Lets start with the captain himself, Toby Stephens.

Season two ended with Flint and Vane teaming up to escape hanging.

When we see them again, they are raiding Jamaica and taking no prisoners.

Did you feel a little landlocked at the end of season two?

Toby Stephens:I guess whenever Im on land, I dont stay that way for very long.

Its one of those things where it becomes, as an actor, working on the ships is hard.

Its a tough days work.

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Do you ever get used to the boats?

I never really got used to them.

So for example in season three, theres the storm.

So you have to know what youre talking about when youre trying to fix [the boat].

How do we get out of this situation?

How do we get the sails up?

Youre learning constantly all these new commands so its constantly changing.

Its always a new scenario.

Do you want to drop some nautical lingo on us?

Bring down the topgallants.

All of these things, Im constantly having to learn new ones.

Hes on hand all the time basically to advise them on how to write this stuff.

You couldnt do it.

This is how you could get out of that situation.

and hell translate it for me.

Because Im immature, I always laugh at the poop deck.

[Laughs] Yeah, the poop deck.

That is definitely a term.

Whats great is that opening episode kind of sets everything up for the season.

It sort of articulates where he is.

It wasnt one of those ones that Im kind of geeing everybody up to do something.

Its not where Im commanding them.

Its just very, very contained.

Its almost for himself and I think thats whats cool about that speech.

Theyre slightly unnerved by the speech actually.

Theyre not like, Yeah, lets all sail into this storm!

Theyre all like, Oh, okay, all right.

Is this guy okay in his head?

I think thats what theyre all asking themselves in the end.

Is he going to push them further before it gets any better?

Yeah, yeah, he does.

Hes pushing himself just as much.

Hed just say, Yeah, but this is our only way.

This is the only way that we can do this.

Its that sort of certainty that he has.

How volatile is it the first time you meet Blackbeard?

Its interesting because its like you know its not going to go well.

Their egos are too big to actually manage to.

It doesnt go too well but its not like explosives.

Its much more slow burn, their kind of meeting.

What ends up happening is very good.

How long can this uneasy alliance with Vane last?

The journey that they go on is a really fun one.

They sort of understand each others differences but they find enough common ground to work together.

Thats a kind of cool journey for him to go on.

These guys are a unit.

Theyre going through Jamaica.

Theyve done this many times over in various other parts of the Caribbean.

Hes in a different place.

Hes much more contained.

Hes much more internalized and smoldering.

Theres something that is just angry.

This contained anger all the way through.

Really the story of season three for him is that he has cut himself off.

Its kind of cool because you cant sustain somebody whos like that all the way through.

What have you been gratified to learn about Flint through three seasons?

But then once you reveal it, it suddenly makes sense.

I think its a very brave move.

The journey that he goes on to find that is really great I think.

Does any of season three overlap with the history books?

Woodes Rogers is a historic figure who is sent in to clear up piracy.

He was quite a famous privateer himself.

Hed written a book about his own exploits.

He set out to restore British rule to Nassau, but he did it for commercial reasons.

So hes a historic figure and theyre quite true to that story.

Obviously if you get too bogged down in the history of it, we dont have enough time.

Its just fun to know while were watching which parts are real.

Woodes Rogers is real.

Actually what happens to him in this is actually what happened to him.

Hes in the sh*t and hes trying to dig himself out of it.

Were you ever interested in the sea beforeBlack Sails?

Not really, no.

Its probably the best way to come at it really.

I was never interested in being a pirate, never interested in the sea particularly.

But I think thats good because its not like Im a kid in a toy shop.

Im an actor whos doing a job and I think thats probably the best way to approach this.

The way you talk about it sounds very passionate.

I think Im passionate about it now in that its so much part of this job.

Its so much part of the character.

But I dont think Ill be buying a yacht any time soon.

When youre shooting cannons in the ship battles, theres really no way to fake that, is there?

Those are cannons going off in your face.

Its pretty intense when theyre doing all that stuff.

Its not really the cannons.

They have pressurized air with loads of cork and bits of balsa wood and dust and stuff like that.

Then youve got this explosion and it goes [off] right there.

I mean, because its cork its not going to hurt you but its still really unpleasant.

A lot of the firearms are functioning firearms but obviously we cant blow a cannon off for real.

Do you have any new physical challenges this year?

They always throw something at me.

I dont know what it will be.

The first two episodes of season four are pretty massive.

In three, there are loads.

The storm sequence was one which was grueling.

That was weeks of doing that, piecing it together, because its such an elaborate piece of filmmaking.

But then also theres big set pieces throughout the whole thing.