Johnny Depp Nearly Abandoned Iconic Role Due to Tom Cruise, Michael Jackson

Tara Woods’ docuseries about Tim Burton, which is still untitled, premiered Monday night in New York City at the Tribeca Film Festival. In the series, Burton’s frequent collaborator, Johnny Depp, reveals that Tom Cruise, Michael Jackson, and Tom Hanks almost convinced him to relinquish his star-making role in Edward Scissorhands.

Burton’s classic 1990 gothic comedy starred Depp in the titular role as a Frankenstein-style creation with scissors for hands who is built and summarily abandoned by a mad scientist (Vincent Price). He’s taken in by a kindly Avon representative (Dianne Weist), falls for the woman’s daughter (Winona Ryder), and ignites the ire of the small-minded townspeople.

The role was Depp’s first major cinematic success after being “pigeonholed” in his role as an undercover cop on TV’s 21 Jump Street. Desperate to shirk his teen idol image, Depp admits, “In all honesty, I was probably doing my best for probably the last two years to get fired.”

He knew Edward Scissorhands was right for him as soon as he read the script, which he recalls “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.”

But there was just one problem: some of the industry’s biggest stars were jockeying for the role. In addition to Depp, Michael Jackson, Tom Cruise, and Tom Hanks had all reached out to Burton to express interest in the starring role.

Depp felt Burton was “never going to cast” a “TV actor guy” when “everyone in Hollywood is after the part.” The Pirates of the Caribbean star went on to reveal that Cruise “was not far away from actually playing Edward Scissorhands—true story.”

Feeling himself backed against the wall, Depp called his agent and begged her to cancel the audition. “Tim’s really juggling because he’s getting hit by his agent, the studio, everybody,” Depp recalls. “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?’”

Depp “finally gave in” to reading for the role, and the rest is history.

Edward Scissorhands kicked off Depp's Hollywood career, leading him to iconic character roles in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993) and Donnie Brasco (1997) before he attained international stardom as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003).

He and Burton collaborated on seven further movies, including Alice in Wonderland (2010), Ed Wood (1994), and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007). For the latter role, Depp received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Their last collaboration was 2012’s Dark Shadows, which was a critical and commercial disappointment. 

Depp's career has since stalled in light of domestic abuse allegations leveled against him by his ex-wife Amber Heard. A 2022 trial financially penalized both of them, although largely sided with Depp's claim that Heard had defamed him in an op-ed where she called herself a "public figure representing domestic abuse." 

Woods' yet-to-be-titled Burton docuseries is currently on the hunt for a distributor.