Johnny Depp had a difficult time embracing his rising star in Hollywood.
Depp, 61, admitted in an episode of an upcoming, as-yet untitled documentary about his longtime collaborator Tim Burton, that he felt uncomfortable being on display.
In the four-part series, Depp recalled beating out Tom Cruise for the lead role in the ’90s hit “Edward Scissorhands,” which is where his bond with Burton began to flourish.
“I was completely freaked out by [fame],” Depp said, per People magazine. “Paparazzi would take pictures of me.
“People would whisper and point their finger and stuff. I felt like sort of this raw nerve on display.”
“People would whisper and point their finger and stuff. I felt like sort of this raw nerve on display.”
— Johnny Depp
While Depp and Burton have worked together on a number of films since, the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star initially questioned the director’s interest in casting him in “Edward Scissorhands.”
“What I noticed the first time we met was he wasn’t saying very many words,” Depp said. “[Burton] would begin a sentence and I would go ‘Oh yeah,’ and then we would talk about Boris Karloff or something. We related on a lot of levels.”
He added, “After about three-and-a-half hours of a really great yak with the guy, I still thought, ‘No chance, man. No chance.”
Depp finally realized that the Edward Scissorhands character was loosely based on Burton’s own personality, and he was concerned Burton wasn’t impressed.
“I was cast in the film, but I was stepping into a kind of family that I hadn’t been totally brought into yet,” Depp said. “I was absolutely convinced that I was blowing it. Tim had rehearsed everyone else in the cast. Everyone. Not me. He didn’t rehearse me. He was excluding me from the cast and crew, isolating me.”
He finally realized Burton intentionally kept Depp isolated from the cast so that he could understand Edward’s isolated character.
“It was scary. I was uber paranoid,” Depp said. “Why is [Burton] not rehearsing me? Maybe he trusts me. No he doesn’t. He doesn’t trust you, what are you nuts? He’s going to cast someone else, man.”
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