Captain Jack Sparrow in Tunisia

As any actor or performer will tell you, both the curse and the joy of the way of life is never really knowing what's around the corner.    It makes planning life very difficult, but sometimes amazing opportunities come up and you can find yourself half way across the world.

The case in hand being last week.    I'd just had a booking cancelled due to "change in management", leaving me with a very rare free weekend.    I'd barely had time to accept birthday invitations and the like, when a message pops up in French on my facebook page.    After dusting my linguistic cobwebs and with a little help from the webs assortment of translation services it appeared to be an offer to go to Tunisia for 5 days to do some filming for Tunisian TV.

A few hasty emails later, and some hastily arranged travel plans and I heading off into the unknown.   I have a history of less than straight forward airport rendez-vous' as Captain Jack due to unforeseen circumstances and this time was no different.    In various places in Tunisia, including my destination, the capital Tunis, there is a curfew in effect.    As a result of the my flight's departure was brought forward by an hour, with no prior notification.   Fortunately I was at the airport in plenty of time so a mild panic was the only result.   However, as a result of the arrival time still being close to the curfew cut off point, midway through the baggage pick up point in Tunis, the staff just stopped and left.    An hour or so later we managed to locate someone who could go and retrieve our luggage.    In the mean time I was having to try to explain (rather unsuccessfully) the situation to my contact, in my broken French as he spoke even less English than I spoke French.

My bag was obviously the last out, and further complications arose at customs where the paperwork I'd be given for my sword wasn't enough to convince customs to let it through.    With reluctance I waved goodbye to my sword in return for some dubious looking piece of paper.   However, I had made it, and thankfully everything else went smoothly enough.    The moral of the story being that in French lessons they should focus more on airports than train stations.

Following a night in Tunis, it was an early start to head off to Hammamat, a coastal town and beach resort further down the Tunisian coast, towards Libya, and the location of the shoot.   There are various piratey looking boats in the harbour that are used for tourist excursions.   One of them had been hired for a couple of days for the purposes of the filming.    After a quick hop on board to meet the director and the rest of the crew it was over to the hotel to check in and get into costume and makeup.   The one downside with having your own hotel room doubling as your dressing room is that once I was ready in order to get back to reception where I was being picked up I had to walk past a crowded swimming pool.   20 minutes later...

Fortunately the seas were calm, and whilst I was sweltering away in full costume in the high temperatures waiting for my next shot, I could at least console myself that for a couple of days my "office view" was considerably better than most.

After a quick rewrite of the script to get round the lack of sword issue, my scenes went smoothly enough and it was quite fun having to do my own stunts on the whole.    

The lack of health and safety could be called refreshing, although I did draw the line at jumping off the boat onto a wafer thin van roof, and I also vetoed the getting my costume wet isn't a great idea as, unlike Disney, I don't have stunt water costume, and also it would limit it to one take!    The following day a compromise was reached and I got to jump onto a bouncy castle instead.

Luck clearly went my way the following day as my scenes were all scheduled for the afternoon.    The morning had seen choppy waters and I think just about every on board had been sick - the director, from Belgium, got the record - 7 times.   

With some of the cast and crew

The final day's shoot was just me, and an empty beach (well it did start at 5am!).    I was greeted by the site of my vessel for the day, with the sun rising on the horizon - quite a picturesque scene really...

The minor drawback with the whole plan is that the boat had a leak.    In order to get round this a raft of rubber rings was constructed and the boat placed on top.    I then got onto the boat, and was pushed out to beyond where the waves were breaking, without me getting too wet.    The boat was eventually manoeuvred into position.    Clearly the sea didn't quite agree with that, and a huge wave arrived, lifting my boat off it's raft and sending me quickly back to shore, slowly sinking as I went.    In a scene rather reminiscent of Jack's appearance in Curse of the Black Pearl, I arrived back at shore with very little of the boat remaining above water as I stepped off onto the beach.   Still film crews are a resourceful lot so there was a Plan 'C'.

Plan 'C'

All in all it was an enjoyable shoot, even with the inevitable hanging around that goes with filming anything.    I was fortunate enough that I'd been booked an extra couple of days to enjoy at an all inclusive resort, and despite the paucity of the rum in the rum cocktails (my calculations made it 10 hotel measure to 1 pirate measure) I managed to get enough time by the pool to mean that at least for the next week or so I shouldn't need to spent quite so long in makeup

It's a hard life sometimes

My last day was spent seeing a few of the sights around Tunis, by a local, who was part of the production team - it's really much more interesting to see the Tunis the locals see rather than the specific tourist places.   

