Brian Cox is opening up about his life and career in his new memoir, Putting the Rabbit in the Hat, and an excerpt published in GQ finds the “Succession” star detailing some of the many roles he’s turned down over the years.
One of those was a role in “Pirates of the Caribbean”, with Cox confirming “Iturned my nose up” at the chance to play the Governor, with the part ultimately going to Jonathan Pryce.
“The guy who directed ‘Pirates’ was Gore Verbinski, with whom I made ‘The Ring’, and he’s a lovely chap but I think I blotted my copybook by turning down the Governor,” writes Cox.
“It would have been a money-spinner, but of all the parts in that film it was the most thankless, plus I would have ended up doing it for film after film and missed out on all the other nice things I’ve done,” he continues.
“Another thing with ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ is that it’s very much the ‘Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow’ show, and Depp, personable though I’m sure he is, is so overblown, so overrated,” Cox adds. “I mean, ‘Edward Scissorhands’. Let’s face it, if you come on with hands like that and pale, scarred-face make-up, you don’t have to do anything. And he didn’t. And subsequently, he’s done even less. But people love him. Or they did love him. They don’t love him so much these days, of course.”
In addition, Cox writes that he also passed on “Game of Thrones” after being offered the role of King Robert Baratheon that went to Mark Addy.
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While Cox conceded that the actors cast in “Game of Thrones” eventually “earned an absolute fortune,” when he received his offer “the money was not all that great, shall we say say. Plus I was going to be killed off fairly early on, so I wouldn’t have had any of the benefits of the long-term effects of a successful series where your wages go up with each passing season.”
