Actor Johnny Depp says he almost got fired from his 2003 ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ role for how he portrayed his Jack Sparrow character.

‘They wanted to fire me,’ Depp, 52, said at a panel here, reports usmagazine.com.

‘I fully expected to be fired, and I got a call from the upper echelon at Disney who were courageous enough to ask me, ‘What the f--k are you doing?’’

Depp recalled how producers of the now-blockbuster franchise hated how he appeared to slur his words and mumble on-screen, reported IANS.

‘The questions came up, ‘Is (the performance) drunk? Is it gay?’ All I could say was, because they set me up with a great line, I said, ‘Well, don’t you know all my characters are gay?’’ Depp said.

‘I really expected to be fired, but I wasn’t for some reason. They were actually going to put subtitles under my character. They couldn’t understand Captain Jack.’

But Depp went on to play the mischievous pirate in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest’ (2006), ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’ (2007), and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’ (2011).

‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’ hits theatres in 2017.