The home trip was rather less eventful than the way out, and I am pleased to say I was safely reunited with my sword, after jumping through a sufficient number of hoops.

à bientôt

As they say in Tunisia.   And France.   And probably a few other places.

Working on Pirates of the Caribbean

As many of you probably know by now, I was lucky enough to be chosen to be a photo double for Johnny Depp on Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

Captain Jack searches for the fountain of youth in On Stranger Tides

As I've signed plenty of paperwork limiting what I can say about the experience, but I'll touch on what the general experience is like for those of you who are unfamiliar with the glamourous and glitzy world of Hollywood.

First off, what is a photo double?    It can be confusing working out who does what on films.   A leading actor or actress may have all sorts of stand ins and doubles.    First off there is a stand in, who is used to set up the shot - to quote from wikipedia

"Stand-ins allow the director of photography to light the set, the camera department to light and focus scenes. The director will often ask stand-ins to deliver the scene dialogue ("lines") and walk through ("blocking") the scenes to be filmed."

After that comes the stunt and photo doubles - stunt doubles.    They are used and will be seen in the final edit of the film.   Stunt doubles are usually hired with a specific skill set required to perform dangerous stunts, and sometimes they themselves have their own standins - a double double if you will.   Last and by no means least is where I came in, as a photo double - they are generally used in shots where the actors face isn't prominent.   Maybe the back of his head whilst talking to another actor, a close up shots of his hands doing something, or a long distance shot.    Obviously whatever part of the actor is supposed to be on screen they need to match as much as possible.    Johnny Depp, for example has small hands and isn't that tall (just under 5'10").   Luckily I'm fairly similar physically from my hands to my height so I did a variety of things.

Anyway, that's the technicalities over with... what about all that glitz and glamour?   "Pirates was filmed in Hawaii wasn't it?  Did you get to go?"   As much as I'd have loved that, the extent to most of my excitement was confined to a muddy field just off the M25 near Heathrow Airport (for those of you unfamiliar with it, the M25 is the main orbital road around London).    OK so that muddy field was next to the huge 007 stage at the world famous Pinewood Studios, but it was still a muddy field full of caravans and tents!    As most people who have worked on films will tell you, whilst you might get to rub shoulders with the famous over lunch, the nitty gritty of the realities of making a film isn't all that exciting - most of my time was spent waiting around, or doing the same thing over and over again.

However, it's not an experience I'd change for the world - I got to meet my number one imposter afterall!  I'm sure Johnny Depp feels the same way about his experience meeting me too... 

Savvy Road

It’s normally tourists who flock to the Beatles’ legendary Abbey Road, but to celebrate Johnny Depp teaming up with Paul McCartney to appear in his latest music video ‘My Valentine’, a group of UK Captain Jack Sparrows undertook the ultimate homage to their heroes, by placing the pirate on the famous crossing.

Fans of both the Beatles and Pirates of the Caribbean will not fail to pick up on the connections and hidden references in this iconic image.

For the brainchild of the idea, Cristian Cornejo (seen in Lennon’s role on the far right of the picture) the project took on a life of its own when he first suggested it to a handful of friends. The plan was hatched to turn up at first light on a Sunday, ahead of the traffic and hordes.

Travelling in from across the UK, the first up was Graham Stevens at 3.30am which gave him just enough time to apply the complex makeup required for Cannibal King Jack, involving a set of eight painted eyes on his face. Seen on the left of the picture (in George Harrison’s role) wearing the unique crown and carrying his feather sceptre.

In front of Graham is Ryan Jenkyns, (Paul McCartney) a dedicated and talented costume and prop maker, whose other roles range from Superman to Kermit the Frog. His bare footed Jack will be familiar to fans of the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, and the keen eye will notice the cheeky switch from McCartney’s cigarette to a more apt bottle of rum.

Regarded by most as the UK’s finest professional Captain Jack impersonator, Simon Newton (Ringo Starr) is carrying the chalices from Jack’s last outing in the 2011 blockbuster, On Stranger Tides, a film that both he, and Cornejo both appeared in as a photo double and stand in to Johnny Depp respectively.

