After growing up with the franchise, 27-year-old Australian actor Brenton Thwaites is the latest new cast member joining the Pirates of the Caribbean gang. In Dead Men Tell No Tales, he plays the son of Will and Elizabeth (Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley). So to prepare for the role, he rewatched all four movies.

Johnny Depp as Jack SparrowJohnny Depp as Jack Sparrow

"I remember seeing the first one when I was a teenager," Thwaites says. "And I've been a fan of the franchise ever since, so it's good to be a part of one! I think it's popular because of the freedom. It's a fantasy to just get a boat and sail out into the ocean. Pirates don't have rules."

That said, he was a bit disappointed when he heard that the movie was going to be shot back home in Australia. "When I first heard about the movie," he says, "I thought, 'Wow, we're going shoot in Puerto Rico, somewhere cool, Hawaii. Like where are we going?' But really, shooting back at home in Australia trumps any of those places."

Instead, the most daunting thing was working with a veteran cast including Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem and Geoffrey Rush. "Johnny likes to start getting into character in pre-production," Thwaites says. "I first met him at the table reading, and I remember thinking, 'Wow, he could start shooting now. He looks and feels like Jack Sparrow.' It was cool to see his preparation. He works in a way that really inspires irreverence."

For the action sequences, Thwaites had the same stunt double who worked with him on Gods of Egypt. But he wanted to do as many of his own stunts as the insurance company would allow. "I had a few sword fights, rope swings, a couple days in the ocean, but nothing too dramatic or risky" he admits. "But there were some where I was begging to do the stunt, and they just wouldn't let me because it's too risky. If I hurt myself, it throws the movie out."

Thwaites says he's up for another Pirates adventure, which he hopes will be a father-son romp alongside Bloom. But he's also looking for new kinds of roles to play. "I want to continue to play characters from all over the world," he says. "I'm in a rhythm playing American characters. In this I play British. It'd be nice to come home and play a couple of Australian characters in the near future! But continuing to work all around the world is my goal."

Watch the trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales