Bill Nighy did everything he could to bring the “Pirates of the Caribbean” villain to life, including creating a specific Davy Jones accent, but he was initially surprised to learn that playing the character would require motion capture. “Then, when I got there I didn’t realize I wouldn’t have a costume like everybody else,” he told Vanity Fair. “It turned out I had to wear computer pajamas with white baubles all over them and a skull cap with a bauble on the top, and 250 dots painted out on my face and sneakers… with a bauble on top!”
It must have been jarring for Nighy to step into the world of CGI, as he’s a classically trained actor who has starred in a number of iconic and memorable projects over the decades. In addition to his role in the “Pirates” franchise, audiences likely remember the British actor from “Love Actually” and Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s “The Three Flavours Cornetto” trilogy. After his debut as Davy Jones, Nighy continued to double-down on appearing in large-scale, blockbuster fare, lending his talents to pictures like Tom Cruise’s “Valkyrie” and “Pokémon Detective Pikachu.”
In 2010, after he was seemingly done with the “Pirates” franchise, the actor joined “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1” as Ministry of Magic exec Rufus Scrimgeour. Years later, Davy Jones would return to “Pirates of the Caribbean,” and even though Nighy didn’t know he was in the pic (the Jones’ cameo was fully CG-rendered), he expressed interest in returning to the franchise for at least one more installment.
