Johnny Depp Nearly Fired From Pirate Movie  6/27/06

Johnny Depp was nearly sacked when studio heads first saw his performance as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, because they hated his performance.

Executives, led by former Disney Studios head Michael Eisner, were furious when they saw what he was doing with the character and demanded an explanation.

Depp says, "They did come to me and say, you know, 'What's going on? What does this mean? Is he gay, is he drunk? We can't understand what you're saying.

It sounds like you're slurring your words. None of it makes any sense.'

"They were really worried and in a lot of ways, rightly so.

"They had a lot of dough invested in the thing and here comes this really weird guy doing something they never experienced before from a human being.

"I understand it, but it didn't change anything. I still had to do what I had to do, even when the threat was to potentially be fired."