"Pirate" Depp channels Keith Richards

When it came time to prepare for his role as the roguish Captain Jack Sparrow in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," Johnny Depp sought inspiration from two unlikely sources: rocker Keith Richards and animated skunk Peppy Le Pew.

"He came from many directions, Old Captain Jack," Depp recently told reporters. "The pirate of the 18th century seemed to me like the rock and roll star of today and to me the greatest rock and roll star of all time, the coolest rock and roll star, is Keith Richards, hands down. So, I kind of incorporated the idea of Keith, not an imitation of Keith or anything, but that wisdom that he carries, that confidence he has and that attack that he has. So, I've got that on one side and the other side I took a little from this cartoon character I always loved as a kid whose name was Peppy La Pew."

We are talking about the skunk, right?

"Yeah," laughed the 40-year-old Kentucky native. "Peppy was this skunk who smelled horrible, but was absolutely convinced he was the ultimate ladies' man. He'd fall in love with this cat who clearly despised him, but Peppy Le Pew sort of read it as: 'She's playing hard to get. She's just shy.' So, there's the Peppy Le Pew element and then I thought of Jack as this constantly moving organism, who would kind of shape himself to whatever situation he was in. To see what he could get out of the situation."

In "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," Depp plays an accomplished pirate whose idyllic life at sea capsizes when his nemesis Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) steals his ship, The Black Pearl, then attacks the town of Port Royal and kidnaps the governor's (Jonathan Pryce) beautiful daughter, Elizabeth (Keira Knightley). Along with Elizabeth's childhood friend Will Turner (Orlando Bloom,) Jack commandeers the fastest ship in the British fleet in a gallant attempt to recapture The Black Pearl and rescue the damsel in distress. Unbeknownst to Will, a cursed treasure has doomed Barbossa and his crew to terrorize the seas as undead beings, eerily transformed by moonlight into living skeletons.

Never one to miss an opportunity to cover his chiseled good looks with makeup and lose himself in a fascinating, albeit offbeat character, Depp admitted he felt relieved by the porspect of playing an incorrigible pirate with gold teeth and dreadlocks instead of a handsome romantic lead.

"There wasn't that pressure of 'My God, what's the poster going to look like?'" the "Chocolat" and "Edward Scissorhands" star explained. "Some of the executives were a little bit worried about that early on. Understandbly. But, it was just nice to have the opportunity to play the pirate. Whenever someone came up and said: 'Should he really be that dirty? He's a little greasy...' You always had the safety net of: 'Pirate! He's a pirate.' And that would stop them in their tracks."

Just in case you're wondering, those fangs he sports in the film are not digitally enhanced. They are veneers that were actually bonded onto his real teeth.

"Getting them off is going to be interesting," he remarked, adding that the costumes, knickknacks dangling from his filthy hair and his choppers all helped him "work from the outside in" to create a unique and believable character. "It's part of the package. The teeth, I never noticed them. I never felt them. But when you're building a history for this character... I always thought of Captain Jack had lost a tooth and then imagine the dentistry back then was slightly worse than today, so, he'd probably just pick up a piece of gold and fashion it into a tooth and just stuff it up his gum."

Noting that he always feels a bit depressed when a film wraps and he must say goodbye to a character he inhabited for several months, Depp revealed that he is having a particularly hard time letting go of Captain Jack.

"I was really irritable," he confessed. "I experienced a bit of melancholy and I realized that I missed Captain Jack and being him and being in that skin, it's like: 'Will I ever see him again? Will I ever meet him again? Will I ever be him again?'"

So, would he do a sequel if Disney decided to make a follow-up to the flick?

"I hope so," Depp said. "I'd love to. But there's no guarantees. Disney might say: 'I think we've had plenty of Johnny Depp. Let's move on to someone else.' And we don't know if they're going to make a sequel of not. I had such a ball playing the guy. I'd love to do it again."

"Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" is in theaters now.