In the year 2001, he was the protagonist in “Blow” where he played the role of George Jung, an ex-convict and former US drug trafficker who was part of the Medellin Cartel. In that same year, he played the inspector Frederick George Abberline the movie “From Hell.” Sometime later, he starred in the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” released in 2003, where he played the role of pirate Jack Sparrow, who became one of his most popular characters.