Johnny Depp is undoubtedly one of Hollywood’s most transformative actors who is not afraid to experiment with his roles. The actor has played some of the wildest, unique, and wacky characters that audiences loved, cementing his status as a bankable movie star. His collaborations with director Tim Burton have resulted in some of the finest works of his career.
One of Depp’s best films is his first collaboration with Burton in 1990’s Edward Scissorhands. The film and Depp’s titular role made him a household name. However, he wasn’t the first choice for the role as many A-list stars were considered for it initially. Depp, being from the TV world, never thought he would get the part and almost didn’t go for a meeting with Burton.
Johnny Depp’s Edward Scissorhands Role Almost Went To Tom Cruise and Michael Jackson
Johnny Depp played the titular role in Tim Burton’s 1990 gothic fantasy film Edward Scissorhands. The character is an artificial humanoid with ‘scissor hands’ who is taken in by a family and chronicles him adjusting to human life. The role would become his breakout performance and remains one of his most celebrated characters.
Surprisingly, it seems that he was not the first choice for the role, as he revealed in a new interview in Tara Wood’s still-untitled documentary. The actor stated that A-list stars like Tom Hanks and Michael Jackson expressed their desire to play the role to Burton. Tom Cruise came the closest to almost playing the role, as told by Depp.
Depp felt pigeonholed into the teen idol image as he starred in the 21 Jump Street series and was trying hard to shake it off. He immediately fell in love with the script of Edward Scissorhands and felt that the role was “exactly what I should be doing”. But, he was not a big star at the time, and with the overall perception of him as a teen star, he never believed that he would be selected for the role.
Burton was also dealing with his own struggles with the film as the studio was pushing him to fast-track its production. Seeing all that, Depp called his agent to cancel his meeting with the director, doubling down on his belief that no one would hire a TV actor to play the role. Depp said (via People),
Tim’s really juggling because he’s getting hit by his agent, the studio, everybody. So I called my agent after reading the script and said, ‘Please cancel the meeting, I’m not going.’ She said, ‘Are you f—ing nuts?’ It was weird because there’s always that bastard in your skull that goes ‘Come on, man. You’re a TV actor guy.’
The actor eventually convinced himself to meet Burton and the rest is history. Edward Scissorhands would become a big hit, grossing $86 million against a $20 million budget (via Box Office Mojo). Burton and Depp would go on to collaborate in six other films namely Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Alice in Wonderland.
Tom Cruise’s Intricate Curiosity and Questions Ultimately Cost Him Edward Scissorhands Role
Johnny Depp played Edward Scissorhands to a T, showing his naivety and innocence while also slowly revealing his fun side in Tim Burton’s 1990 classic. However, Top Gun star Tom Cruise came very close to playing the role. In an interview with Dazed, the film’s writer Caroline Thompson revealed how the actor’s curiosity unfortunately lost him the role.
Thomson stated that Cruise’s doubts were very minute and meticulous, to the point of asking how the character would go to the bathroom. Part of the intrigue of the story was not knowing everything about him but Cruise wanted to know everything. In the end, things did not materialize and Cruise exited from the role. Thompson said,
(Cruise) wanted to know how Edward went to the bathroom. He was asking the kind of questions about the character that can’t be asked for this character!
Part of the delicacy of the story was not answering questions like, ‘How does he go to the bathroom? How did he live without eating all those years?’ Tom Cruise was certainly unwilling to be in the movie without those questions being answered.
In addition to Depp, Edward Scissorhands also starred Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall, Kathy Baker, Vincent Price, and Alan Arkin. Ryder returned as her character from the film in a 2021 Edward Scissorhands-themed Superbowl ad with Timothée Chalamet as her son, Edgar Scissorhands.
Fans can watch Edward Scissorhands on Disney+.
