As Captain Jack Sparrow casts off for a new big screen adventure, Steve Pratt hears from star Johnny Depp about channelling Rolling Stone Keith Richards into his portrayal and why he feels responsible to young fans.

OH dear, I’ve screwed Johnny Depp’s head on the wrong way round. The Lego figure of Captain Jack Sparrow in the goody bag for the latest Pirates of The Caribbean movie is billed as suitable for six to 12-year-olds, but some may find assembling it the equivalent of putting together flatpack furniture.

What the presence of Captain Jack in the Lego world shows is that this pirate adventurer has become a brand. The three previous films have together racked up $2.6bn worldwide.

Depp loves playing the character – modelled in part on Rolling Stone Keith Richards – and audiences, young and old, around the world love Depp playing the character. Given those two facts, a fourth instalment was inevitable.

Despite the new movie – Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides – being among nominations for most anticipated film at this week’s National Movie Awards, not everyone was looking forward to it. I thought the third film was terrible. A fact acknowledged, perhaps, by references in the production notes to the fourth being closer in spirit to the first and capturing the “fun, excitement and humour that ignited the hit franchise”.

Depp, looking very unpiratical for the UK and European press junket in dark glasses and hat, has said he’s happy to carry on playing Captain Jack. And, although reviews of the latest film are embargoed until nearer next Wednesday’s opening, I can say it marks, if not a return to form, then a vast improvement on number three.

So Mr Depp, were you born to play Captain Jack? Yes, seems to be the mumbled answer, although additional information that “it also gives me the opportunity to wear women’s undergarments” is probably best left uninvestigated.

He’s smiling, so he’s joking. I think.

“It’s funny how these films and the character have been accepted. You think back to when we first started out it was very simple, just like any other character,” he says.

“You just grab bits and pieces. None of us had done anything like these characters. It’s just so much fun to get away with things you’re not normally allowed to get away with – to play as absurdly as you like.”

This Jack is especially all right with youngsters and Depp accepts the responsiblity towards those fans. With immaculate timing, a foreign journalist steps forward to present him with an award – the Golden Flip Award – on behalf of such admirers.

He and his co-stars – including Geoffrey Rush, Ian McShane and Penelope Cruz who are among those sharing the platform with him – were heading for the screening of On Stranger Tides at the Cannes Film Festival after last night’s London premiere. How would he like the film to be received at the prestigious festival, wonders a foreign correspondent. A silly question deserves, and gets, a silly answer. “I hope they hate it,” grins Depp.

“It’s quite an interesting idea to make a film everyone hates. I’ve done that before,” he adds, on reflection.

For the second time, a Pirates movie features a cameo appearance by the man who inspired Depp’s Captain Jack, Keith Richards. It must be a surreal experience for them to share screen time. Depp explains that he saw the pirate captain as a mix of Richards and Pepi Le Pew, a cartoon skunk.

“I was worried what Keith Richards would say,” says Depp, who spent time with the Rolling Stones guitarist “sponging” as much as possible to create the character.

“I wondered when he found out what I’d been doing if he’d be nice about it,” admits the actor.

“It could have gone either way. But he was very sweet.”

Depp has been known to strum a guitar from time to time, so perhaps he could play in the next Pirates movie. “The idea of playing the guitar anywhere near Keith Richards...” he says. “It took me about 11 years before I could touch a guitar in his presence – and that’s just to pick it up.”

More worrying than coming face-to-face with Richards on screen were the bugs encountered on location in the Hawaiian islands of Kauai and Oahu. The number of legs on these creatures clearly worried Depp. He mutters something about “crawling, horrible things in Hawaii”, and he’s not talking about his co-stars. “Yes, I was in fear,” he concludes.

On Stranger Tides is unlikely to be the last cinemagoers see of Captain Jack. If successful – and there’s no reason to suspect it won’t be a massive global hit – more adventures will follow.

He may also make an appearance in some unexpected places from time to time. “Having played him four times, he arrives pretty quickly when I play him. Sometimes too quickly – you know, dropping the kids off at school.”

Captain Jack doing the school run. Now that is a bizarre thought.

• Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides opens in cinemas on Wednesday.