The studio initially chose Tom Cruise to play Edward Scissorhands, but he misunderstood the delicacy of the subject and the essence of the tragic story

Since his debut as an actor back in 1984 with A Nightmare on Elm Street, Johnny Depp has come a long way to become one of the most reputed and truly successful celebrities in the entertainment industry. Although he is now regarded as one of the highest-paid actors of all time, that wasn’t always the case, especially when he was in his late 20s.
Johnny Depp

However, everything changed as soon as he bagged the role of Edward in Tim Burton’s 1990 masterpiece Edward Scissorhands, for which he got paid $14,889 for every word he spoke in the film. Not only this, but that was also the time when Johnny Depp beat Tom Cruise to bag the role at the age of 27!

Johnny Depp Earned A Whopping $14,889 Per Word For Edwards Scissorhands (1990)

Johnny Depp in a still from Edward Scissorhands (1990)
While Johnny Depp is used to huge paydays like the $90 million per piece he earned for his five films from the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series now that he has become incredibly famous, his starting paychecks weren’t that great–especially when he was a 27-year-old struggling actor.

But then came Tim Burton‘s Edward Scissorhands on his hands. In this, he played a humanoid named Edward, who had giant scissor blades for his hands. After his creator disowns him, he gets adopted by a suburban family, from where he starts to experience human emotions like love and care for other human beings all the while struggling to come to terms with his own true condition.

For this film, which is regarded as one of the greatest movies under the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory star’s belt, Depp earned a whopping $14,889 for every word that he spoke on-screen, totaling which results in a stunning $3 million payday for the incredible actor.

Although this is an absolutely blown-out figure as compared to Johnny Depp‘s other following works and their paychecks, like his $66,606 per word for Burton’s Alice in Wonderland which resulted in a total earnings of around $44 million, that figure still ranks as a huge one for someone who had barely been in the industry.

Johnny Depp Beat Tom Cruise To Bag Edward Scissorhands

Johnny Depp with Tom Cruise
Though Johnny Depp ended up bagging the superhit film later, the studio’s initial choice for playing Edwards in Edward Scissorhands was Tom Cruise. Even though this went against the filmmaker’s wishes, who wanted The Tourist actor right from the beginning, Tim Burton still went ahead to discuss with the Mission: Impossible actor the prospect of the film.

That’s where everything went wrong. During that meeting, Cruise asked some really incessant questions regarding the logistics of the story, like how Edward must eat his food if his hands are made of giant scissor blades, which was completely unrelated to the plot of the film.

If that wasn’t enough, the Top Gun actor further wanted the director to change the melancholic ending of the story to a happier one. That was a big turnoff for Burton since he felt that Tom Cruise fundamentally misunderstood the delicacy of the subject and the essence of the tragic story of Edward Scissorhands.

In comparison, Tim Burton felt that Johnny Depp, on the other hand, would do a better job in developing the character through his sensibility of Edward and the similar sense of humor that he shared with him. Thus, the Jeane du Barry actor was brought in, and Edward Scissorhands ended up becoming an impeccable masterpiece loved by fans worldwide.