenes with him, was amazing.”
Another quirk-filled character that’s new to the series is Captain Blackbeard, played by Ian McShane. Known for his roles as the pimp entertainer Al Swearengen in Deadwood and the English cad Lockwood in the TV series Dallas, the effortlessly cool and hilarious actor has a theory on the origin of his evident talent for playing unsavoury characters. “My early life,” he deadpans. “If I wasn’t an actor now I’d probably be in jail, drunk!” McShane makes no attempt to hide the fact that he relishes his role alongside Penelope Cruz’s sassy Angelica, a former lover of Jack Sparrow.
“This was fabulous, being able to play an iconic character like Blackbeard. Who the hell doesn’t want to play Blackbeard,” McShane asks. Although he admits he would have made one small change to his role, winking lasciviously at the Spanish beauty. “I’d love it if you hadn’t been my daughter, Penelope!”
Cheeky git. But who can blame him – there’s not many women who can carry off sword-fighting amidst a cast of men who have had three films worth of practice, while not only looking like, well, Penelope Cruz, but also being pregnant with her first child. But she says that both the cast and studio were hugely supportive.
“It was a very special time for me,” she says. “To be working and to feel so protected and taken care of by all of them every step of the way made it the most special movie I’ve done to date. It meant so much to me.” But though Cruz’s experience on On Stranger Tides was a fun-filled one, it’s unclear how soon she’ll be working again, now that she and husband Javier Bardem have little baby Leo to look after.
“We change every day and big things like that change you in a big, positive way, so we will see,” she says. “I was a workaholic. I used to work three or four movies every year, but that changed a while ago. Now I do one, maybe two films a year if they’re very short. It’s very important for me to have that equilibrium, that balance.”
Ah yes, it’s all about balance. I said the same thing to Tom and Kate, you know. C’mere to me, Penny and let me tell you about the wonders of yoga, before chatterbox Johnny starts bending my ear again...

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is in cinemas from May 20.