pirates of the caribbean - Cannes International Film Festival

and Syrena responds to him differently than to other sailors and pirates, who are at war
with the mermaids.”
Before filming, Bergès-Frisbey set forth on
researching the legend and lore of mermaids.
“From the time of Homer’s ‘The Odyssey,’
everywhere in the world there are myths
about mermaids,” she notes, “seducing with
their charm and then killing sailors. Then
these myths began to change in the 19 th
century when Hans Christian Andersen wrote
‘The Little Mermaid,’ which was a more
romantic view. That’s now become more
common, especially with the Disney animated film of that story, and other films like
‘Splash.’ I think that Syrena is a link between the frightening older stories and the more
romantic recent versions of mermaids.”
During the entire two months of filming in Hawaii, Bergès-Frisbey—in order to retain
the pale complexion that a mermaid must have, living as they do mostly underwater—
was not permitted to have fun in the sun. “I
had to live like a vampire,” laughs Bergès-
Frisbey, “staying indoors during the day and
only able to come out at night!”
The remainder of the huge cast was
assembled from a pool of renowned
international talent which included Great
Britain’s Stephen Graham, who had worked
with Depp on Michael Mann’s “Public
Enemies,” as the scrappy Scrum. “My
character was originally from the Greenwich area of London,” notes Graham, “A true
sailor who’s been out to sea since he was a kid. I kind of think of Scrum as being like the
Artful Dodger of the pirate world, always looking for something to do, always with his
hand in something. He’s always looking for another way to make more money, or go on
another adventure. Scrum is a great, fun
character to play, and after playing a few
psychos lately, it’s great to be able to let all
that go and just really enjoy myself.”
Joining the company were other
distinguished international actors, including
Richard Griffiths, Roger Allam, Greg Ellis and
Damian O’Hare (the latter two repeating
their earlier roles of Groves and Gillette) and
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