For Depp, Sweeney may pose the biggest challenge yet in a remarkable career predicated on taking chances. Believe it or not, there was a time when portraying a pirate in the key of Keith Richards was considered insanity, at least by some nervous executives at Disney. It’s one thing to do an ironic take on a pirate; it’s another to star in a Tony Award-winning musical having never sung onscreen before.

His part in the 1990 John Waters musical “Cry-Baby” was dubbed over, and though Depp played guitar in rock bands before he ever tried acting, he’s never worked the mic. Burton laughed as he remembered that the actor had nearly done a song in “The Corpse Bride” before jumping into this challenge.