A closer look
Disney executives were absolutely terrified by Johnny Depp's eccentric performance as Captain Jack Sparrow during the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean, fearing he was going to ruin their incredibly expensive summer blockbuster. Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner reportedly screamed that Depp was ruining the movie by playing the pirate like he was constantly drunk or suffering from heatstroke, totally failing to realize this was the exact reason the performance was brilliant. The studio was highly skeptical of adapting a fifty-year-old theme park ride into a movie to begin with, and the addition of a heavily eyeliner-clad weirdo stumbling around like a drunken rock star almost gave them a collective aneurysm. Naturally, Depp's bizarre choices earned an Oscar nomination and launched a billion-dollar franchise, making the executives pretend they supported his visionary genius all along