Cristian Cornejo (Lennon) leads the four Captains. As an avid collector of the Pirates franchise memorabilia, one can only guess at how much of his costume was used on set.  His fiancé Anna Miller provided the infamous shapely leg, out of focus, on the album’s back cover artwork, depicting the original Abbey Road tiled street  ign. The wall, long since demolished, recently threw up four tiled letters A, B, E, Y. which sold for a staggering £7000 on Channel 4’s “Four Rooms” antique treasure gameshow.

A keen eye may have spotted “The fifth Beatle” (Pete Best) in the shape of “Nutty” Nik Lawson, the proud owner and builder of The Black Pearl, his beautifully crafted and exquisitely airbrushed homage to the Pirates of the Caribbean legend. His custom Chevy van, based on a 1975 shorty panel van, found in Arizona in 2009 has undergone a total rebuild, including a well appointed pirate ship interior including steering by a wooden ships wheel.

Behind the camera, and perched on the second rung of a step ladder, was Mary Ann Russon who clung to her crows nest whilst the wakening London traffic hurtled past.


The day was blessed with almost unbroken sunshine, and the result, you must agree, is a triumph. In the words of side one, track one, things really did “Come Together”.

A sneaky behind the scenes look of what went into getting the right shot can be seen here

A Day in the Life of a Lookalike

Like most entertainers, life is never entirely predictable, and so one day is never quite like another.    I once spent Friday filming with Johnny Depp as his photo double in Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides, before flying out to the Netherlands to entertain some fitness instructors with a Terminator lookalike for the weekend and then jetting off to India on the Monday to perform at a wedding! 

Jack Sparrow Impersonator Simon Newton

Not being your typical 9-5 job has up and down sides to it - organising a social life and holidays is near impossible as you never know what your diary will look like until sometimes a few days before.   Most of my friends, fortunately, have got used to this now, and are quite used to me turning up late to things still dressed as a pirate.   On the upside, as evenings and weekends are my busiest times, I quite often get daytimes free. This gives me time to work on improving the costume, and catch up on paperwork.    Whilst I'm represented by all the top lookalike agencies in the UK, more and more work nowadays comes directly from my website, which means I have to sort out contracts myself.

A typical working day will usually start the day before.   I will give the client a call to confirm there have been no last minute changes to the schedule and just to confirm timings, and then before bed I'll draw up a timetable for the day ahead - working out what time I need to be at the venue and then working backwards to allow myself enough time to travel there, and get ready.   As was probably the case with 18th century pirates, there is a lot more time spent getting to where you need to be than there is actual swashbuckling adventure and action!

If I'm working at a smaller venue, where changing facilities are limited I'll get ready before I leave.    Makeup and wardrobe usually takes me just under an hour, and the journey there usually gets me a few strange looks when stopped at traffic lights.

The hardest and most stressful part of the job, if you can call it that, is getting to the venue at the right time.   If you have a 4 hour drive it's almost impossible to plan for traffic jams and road closures, so invariably I'll arrive much earlier than I need to as being late is not an option.    Taking the train brings its own set of problems - I once spent an hour getting out of a train station in London after being mobbed by people wanting a picture with me.

Once at the venue, it's the matter of rendezvousing with the event organiser, and getting the final briefing.   I'll usually have a bit of time to relax before getting underway.    This is the one time I usually get to be relatively normal and get to socialise as me (and not as Captain Jack) with any fellow entertainers.    Quite often for themed corporate parties I'll be booked with other Hollywood, or Pirates of the Caribbean lookalikes, so there are a few familiar faces that I've worked with over the years.   I'll also try and use this time to give an update to my facebook (/JackSparrowLookalike) and twitter (@JackLookalike) followers - Captain Jack can't be seen using a phone after all...

Most bookings I do primarily involve mixing and mingling with people in character, and posing for photos, whether with guests, or for publicity.   One of the things I quickly discovered when I first started is that if you're too adventurous with facial expressions, by the end of the day after hundreds of pictures you won't know what expression you're pulling anymore.

Interacting with people is the most enjoyable part of the role.    I'm fortunate that the character I play has a broad appeal across most ages and sexes, and it allows me to have a lot of fun with people.   Whilst I have a very rough script that I work from, as most people usually throw similar questions at me, you always have to be prepared to think fast and improvise.   The answers I'll give at children's parties might err on the side of courageous(ish) pirate whereas a hen party calls for a bit more roguish flirtation!

After the appearance is done, it's a quick change and back on the road either for home or the next booking.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life for me.