Let me first say that I will be doing the event because I love Sea of Thieves, but, I still think that what the companies involved did is very rotten.
So, Rare announced that they are doing a Pirates of the Caribbean crossover event at E3. I was super hyped about it because of I love Captain Jack Sparrow and I love Sea of Thieves, but, when I voiced a hope that Johnny Depp had voiced the character in the event on a Discord channel I am a part of I was told that he did not. The voice for Captain Jack Sparrow is not he but a voice imitator instead.
I know that right now a lot of people in the media think that Mr. Depp is damaged goods. They don’t listen to both sides of the story, they don’t care that the law suit he lost in the UK wasn’t a criminal trial but a civil suit for libel, and they don’t care that Amber Heard is just as to blame for things that happened in the relationship as he is. There is ample proof that she was toxic as hell to Mr. Depp. The mainstream just wants to believe that all men are bad, toxic, etc. I get that, I don’t agree with it obviously, but I get it. It is also not completely why I am irritated at the moment.
Disney owns the IP for the character Captain Jack Sparrow. However, Johnny Depp’s voice is his own. If they had used tweaked movie quotes for the game I wouldn’t complain because they own those. However, the fact that they hired someone to imitate Johnny Depp’s voice so well that a lot of people couldn’t tell the difference? That is identity theft. If you don’t want him back as Captain Jack Sparrow fine. Reboot the character with a new actor and be done with it. This event would have been the perfect platform to start that process in fact.
Don’t see an issue with them doing this? Think about it like this. Put yourself in Mr. Depp’s shoes.
You get hired as an actor for a part that is completely unique to launch a franchise based on a ride at an amusement park. You are allowed to completely invent the character from body language to speech patterns as long as it fits in with the role they hired you for. You do so well with the character that it turns into a cultural icon and actually leads to one of the people you based part of it on asking to get a cameo in the series.
Then something that happens in your personal life gets blasted all over social media. Something that should have been private because it wasn’t a criminal proceeding nor a civil suit for injuries and emotional damage. Suddenly you are banned from that role because the company is so scared of any negative PR that you are guilty without a trial. Other places then ban you too just because they want to be seen doing something. They are pandering to a small portion of the public and think they will continue to get more money in doing so. Then to add insult to injury they decide to let the other company they are working with hire someone that can speak just like you to fill the role, and then consult your body doubles that you trained in how to act like the character to make sure it will be on point that way as well. Because the companies are working as a team in being shady dicks.
I’ll say it again. Disney may own the character. But, what all these companies conspired to do with it in this event shady. So shady that if I was Johnny Depp I would be ramping up to sue them over it since the new stuff could be considered a violation of likeness rights since they were imitating his voice.
What the hell were they thinking?
Derek's Mindscape 