Orlando Bloom's Pirates stunt double on deleted scenes and friendship with star

Did you know that there were tons of fight scenes cut from the final Pirates of the Caribbean movies?

And that Keira Knightley has a hidden talent, which only revealed itself when she played the fierce Elizabeth Swan?

As part of our new series, Seeing Double, which looks into the extraordinary lives of some of film and TV’s most fearless performers – stunt doubles – we talk to Zach Hudson, who is best known for doubling for Orlando Bloom in the iconic Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Zach opened up to Metro.co.uk about everything from the scenes that had to be cut from the movie, enjoying dinner dates with close pal Orlando, and the surreal moments involved in sailing the high seas with Captain Jack Sparrow.

Zach's stunt double CV

• Zach has doubled for more than 40 actors, including Orlando, Ewan McGregor, Sean Bean, Justin Timberlake, and Tobey Maguire
• He’s won awards for his spectacular fight scenes in Pirates, Spider-Man, and Indiana Jones
• He’s been described as the best double Orlando’s ever had, due to his physical resemblance and the similarities in their movements
• The Pirates movies took him all over the world, from Los Angeles to Hawaii and the Bahamas and even to London

What were the most memorable stunts he performed on Pirates?

Zach came to the production of Dead Man’s Chest late, and was thrown in at the deep end, learning ‘five or six’ fights straight away – including the iconic wheel fight.

‘The wheel fight, I had not rehearsed or had time on it. I literally had about a week to prep for it,’ Zach explained. ‘Gore Verbinski was the director and it was very much a baptism by fire!’

‘I had to do all the wire work involved on top of the wheel and the whole fight actually won the Taurus award for best fight,’ he continued.

He went on to say: ‘Later we did the whole Kraken attack sequence, which I’ll probably remember on my deathbed!

‘I’m on top of the sail mast about 150-feet up in the air as it’s breaking…I jump with a single safety wire into the sail across the way.

‘It ended up being about a 300, 400-foot drop and jump across. It was the first shot that day, we were docked in this bay…it was one of those very surreal moments.’

He added: ‘I got to do that iconic slide down the sail with the knife…my 10-year-old self was overjoyed!’

What was his relationship with Orlando like?

‘I love him, we became like brothers,’ Zach said. ‘At the time he was dating Kate Bosworth and he invited me over to his house and we were in the Bahamas.

‘He and I had a lot of talks about his upbringing, his life…he’s just like anyone else who has [experienced a lot of] success very early. And he’s worked really hard.’

He added: ‘A lot of people don’t know it but he works really hard on his lines.

‘He was always making sure he knew how those worked within the context of our fights. He also had slight dyslexia so learning the words was hard for him. So he’s trained really hard at that.’

How about Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley?

Recalling his first time meeting Johnny in wardrobe, Zach laughed: ‘In sauntered Captain Jack Sparrow.’

The legendary actor introduced himself, with the stuntman pointing out: ‘That encapsulates the kind of person he is. Johnny is so grateful for the amount of success he’s had but tries to just stay himself.

‘After that, when I trained him for fights, he always greeted me with a smile, a handshake, a hug.’

As for Keira? ‘She was always very eager, and worked really, really hard, but was much better than she realised,’ Zach recalled.

‘Honestly, she was extremely good at sword fighting. We used to tease her about how, if the whole acting thing didn’t work out, she would be a great [sword fighter].’

Were there any injuries on set?

Zach pointed out: ‘On the Pirates movies, our stunt co-ordinator – his approach really helped offset a lot of potentially disastrous situations.’

‘To his credit, throughout the production, we only had the one major injury to Johnny’s double, on Pirates 2. They had the sequence where [Johnny’s stunt double, Tony Angelotti] was all wrapped up and then spun out,’ Zach continued.

‘That was the only serious injury we encountered beyond the usual bumps and bruises.’

According to the LA Times, Tony ‘fractured his pelvis, suffered injuries to his bladder, femoral artery, knees and legs, and suffered internal bleeding.’

The site reports that the stuntman was in intensive care for four days and spent time in a wheelchair before learning to walk again.

Metro.co.uk has contacted Tony for further comment on his injury.

Was anything cut from the final movies?

‘There was a fight between Jack and Will, between Johnny and Orlando, that was supposed to hearken back to their original fight in Pirates 1 where they fought in the blacksmith,’ Zach recalled.

‘It was supposed to be one of those scenes where we see the story arc of Will becoming more like a pirate and they were going to have a moment there where Will actually doesn’t follow the rules of engagement and cheats to beat him.’

Meanwhile, there was one scene that Zach was a bit heartbroken to lose from the final movies, in the third installment.

‘Originally in the script there was a huge fight between Will and Chow Yun-Fat’s character,’ he explained.

‘We choreographed this [fight] that showed the amazing contrast between a very traditional English cutlass style of sword fight and Chinese long sword.

‘Mid-way through the fight, Will adapts to his fighting…he was becoming a pirate. 

‘It was a really elaborate sequence, but it was cut out,’ Zach added, reasoning that the team were afraid of having ‘too many sword fights’.

Despite that, Zach’s incredibly proud of the franchise and his mark on it, saying: ‘I feel very lucky and very honoured to be in this industry.

‘It’s a tough industry and you can go from terrific heights to unbearable lows, and back again. So you just have to ride the ride. And that’s what we did with those movies.’

Want more from Seeing Double?

Seeing Double returns every Wednesday, featuring film and TV's most fearless stunt doubles.

In the meantime, check out the series so far.