Exclusive: Pirates' Bill "Davy Jones" Nighy
Source: Edward Douglas
June 12, 2006
Bill Nighy may be one of England's most underrated actors, but most people will recognize him from the dour demeanor of his characters and his distinctively dry delivery. Considering the startling appearance of his character Davy Jones in Disney's
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, it may be the only way to recognize Nighy when he takes on that villainous role.
Playing the bad guy is nothing new to Nighy, having cut his teeth with the role of the ancient vampire Viktor in the "Underworld" movies. More people may remember loving him as rock star Billy Mack in Richard Curtis'
Love Actually or as Simon Pegg's zombie stepfather in
Shaun of the Dead. With that kind of diverse background, it's not surprising that director Gore Verbinski thought Nighy would be the perfect actor to turn Davy Jones into the type of bad guy that fans of the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" would love.
ComingSoon.net had a chance to speak with the actor as he took a break in Los Angeles from the lengthy shooting of the two movies.
ComingSoon.net: So the first "Pirates" was a pretty big movie. Can you talk about how you found out that they wanted you to play the role of Davy Jones in the sequel?
Bill Nighy: Yes, I'd seen the first one, and like everybody else, I loved it, so I was very thrilled when they approached me. I got a call from Gore Verbinski, the brilliant director, and we talked about it, I read the script and it took about 30 seconds to say, "Yes." The script was extremely good, as you would expect from those guys, and if you dug the first movie, you'll get a huge bang out of the second one. I was very pleased to be involved.
CS: At that point, did you realize that your face would be obscured by octopus or squid tentacles?
Nighy: There were various drawings and yeah, it was plainly never going to resemble me, which is always a good thing. (That's a joke.) But he kind of evolved. I can't remember, but the early pictures, he always had some kind of growth coming out of his chin. I don't know if they were actually tentacles at the very beginning. I think that was a later idea, which is brilliant actually, because the tentacles live, they have a life, and they can do stuff. They are extremely unsettling and scary, which is basically Davy Jones' job in the movie, to put the fear of God into people.
CS: Did Jones intentionally have a Lovecraftian look and does his appearance have anything to do with Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythology?
Nighy: No, it's funny. I sort of thought in that area. I don't know for sure, you'd have to ask them, but it would seem that it's the kind of world that might have informed them.
CS: Was there a lot of physical make-up involved with creating those tentacles or was it all CGI?
Nighy: Oh, it's all CGI. My face is made-up to bleed into the creature, and I have to wear up those funky computer pajama trousers and have white dots all over the place for the mapping points for the computer. I'd done that stuff before where you have prosthetics, when I was a vampire in the "Underworld" movie, and I did vow then that nobody would ever be allowed to do anything of that kind to me again.
CS: So in a sense, this was more of a performance capture of your face, which was then put into the computer?
Nighy: Yeah.
CS: I know they're trying to keep a lot of the plot a secret, but can you tell us why Davy Jones is coming after Captain Jack Sparrow?
Nighy: Well, Davy Jones is very damaged and very hurt, and like a lot of people who've been profoundly hurt, his only remaining pleasure is to see other people suffer, and he's extremely good at it. He also has some friends, which as you say, I'm not at liberty to tell you about yet, who could kill you in about 18 different ways. There isn't anybody scarier than Davy Jones, and if he came into your life, he would come in at the point of death, and he would offer you a deal. It's a really, really, really, really lousy deal, but at that stage of the game, it's the only deal in town. I'd get fired if I tell you anything specific.
CS: Well, you already did the movie so you probably can't get fired.
Nighy: Well, no, but I haven't finished 3 yet.
CS: What about Davy Jones' crew? Do they have a strange appearance like their boss?
Nighy: Yeah, they're very unsettling and weird. They've been at sea far too long, and they will look very, very weird.
CS: The first movie was all about the skeleton pirates, which was pretty bizarre.
Nighy: Weirder than that. It's another step forward in terms of weird.
CS: Is the story in the second movie a continuation of what happened in the first movie or completely separate?
Nighy: Yeah, there are elements. It's rather satisfying. There's stuff you'll remember from the first, but essentially, it's a whole new tale. It kind of draws from the first movie quite cleverly, but takes you on, and the new boys, as it were, are obviously myself and Stellan Skarsgård, the brilliant Swedish actor, and young Tom Hollander, who is another brilliant actor from England. He plays the other evil, nasty piece of work, the unacceptable face of the East India Company.
CS: Obviously, Johnny, Keira, Orlando and even Gore all worked together on the first movie, so how was it coming into that circle as one of the new guys?
Nighy: Well, you do spend a couple of days feeling a bit lame and a bit like a lemon, because it's always tough coming into something that's already started, but I can't say enough about Johnny Depp, Orlando, Gore or Keira. They were extremely welcoming and couldn't have been cooler and nicer to be around. It didn't take any time at all before you were absorbed into the whole outfit, and you felt very much at home.
