has revealed which A-listers he beat out for his big screen breakout role in ‘s . During an in Tara Wood’s still-untitled Burton docuseries, which premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on Monday, the actor looked back at the 1990 film that ignited a years-long screen collaboration between Depp and the filmmaker. Depp recalled some of the biggest Hollywood names at the time, including Tom Hanks, Michael Jackson and Tom Cruise, wanting to play the movie’s scissor-handed hero.
He even said the latter “was not far away from actually playing Edward Scissorhands — true story.” The actor said when he first read the script from Burton and screenwriter Caroline Thompson, it “passed through everything, anything, solid and went to the very core of whatever I am. The writing was beautiful.
The character was beautiful. What I suppose [attracted] me emotionally was that Edward was me. It’s exactly what I should be doing.
” However, Depp admitted he felt like he was becoming “pigeonholed” as a teen star at the time with his role in from 1987 to 1990. And he saw John Waters’ 1990 film as “the first solid step in the direction” for him. “In all honesty, I was probably doing my best for probably the last two years to get fired,” he said of .
“I knew how important the choice to make with John Waters was, which gave me the opportunity to make fun of this arena I’d been placed in.” As Depp continued to move in the direction he had dreamt.
