Ok so...I have always wanted to write about the experiance in detail about what it was like meeting Johnny Depp. MOST all of you know that about this, and you all tease me about it because I like to brag about it well...you are all just JEALOUS lol This happened a while ago...I was in high school I think it was August...2006. I am not positive but around that time. To really know me and who I am, you have to know that my passion in life are movies. I love to watch all the behind the scenes of how they are made, watch how the make up was done, what the actors say about making the movie so...having this experiance was an absolute dream come true.
We have a family friend who his job is filming movies..he has filmed some pretty big ones. Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3 were two of them that he helped film. He called us one night around 10:30 and asked us if me and my mom would want to come the next day and visit the set at the Salt Flats...yes!! We were very interested lol They were filming the scene in Pirates 3 when Jack Sparrow was stuck in Davey Jones locker..you know that weird scene where he is tripping out? We got to watch a good portion of that scene get filmed. My Aunt Wendy and Uncle Geoff also came along! (I may have spelled your name wrong sorry)
The night before it rained really really hard. So that made a beautiful glass looking furface over a lot of the salt flats we had to drive on to get out to the set. It was the most bizare thing I have ever done. It was like being in a dream. My mom was driving and she could not get over how incredible it was. We were listening to the "Pirates of the Caribbean" soundtrack and getting it out of our system of what we were about to go do.
Since there was no way of really knowing where you were driving out there...they had these orange cones to direct us to the set. Right before driving into the set we had to stop by the guy guarding the set lol it was kinda scary answering questions about who we new on set and, promising that we really are allowed to be here...he kinda looked at like..hmmm but he let us go anyways.
As we got closer we noticed something big and black in the distance. We could not tell what it was though..mom kept saying she thought it was a crane of some kind..it ended up being the front of the black pearl! They only used the front of it, and when they edit it all I guess they add in the rest of the ship. The front of this ship though was still huge. When they brought it over for a scene, I just stood there looking up at it with my mouth hanging open watching it slowly go by casting a huge shodow.
The rules for going on the set were these: Don't freak out lol basically. It was a closed set to the public so, being allowed to be able to come on set and watch Johnny Depp do the scene was an amazing opportunity to be able to do without another hundred scsreaming fans, or news people. It was just us, the crew, and Johnny Depp. It was the most calm I think I have been ever in my entire life...even though inside I was freaking out. When we first got on set, Johnny was not out yet. Me and my mom were standing there when I look over and see Johnny Depp talking to the director..I calmly just kind of looked away lol and my mom turned to me and whispered, "Johnny Depp is standing over there..." "Yes, he is."
We were not allowed to have any type of camera at all. Not even cell phones. So I sadly don't have any pictures of that day..but I found pictures online of different shots that we watched get shot. This one we watched him do. The ship was actually not there. that rope went up to a blue screen, with some guys holding the other end. He did the shot different every time trying new ways to do this scene. At the end of this scene Jack Sparrow gives up and passes out. They had a matress ready for Johnny Depp's stunt double to fall down for him but, they didn't end up using the stunt double. Johnny just fell down all by himself lol There were a couple times watching that I thought that the blue screen was going to fall over because of how hard Johnny was pulling that rope.
This is from the same scene up above. Still trying to pull that dang black pearl...
Ha ha so before I talk about this scene I will tell you all about actually MEETING him. We watched him on the set all day. It was HOT! Being out on the salt flats in August...buh. It was horrible out there but I honestly did not think about it too much. Johnny Depp's make up person had to keep coming and fixing his eye makeup because it was melting it was so hot. I can't even imagine how hot he felt in that costume out there all day. We were also able to eat lunch with the crew and everybody. They had a shaded area for lunch and they had...everything in the world you could think about eating...seriously. I have never seen so much food. It was kind of funny because they had a few stunt doubles for Jack Sparrow and they were all sitting together at the same table. Not only did they have food for lunch, but then they also had a table for dessert...every flavor of brownies, cakes, cookies...you name it. There was a little break after lunch before filming again. We got to go meet the director and the rest of the crew. They were all really really nice. One of them asked us if we had met Johnny Depp yet, we said no and that we did not want to bug him, they said "Nah he loves doing stuff like that, we'll get you to meet him later." We also got to go talk to the prop person. She showed us Jack Sparrows gun, and the little crab things that are in that scene. I also got the opportunity to actually sit, and look into one of the cameras that they use to film.....amazing. Before they started the scene of the picture above this, our friend said Johnny had a minute and was going to grab him to meet us..I won't lie I was terrified lol I was so nervous. Johnny Depp walked over to us like Jack Sparrow lol It was such an out of body experiance. He came up and said hi to all of us, shaking all of our hands. I told him my name and that it was nice to meet you...that was basically all I said to him lol my uncle Jeoff did all the talking. The first thing that Johnny said to us was lol this was his first time meeting mormons, and that one time he got stuck in an elevator with the mormon tabernacle choir lol then he talked about how hot it was, and that the salt flats were unlike anything he has ever seen. I stood there listening to him but did not say much, I was looking at all the details of his costume. We talked to him for about 5 minutes or so, then he had to go back and do the scene. He shook all of our hands again. He was so nice, and super friendly to us. Then he went and did the scene of that picture above this. When he is standing there staring at the Black Pearl. It was funny watching him do all these different face expressions and then run off to chase the black pearl over and over again. So yeah...basically the coolest day of my life...so far lol I will never forget that experience and all my friends love to tease me about it because I talked about it for so long after wards but...if they had the opportunity THEY would be doing the same exact thing lol
Check out this cool little video about filming out there
If you click this video and skip to 6:06 you will see what I am talking about with the blue screen and the big section of the black pearl they had.
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