SYNOPSIS

DIRECTOR GORE VERBINSKI:

"The biggest challenge was were we going to lose Bill Nighy’s performance, his character, his acting? I showed him pictures and he knew what he was. He showed up on set with dots on his face and a grey suit. Everyone else was dressed like pirates and he feels like he was a member of DEVO or something, and yet he completely commits to it. (Laughing) He would look at Stellan Skarsgård, who had four or five hours in a chair, and he wished that he was Stellan because at least he kind of knows what he’s getting. If you film Stellan in a scene, that’s it, he’s done. I think now Stellan wishes he was Bill, because they can see the end result." 

STELLAN:

"I saw a lot of actors having a lot of fun in the first movie, and I wanted to be a part of it."

Who is Bootstrap Bill? "It’s Will Turner’s dad and he’s been on the bottom of the ocean for quite a while. He saved his life by making this deal with Davy Jones, the captain of the Flying Dutchmen – a kind of flying ghost ship. So he has to slave there for 100 years and gradually he loses his humanity and becomes a part of the ship. It’s a very tragic story."

Make-up: "I carry around quite a dominant statement on my face all the time and I have to find a way to not be upstaged by my own face. Working on the make-up, we talked about how to find a general expression that I could work with so it has also a sort of sadness to it."

Working with special effects and CGI characters: "You don’t think of it when you actually do it. Even if there’s a lot of special effects, when you work on it, basically all the concentration is about the acting. Because, just like in the first one, this is a blockbuster movie that actually is character-driven. Gore Verbinski (director) is very careful about creating an atmosphere with the actors where the actors can actually act, so you don’t see all the technical side of it as an obstacle."

Working with Verbinski: "It’s great working with him. He’s very collaborative. You try things out and you discuss the text and you discuss how to do it. It’s wonderful."

How the second film differs: "I don’t know. I would probably say that it’s a little rougher ride this time."

PRAISE FOR STELLAN:

"Bootstrap Bill Turner is played with appropriate melancholy by Stellan Skarsgård. Not surprisingly, Skarsgård upstages Bloom in every second they spend on screen together." ...Bob Grimm, Reno News Review 

"It’s no real surprise then that the best part of Dead Man’s Chest take place upon The Flying Dutchman, a literal ghost ship where Jones presides over a crew of the eternally damned, including Turner’s own estranged pirate father, Bootstrap Bill, played with elegant, Bergmanesque suffering by Stellan Skarsgård. The scenes in which Bill attempts to make amends with his son from beyond his watery grave are genuinely affecting and just about the only moments in which Dead Man’s Chest deepens or expands our sense of the first film’s characters in the way that the best movie sequels can do."    ...Scott Foundas, Orange County Weekly

"Stellan Skarsgård gives an even more nuanced performance, presented with heart-wrenching poignancy, as Bootstrap Bill, who long ago made his pact with the devil and joined Davy Jones' barnacle-encrusted, zombielike crew of the undead."   ...Chicago Sun Times, Bill Zwecker

"The performances that do work in this film come from Bill Nighy (you expected otherwise?) as Jones and Stellan Skarsgård as Bootstrap Bill, a member of Jones' crew who also happens to be Will's father. Much like Geoffrey Rush's fun turn in the Black Pearl, Nighy manages to rise above the heavy-duty visual and makeup effects (which, by the way, are excellent), while Skarsgård's performance is the only one that manages to elicit any sort of character empathy from the viewer."  ...MusicOMH.com

"Bootstrap Bill - an impressive performance by Stellan Skarsgård."  ...Sheila Roberts, Movies Online

"Only Stellan Skarsgård, Bloom’s waterlogged, undead father, with real feeling shining through the piscine make-up that marks Davy Jones’s eternally damned crew, gives a glimpse of style."  ...Martin Hoyle, Financial Times

"Nighy infuses the tormented captain with emotions, and Skarsgard does the same with his decaying, barnacle-encrusted corpse of a sailor. In both of these cases, the special effects serve - rather than enslave - the characters."   ...Susan Tavernetti, Palo Alto Online

"The heartiest praise this time goes to Bill Nighy and Skarsgård, who manage to dazzle from behind extreme makeup as Davy Jones and Bootstrap Bill, respectively."  ...Larry Ratliff, San Antonio Express-News

""Bootstrap Bill Turner is played with marvelous melancholy by Stellan Skarsgård." ...Randy Shulman, Metro Weekly

"It’s the makeup-sporting actors who steal this one, particularly Nighy as the ruthless Davy Jones and Stellan Skarsgård as Will’s spectral father, 'Bootstrap' Turner."   ...Matt Brunson, Connect Savannah

"Will’s dad, Bootstrap Bill is played by Stellan Skarsgård, who’s all but unrecognizable and, surprisingly, tenderly poignant."   ...Mary Ann Johanson, Flick Filosopher

"The skeletal plot is kept afloat by several riotous set pieces pulled off as before with flair by Verbinski, imaginative effects and makeup, and some solid supporting performances by Nighy and a barnacled Stellan Skarsgård as Bootstrap Bill, Will's long-lost father."   ...David DiCerto, Catholic News Service

"Will Turner’s half-dead father - a moving Stellan Skarsgård."   ...Angela Baldassarre, Sympatico

"But the problem with the "Pirates" films, and with this one more than the first, is that there's not a genuine moment in them - no point of human contact except, perhaps, for the Herculean efforts of Stellan Skarsgård, behind heavy makeup, to provide hints of a tragic dimension as Will's doomed father."   ...Daily Variety

"Stellan Skarsgård brings some rue to the role of Bootstrap Bill, Bill Nighy is a deliciously villainous Jones, and Naomie Harris has a nice, campy turn as a voodoo priestess."   ...Shawn Levy, The Oregonian

"While the prosthetic effects are something to marvel over, little kids are likely to find Jones and his sailors more than a mite frightening... Not to mention requiring fine actors like Stellan Skarsgård to deliver their speeches through a mask of fake algae and mollusks."   ...Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

"A voodoo priestess - wonderful Naomie Harris... a doomed pirate dad - Stellan Skarsgård, very good."   ...Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

"Will Turner (half of the young lover duo) is meeting and greeting his sort of dead father, played nicely by the always excellent Stellan Skarsgård."    ...Valley City Times Record