‘Edward Scissorhands’: Here’s how Tom Cruise lost the role

Johnny Depp shares how he landed the role Edward ScissorhandsWhile Tom Cruise was filming with director Tim Burton.

The 61-year-old actor, who played the lead role in the 1990 film, revealed that he was not the first choice for the role. Tom Cruise “came close to playing Edward Scissorhands — true story,” he said in a new Tim Burton documentary.

In this documentary, Carolyn Thompson, screenwriter of the cult film, recounts how she lost the chance to play Tom Cruise after meeting Tim Burton and asking him a question.

“During the interview with Tim, Edward asked him how he got to the bathroom,” she says. If you start asking these kinds of questions, everything will go wrong. You cannot ask such questions. If you ask such questions, you are disappointed. You miss the metaphor, you miss the point. »

On the other hand, when Johnny Depp saw the script, the actor immediately felt the strength of the role. “It cut everything, everything, everything solid and got to the core of who I am,” he said. The writing was fantastic. The character was fantastic. I think the thing that attracted me emotionally was that Edward was me. This is what I have to do. »

However, Johnny Depp did not attend the first meeting with Tim Burton because he heard that Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and Michael Jackson were also being considered for the role. He admitted that he thought “everyone in Hollywood wouldn’t cast me” and asked his agent to cancel the meeting, to which he replied, “Are you absolutely nuts?” »

“It was weird because you always have this bastard in your head that says, ‘Come on, man. You’re a TV actor.’ Because at that time, it was almost one or the other,” recalled the person who began to make himself known in the TV series. 21 Jump Street.

Johnny Depp eventually landed the role, and the film grossed $86 million at the box office.