Johnny Depp recently revealed that he was nearly fired from the first Pirates Of The Caribbean film because the studio execs were unsure about where he was taking the character of Jack Sparrow.

Depp says word got back to him that his job was in jeopardy because some of the people involved with the film didn’t get his portrayal of Sparrow and wondered if he was gay.

“It trickled back to me somehow that, ‘Goddammit, Johnny Depp’s ruining the film! What is that thing? Is it drunk, is it gay? When they asked if it was gay, I said: ‘Didn’t you know all my characters are gay?’” Johnny Depp said.

Johnny said in 2013 that he likes to delve into every character he plays, and that often means exploring where their sexuality goes.

“I’m very happy to explore all possibilities of a character and really, you know, dive into the role. They couldn’t understand what I was doing. You know? To the point where Disney wanted to — wanted to fire me. They didn’t understand the character. They were actually contemplating subtitling the film,” Depp told Metro.

Johnny Depp went on to star in several installments in the film’s franchise, so it looks like the execs figured out what he was trying to accomplish. These days, he’s garnering Oscar talk for his portrayal of notorious crime lord Whitey Bulger in the film Black Mass, but he says he’s not interested in getting awards.

“I don’t want to win one of those things ever, you know. I don’t want to have to talk. They gave me one of those things, like a nomination, two or three times. A nomination is plenty,” Johnny Depp said at the London Film Festival.

Johnny and his wife Amber Heard made waves earlier this year when they visited Australia and brought their dog along illegally, prompting Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce to threaten the animals with euthanization if they weren’t removed from the country within 48 hours. Heard, who was actually the one to bring the dogs in, faced ten years in prison for the dog smuggling incident.