Dirt on Pirates of the Caribbean

Johnny Depp (L) and Orlando Bloom show off their grime and sweat in a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans's Chest. Picture / Reuters

The secret to making a great pirate movie? It must stink.

That was the aim of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest director Gore Verbinski, pictured, although the stink he was aiming for was not a "stinker" of a movie in the box office sense. Verbinski wanted realism so he ordered his pirates, led by Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, to be covered in grime.

"I think it is important you don't fall into the eye-patches and striped shirts and the pirates don't look too clean," Verbinski said. "There wasn't a lot of personal hygiene back then so you can have a lot of fun and be absurd, but you can't quite ever be dirty enough."