“I got it. I just got it too late.”
Edward Scissorhands was released in 1990 and, on the back of Beetlejuice, made a huge star of director Tim Burton. It almost had a different leading man.
The movie propelled Johnny Depp towards a host of leading man roles. The film follows Edward, an unfinished artificial humanoid who wanders into the nearest town and taken in by a suburban family after his creator passes away.
Coming off the success of Beetlejuice, in 1988, many actors were falling over themselves to play the lead role of Edward, who falls in love with the family’s teenage daughter, Kim (played by Winona Ryder). Robert Downey Jr, Tom Hanks, and Jim Carrey were among the actors considered for the part.
Tom Cruise read for the part but, according to screenwriter Caroline Thompson, showed Burton he was not right for Edward with a very specific question. She told Insider:
“In his interview, Tom asked how Edward went to the bathroom. If you start asking those questions, the whole thing falls apart. You can’t ask questions like that. If you ask questions like that, you’re f***ed. You’ve missed the metaphor, you’ve missed the point.”
Gary Oldman has starred in his fair share of quirky movies, indie flicks and box-office smashes, over the years. Not long before he landed a seminal role, in a conspiracy classic, he turned down a part in what would turn out to be a cult smash.
Gary Oldman on Edward Scissorhands
Back in 2016, Gary Oldman spoke about getting approached to play Edward Scissorhands. While the role was not fully offered to him, Oldman was asked to meet with Tim Burton but told the casting director he would pass.
“I read the script,” he told Larry King. “I went, ‘It’s ridiculous. A castle at the end of this road and then an Avon lady comes round selling makeup and this kid’s got scissors hands? This is nuts. I don’t get this at all.’
“Then,” he added, I go and see the movie, and the camera pans over these multi-coloured houses in this very sort of suburban neighbourhood and then you see the sort of Dracula castle on the hill. Literally, two minutes in and I went, ‘Yeah, I get it.’ I just got it too late.”
The film, with Johnny Depp in the starring role, would go on to make $86 million at the box-office, worldwide, and currently sits at an 89% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It would spark a long cinematic relationship between Depp and Burton, as the pair would go on to make six more feature-length movies together, including Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow and Alice in Wonderland.
Oldman may have missed out on that film but, months later, he landed the role of Lee Harvey Oswald in the epic conspiracy film, J.F.K. He followed that up, in 1992, by playing Count Dracula in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The 64-year-old won an Oscar in 2018 for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.
Years ago, in the earlier days of JOE, we sat down with Gary Oldman for an interview when he was promoting the new RoboCop movie. We’d highly recommend a watch for the hilarious ‘**** a giant duck’ mix-up.
Many movie lovers will forever associate Gary Oldman with the action film Leon, and his role as opera-loving D.E.A agent Norman Stansfield in it.
“It’s a comic, for adults,” he said of the 1994 film, which also starred Jean Reno and Natalie Portman. “It’s larger than life.”
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