How it would have been Edward scissor hands without Johnny Depp? With Tom Hanksmaybe, or Tom Cruiseor even Michael Jackson? According to what Depp himself revealed to director Tara Wood during the filming of a docu-series, still untitled, about the director Tim Burtonwe haven’t gone too far from any of the three scenarios.
Before 1990, the year of release of Edward scissor handsJohnny Depp had become a teen idol thanks to the series 21 Jump Street (1987-1990). This was a label he was attempting to combat, for example starring in Cry Baby, John Waters’ 1990 cult classic. Burton, on the other hand, was establishing himself as an emerging director, after having directed Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) and above all Beetlejuice (1988).
“He’ll never cast me when everyone in Hollywood wants the part,” Depp thought after reading the script Edward Scissorhands written by Caroline Thompson and Burton himself. “I called my agent after reading the script and said, ‘Please cancel the meeting, I’m not going.’ She said, ‘Are you crazy?’”
“It was weird because there’s always that bastard in your brain saying, ‘Come on, man. You’re a TV actor’. Because at the time it was almost a choice, either one or the other.” After an injection of self-esteem, Depp met Burton and got the part, instead of performers or artists who were much more established than him at the time: among others, Tom Hanks, Michael Jackson and Tom Cruise. It was the beginning of a partnership, which continued with several films by the director of Wednesday.
In fact, Depp appears in Ed Wood (1994), Sleepy Hollow (1999), The Chocolate Factory (2005), The Corpse Bride (2005), Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Alice in Wonderland (2010) e Dark Shadows (2012), all directed by Burton.
I watch films and play video games, from a certain point in life I also started writing about them. I am fascinated by the remote corners of the internet, the graphics of the first 3D video games and the images that fall under the not at all defined umbrella of the term aesthetic, with respect to which I carry out a compulsive cataloging activity which has as its point of arrival some Instagram profiles. However, the TV series with the best aesthetics (and the best overall) is The X-Files, which I never ended up not conceiving the thought “there are no more episodes of The X-Files to watch for the rest of my life”. Same thing with Evangelion (the manga).
