Johnny Depp was absolutely crazy about Captain Jack Sparrow and played the part so well that he earned an Academy Award-nomination for his role in "Pirates of the Caribbean," the film that introduced him to the mainstream world after so many years starring in indie and studio films that never reached blockbuster status.

Depp reprises his role in "Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest," the first of two sequels to the 2003 smash hit.

Q: What is it about Capt. Jack Sparrow that makes you want to revisit him over and over again?

JOHNNY: I kind of like everything about playing him. I feel like he's good fun to play. Ted [Elliot], Terry [Rosario] and Gore [Verbinski] certainly set a course in terms of the story and the solid bones for that structure, and I get to run with that a little bit, get to play around and add stuff and try things, and get away with it just to see what you can get away with. I've been very lucky so far. He's just a fun character. I certainly wasn't ready to say good-bye to him after "Pirates 1." I felt there was more that could be done, more fun to be had.

Q: Did you rewatch the first movie to get back in his frame of mind?

JOHNNY: No. God no. For a while there, not so much these days because they've seen it a bazillion times, my kiddies were watching "Pirates 1." They've taken a break from that and have moved to "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" for a while and now my son's going to "Spider-Man" and things like that. For a while, they were watching "Pirates 1" and you'd be walking into a room and looking for something and hearing that familiar score or voice and just exit as quickly as possible so I didn't have to see it again, or see me again. The movie itself is fun but I don't enjoy looking at myself. It's strange.

Q: Does that change the relationship at all when your kids start watching your movies?

JOHNNY: Not as much as you might think because to them, it's normal. It's all they've ever known. It's seeing Papa on television or on the DVD cover. It's not weird to them at all. They can go from watching the movie to the dinner table and not mention the film at all. Then again, there are other times when my daughter will say, "What was that line in 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' about the motorbikes? Will you do the voice" I'll do it and she'll go, "O.K., thanks" and move on to the next thing.

Q: Is that kind of a rite of passage when your children go on to other movies like "Spider-Man"?

JOHNNY: No, no, I'm fine with it. They've got to branch out. They got to explore other worlds. It'd be horrible to be the guy who goes, "Hey hey! Put that film back on! Put that film back on right now!"

Q: You seemed to play Sparrow this time around with more ease and more spring in your step.

JOHNNY: Maybe. I don't know. All the things that are happening in the world or your world immediately affect the way you approach the day, so it can't help but seep into your world I guess. It probably made it a little easier that I wasn't getting the panicked, worried phone calls like, "What are you doing? You're ruining the movie!" I didn't get those this time so that may have helped the spring. But I haven't seen the film so I don't know. I'm scared to see it!

Q: Disneyland is revamping the Pirates of the Caribbean ride to include your face now. Is that surreal?

JOHNNY: It's totally surreal, teetering on absurd but a great absurd. I'm honored at the same time. Who'd ever thunk? It's exciting. I don't know quite what to expect. I guess I kind of have to take the ride and see it. I don't know if that kind of thing will ever make sense, at least to me. It might make sense to someone else but not to me.

Q: Was there ever one person when you were younger that led you to believe that you would be a superstar someday?

JOHNNY: There wasn't any one person or anything. When I was about 12 years old is I guess when I really felt like I found my calling. It was when I started to play the guitar. I taught myself how to play the guitar and learned it, and got pretty good and had a good feel for it. That was my life. I dedicated myself then and there to that and felt like, somehow, very deep inside, it felt like I was going to do good with it. Somewhere in my early twenties, (whistles) that spun out. I was put on a different road and I've been walking that road ever since. I don't know. I don't know if I had anything to do with any of it.

Q: You were nominated for an Oscar for the first "Pirates." Was that important for you in that it validated that you could be a talented actor in a blockbuster movie and still gain recognition?

JOHNNY: How important is it to me? I can't lie and say it's not nice for the moment. It is nice to not have to have a director fight tooth and nail to get you into his movie when he did for a number of years, like Tim [ Burton] did. I think I have a relatively sane outlook on it. It wasn't like that for a long, long time. So if it's like this for a bit, that's great. But the chances are pretty good that at same time or another, it will be like it was again, which is O.K. too. Even when the studios didn't want to hire me and I was a box office poison, I was still able to do the things I wanted to do. I still wanted to do all those films that meant so much to me. If I'm a decent flavor this week and next, and in 3 weeks it changes, I know how to do it. I've been there. It's O.K.

Q: After starring in movies like "Pirates" and "Charlie," do you feel that people have the impression that you've "sold out"?

JOHNNY: People can say and think what they want. For me, as good as that experience or that opportunity was, the whole "21 Jump Street" thing, in the long run it was college. That was my college. It was great training, 5 days a week, 9 months out of the year in front of the camera, learning, learning, learning. It was great schooling. But also, they were pushing me into this direction…I really hated the idea of being a product on somebody else's terms. I'm savvy enough to understand that there's a business side to all this but I swore to myself back then that I'll do the things that I need to do. If I fail, I fail. If it works, it works but I'll stick with it. For me, I know that doing "Pirates of the Caribbean" or "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is consistent with everything I've done since "Cry Baby" as far as I'm concerned. There was never a moment where I said this would be a good career move or I could make a slew of cash and escape for a while. I haven't changed any of my process or beliefs. I'm still dedicated to the same thing.

Q: Are you and Tim Burton doing "Sweeney Todd"?

JOHNNY: It's funny because it's something Tim and I talked about the idea years and years ago. We've been speaking about it recently and it's looking very good. Once Tim and I get together and talk about stuff, that sets off a whole domino effect of other people having to do stuff that Tim and I don't know how to do. But it's looking very good. I sure hope it happens because just to go back and work with Tim again, it'd be our sixth movie together. It'd be very exciting.

"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" opens in theaters this Friday.