There are stars in the industry, then comes superstars that leave their mark on the industry for times to come, and then there is Tom Cruise. Widely considered to be one of the biggest stars that the industry has ever seen in history, his influence and reputation are something that only a few others can come close to rival.
Therefore, when he wants to do a project, other actors who are being considered for the role often do not keep their hopes up for very long. This was what happened with Johnny Depp when he was being considered for Edward Scissorhands alongside the star. Although, by a sudden twist of fate, he was the one who got the role at the end.
Johnny Depp Lost The Hope Of Getting Edward Scissorhands Against Tom Cruise
If you are not familiar with just how many projects from all the different genres of filmmaking that Hollywood icon Tom Cruise has been a part of, then your research might take a good long while. With such an illustrious career as well as a track record of churning out critical and commercial hits consistently, any production would love to have the star on board.
This was the understanding of Johnny Depp as well when he was also vying for the role of the titular protagonist in Tim Burton’s 1990 classic Edward Scissorhands.
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But in an unexpected turn of events, the man who was selected to play the lead in the aforementioned film at the end was the Pirates of The Caribbean star. Talking about the film with Far Out Magazine, Depp said that when he read the script for the first time, he was dead set to play the character in the film.
Unfortunately, he was up against the Top Gun: Maverick star for the role, which killed his hopes of being selected, considering the star power that Cruise commanded. He said:
“I couldn’t believe it, the script was one of the top five things I ever read—any story, novel, anything—but I thought I had no chance. Who wouldn’t want Tom Cruise in their movie? Automatic box-office.”
Therefore, his good luck, mixed in with some complications with Cruise during the casting process equated to him becoming the face of such a classic film.
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Why Didn’t Tom Cruise Get The Role?
Depp wasn’t the only one who was excited to play the role of the main character in the film, Cruise was reportedly interested in the character as well. But the reason why he didn’t get the role was because he was way too interested to play the character.
With his nature being an inquisitive one, he wanted to know all that he could about the protagonist before he would sign on to play him. This was a problem as he was asking some very uncharacteristic questions about Edward like how did he go to the washroom and similar questions, something that were best shrouded in mystery. Therefore, not getting the answers to those questions meant he couldn’t portray the character in the film.
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Edward Scissorhands, streaming on Max.
