Johnny Depp’s pirate character inspired by lizards

Hollywood superstar Johnny Depp said that he studied reptiles to perfect some of the mannerisms of his famously eccentric character Captain Jack Sparrow in the movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’.

The 47-year-old actor said that he made the swashbuckling hero run like a lizard to make it look peculiar, Daily Star reported.

And when he was offered to play a lizard in his new animated film ‘Rango’ he knew exactly what was required.

“I’ve always had an affinity for lizards. When (director) Gore (Verbinski) and I were doing Pirates 1, 2, 3 and Captain Jack had to run, it was a very specific run that I wanted. I saw this footage of a lizard running across the water and it was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. So I said, ‘Gore it’s gotta be like a lizard running,’ and he said ‘absolutely’,” said Depp.

“So I feel that Rango was planted in Gore’s brain from that lizard run. When he actually called me and said I want you to play a lizard I said, ‘I’m halfway there!,’” said the actor.

The ‘Tourist’ star is now being summoned as the ‘Lizard King’ by his kids, who are well aware of his affinity for lizards.

“They actually call me the Lizard King… I’ve forced them to address me like that since they were tikes,” he added.