Brenton Thwaites May Join Pirates of the Caribbean 5—Check Out 5 Facts About the Australian Hottie!

New sequel is set to film in Australia and stars returning actors Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow and Geoffrey Rush as Barbosa, The Hollywood Reporter says

By Corinne Heller Nov 21, 2014 11:41 PMTags
E! Placeholder Image

Say "Ahoy, mate" to a possible new Pirates of the Caribbean hottie!

Australian actor Brenton Thwaites, 25, is in "final negotiations" to play Henry, a British soldier, in the upcoming fifth film in the franchise, which will be filmed in Australia in 2015, The Hollywood Reporter said on Friday. Walt Disney Studios, the series' distributor, has not commented.

The 25-year-old actor would join returning star Johnny Depp, who reprises his role as Jack Sparrow again, and the outlet compares the younger star's character to Will Turner, who Orlando Bloom had played in the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Thwaites has also not commented. The fifth movie is set for release on July 7, 2017.

Thwaites recently starred in the sci-fi movie The Giver, appearing with Jeff Bridges, and played Prince Phillip in Disney's Maleficent, starring Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning. He also appears in Son of a Gun with Ewan McGregor.

Check out five facts about Thwaites below:

1. If You Want to Date Him, You May Need to Decide Now: Crunchy or Creamy: In an on-camera, edited interview with the Australian entertainment outlet TheFIX that was posted in October, Thwaites was asked to name what he looks for in a partner.

"Male or female?" he asked the interviewer.

"Both," she replied.

"Well, they're very different," he said.

He later joked, "Do they have peanut butter in their cupboard?"

2. He's Got a Good Heart...but May Not Be the Best at Surprises: "I tried to be romantic once," Thwaites recalled in an interview with Australian magazine Cleo that was posted in September. "My girlfriend at the time, she lived in Sydney and I lived in Brisbane. I flew to Sydney to surprise her and I knocked on her door and her mum answered. I snuck up to her room while she was coming home from work 'cause I wanted to surprise her."

"I hid under her bed for like an hour and she ended up sitting on her bed," he said. "She was resting after a big day at work. So I started making snake sounds and she was so scared that it became the most unromantic thing I had ever tried to do. She's like 'What's under my bed!?' I was like, ‘it's me, it's me, relax!' It was the worst surprise ever. I mean it was very sweet but pretty stupid at the same time."

3. He's Professionally Trained: Thwaites studied finance and acting at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and graduated in 2010.

4. He's in Good Acting Company: In 2011 and 2012, he played Stu Henderson on the popular Australian daytime soap opera Home and Away, a show that helped launch the Hollywood careers of Ryan Kwanten from True BloodSimon Baker from The Mentalist and The Devil Wears Prada, actress Naomi Watts and People's new Sexiest Man AliveChris Hemsworth. Thwaites landed his role months after graduating college.

"It was such a relaxed, friendly environment," Thwaites told Interview magazine. "Everyone's so kind and supportive. It's a huge show in Australia—Home and Away and Neighbours are the two main soaps. I think they're on five days a week, every night at seven o'clock or something. My sister and my dad were obsessed with Home and Away and Neighbours, so it was a freak when I got this job."

Thwaites told TheFIX his celebrity crush is Watts. She appeared on Home and Away in 1991.

5. He Got Freaked Out by a Jennifer Love Hewitt Movie: "Do I remember the first movie that scared me? Yes, I do," Thwaites told Interview. "I was 12 or 13."

He said a friend made him watch I Know What You Did Last Summer.

"I was looking behind doors for five years after that," he added.

In addition to Depp, Geoffrey Rush is set to reprise his role as the pirate Barbosa in the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, while Oscar winner Javier Bardem is also in "final negotiations" to appear in the new film as well, playing the villain, a ghost pirate, The Hollywood Reporter said. News about Bardem's potential involvement was first reported in October. Both actors have not commented.

Bardem's wife, fellow Academy Award recipient Penélope Cruz, played Sparrow's love interest, Blackbeard's daughter Angelica, in the fourth film, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which was released in 2011.