If the project piques my interest and scares me a little bit, then it's got me hooked.

There's not a lot of direct back story but you do get to see them playing around each other a lot.

Really Edward Teach, Blackbeard, was actually tall, so he was literally larger than life and so he knew that and actually the more you read about him, you realize that he actually respected and knew about the theatricality and he'd rather take a ship by threatening and having the power of his personality and the threat of the oncoming danger to sway the ship to just acquiesce and just give up their cargo and so none of his crew got hurt and they would just take their bounty and he wouldn't have to kill anybody, but of course he earned that reputation, so he was no saint.

I like bringing little subtle complexities to a character. It's all about the subtext. No one can really describe or fully know another human being, even if they get a hook on them. It's more about instinctively knowing whether you like somebody or not.

The weird thing is, in America, people were saying, "You're not going to get recognized because all you're going to see is basically your forehead and eyes."

History is written by victors and, occasionally, sensationalist journalists. I mean that with the best respect.

It really reminds me of the great movies of the 30's and 40's with huge sets and voluminous fireplaces you could walk around in. Glazed floors. I was expecting a Busby Berkley dance number. Big fanfare and all the girls coming out. I'd have joined in. It's got that scale, you know?