CS: For a movie like this, do you still end up doing table reads and rehearsals and all the stuff you do in other movies before going to the Bahamas to shoot?
Nighy: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Same kind of process. I mean it is an odd gig for me, obviously, because it's not like anything I've done before, which is one of the things that attracted me to it. Every now and again you remember that you got an octopus growing out of your chin and one of your legs is a crab leg, therefore the level of performance has to be gauged to inhabit the creature. In general terms, the job remains the same, which is to try and make it as authentic as possible, because somewhere in there, there's a guy called Davy Jones.
CS: Do you actually get to do any sword fighting in the movie?
Nighy: I have some serious sword fighting.
CS: Is that something in which you'd been trained before or did you have to do more training for the movie?
Nighy: No, I think they taught us a little bit at college. I've never been famous for it, but I have a go. I had a sword fight in the first "Underworld" movie, and I got the top of my head sliced off.
CS: How can I forget that? I've heard they might do a prequel to that, so is it safe to assume that your character Viktor would be back for that?
Nighy: Are they? No, you're the first person to tell me this.
CS: Apparently, Len Wiseman's also directing "Die Hard 4" now, so maybe he'll get in touch with you about one of the two movies.
Nighy: Oh, good. I'm so pleased. I must say that he's such a lovely guy, and I thought they did such a brilliant job. Again, first time movie, the first "Underworld," and I think they did such a brilliant job of telling the story. Everything was great, Kate was great, I thought it was a really cool movie. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for vampires. I was just in a little preface for the movie, but it was cool to be back. It was just so nice that it was successful, meaning straight in at #1.
CS: I hear that you're back working with Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright again for "Hot Fuzz," too.
Nighy: A little bit, yeah. Myself and Martin Freeman do a little bit on that. We pop in. Everyone in England is in it, I think. There's a queue of actors, because everybody was so keen to be in it after "Shaun of the Dead," because everyone liked that so much. I briefly appear, along with lots of other people. It's a very quick in and out, but I was pleased to do it, because I'm so fond of them. They're such nice guys and such funny guys. I was so happy that "Shaun of the Dead" was such a hit. You read the script, and it's just great. It just absolutely works. There aren't many, and you see it. They're just very, very clever. They'd never written a feature script before, and they did it, and it all worked. There's about three gags on every page, they're all world class, and all the relationships are perfectly resolved, everything dovetails at the end. It's perfect. It's funny and a little bit scary, and that balance between scary and funny is very hard to hit, and they did it, and as Simon would say, "It's the birth of a genre, rom-zom-com."
CS: You've now played a vampire, a zombie, and whatever Davy Jones is. Do you have a preference of which you liked playing best?
Nighy: I have said that I've reached that difficult age where I can only portray men from other dimensions. As you say, I've played a zombie, a vampire, and now a squid-man, so I think we can safely say that a pattern is emerging.
CS: So is the official word that Davy Jones is a squid man, not an octopus man?
Nighy: I don't really know what the official thing is. No, it's great. I've been very lucky to play a wide-ish range of parts, and it makes life very interesting and I'm grateful for it.
CS: Were you surprised by how many Americans embraced your character in "Love Actually" after so many years slogging away as an actor in smaller parts?
Nighy: Well, it was lovely, and it's been very good for me. It seems that people have a big affection for that kind of character, those rock survivors, which are kind of a new genre of character, they're kind of pioneers. Mr. Keith Richards said once when asked how long would they be going on. He said, "Ask me next year. Who knows? These are unchartered waters." And I think people start smiling just at the mention of some of the names, like Ozzy Osbourne. I think because we grew up with them, because they've given us pleasure and because they're still standing, people have a deep affection for it. Some of it has come my way as a result, and I'm very happy. Also, Richard Curtis is a brilliant man and wrote some big, fat lovely jokes for me.
CS: When was Keith Richards asked that question? When he was 30?
Nighy: No, it was maybe about ten years ago. He said that nobody has done this before. My favorite was when he was asked if he would accept a knighthood as Mick Jagger had done, and he said, "I kneel to no man."
CS: Funny you should mention Keith, because there was a lot of rumors about him being in this third movie. Has he shown up on set yet or is that still not definite?
Nighy: I don't know. There are rumors that he may be, but they're as yet unconfirmed. It would be an honor and a privilege should he be.
CS: And do you think you'll be working with Richard Curtis again?
Nighy: I hope so, yeah. I've worked with him twice now, and I just love the way he writes. It's a rare gift to be able to make people laugh. He can really do it, and he does it in an intelligent way, and I love the dialogue. I love his writing. Nothing would give me more pleasure.
You can see the scary looking Davy Jones with Nighy's distinctive delivery in
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which opens everywhere on July 9.
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