Johnny Depp has revealed that Disney executives hated Captain Jack Sparrow, from the Pirates of the Caribbean film series and openly questioned if the character was gay.

Speaking with Vanity Fair, Depp said that the big wigs at Disney, who he describes as "upper-echelon Disney-ites”, could not stand Jack Sparrow and were unhappy with his acting.

"I believe it was Michael Eisner, the head of Disney at the time, who was quoted as saying, 'He's ruining the movie'.

"Upper-echelon Disney-ites, going, 'What's wrong with him? Is he, you know, like some kind of weird simpleton? Is he drunk? By the way, is he gay?'

"And so I actually told this woman who was the Disney-ite, 'But didn't you know that all my characters are gay?' Which really made her nervous."

While some of Depp’s characters over the years are obviously straight, he has certainly played more than his fair share of high camp characters including Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Willy Wonka, Sweeney Todd, Alice in Wonderland’s Mad Hatter and of course the flamboyant captain of the high seas, Jack Sparrow.