Pirates stars swoop on Cannes

Published on Saturday 14 May 2011 16:06

IT MAY be tens of thousands of miles away, but Hollywood yesterday took centre-stage at the Cannes Film Festival as the stars of the latest Pirates Of The Caribbean film rolled into town.

Posing on the red carpet before the premiere of the latest film in the hugely profitable series, A-listers Johnny Depp and co-star Penelope Cruz lapped up the attention of the paparazzi.

Depp, 47, who was also joined by co-stars Geoffrey Rush and Ian McShane, admitted that Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was not "your normal Cannes fare".

He also refused to rule out making another instalment, saying: "I think the possibilities are endless but really, ultimately and truly, these films are made for people and it's the people who go in and pay their hard-earned money to see these things and if the people get tired of it or something, that's when it stops."

Depp laughed when asked if he was worried about the notoriously harsh critics at Cannes, and said his family - his actress girlfriend Vanessa Paradis and their two children - are the only critics he needs. "My family have seen more of my movies than I have. In fact, a lot more, including this one," Depp said.

"They've been angels through this process, because I started out secretly testing characters on them to see how the reactions would be. When my daughter was little, we'd be playing Barbies, and I'd start doing these voices. Finally, she just said, 'Stop.'

"So they go and see the movies, and basically, I can tell by their reaction if I did all right or not. They seem to enjoy them so far. I haven't been fired by my kids."

And the Cannes critics? Depp, who spent the first two decades of his career in quirky movies that rarely found much critical support, was not exactly quaking in his pirate boots.

"Yeah, I've always feared the critics," he said, laughing. "They really scare me."

The fourth movie in the Pirates franchise casts Depp's buccaneer Jack Sparrow alongside a female pirate (Cruz) and her notorious dad, Blackbeard (McShane).