Johnny Depp Was 'Completely Freaked Out' by Heartthrob Status as a Young Actor: 'People Would Whisper'

Mar. 15, 2025

Johnny Depp on Dec. 12, 1993.Photo:Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty

Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty

Johnny Deppis looking back on the amount of media attention he received as a young man, in a new documentary about his frequent collaboratorTim Burton.

In the second episode of filmmaker Tara Wood’s four-part untitled documentary series onBeetlejuicedirector Burton, 66, Depp, 61, admitted he felt uncomfortable with his celebrity status, after archival footage of Burton showed the director describing Depp as “very much not” the sex symbol he was portrayed as in the media.

Depp says elsewhere in his interviews for the series that he beat outTom Cruise, among other actors, for thetitle role in 1990’sEdward Scissorhands, and that he saw a quick kinship form with Burton when they first met to discuss the movie.

“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 nd-a-half hours of a really great yak with the guy, I still thought, ‘No chance, man. No chance,’ " he recalled of vying for theEdward Scissorhandsrole.

Johnny Depp circa 1992.Pool ARNAL/GARCIA/PICOT/Gamma-Rapho via Getty

Pool ARNAL/GARCIA/PICOT/Gamma-Rapho via Getty

Edward Scissorhandsultimately proved a hit for Burton and Depp, and the pair went on to collaborate on movies like 1994’sEd Wood, 2005’sCharlie and the Chocolate Factory, 2007’sSweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Streetand more.

While discussing his performance as Edward Scissorhands, Depp said he realized after a certain point that the character was based on Burton’s own personality — and worried that he was acting poorly.

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“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.”

While Depp eventually realized Burton intentionally separated him from the movie’s cast during rehearsals to help him understand the loneliness his character experiences, he remembers his initial reaction to working on the movie as a frightening experience.

Johnny Depp and Tim Burton on May 9, 2012.Dave M. Benett/Getty

Dave M. Benett/Getty

“It was scary. I was uber paranoid,” Depp recalled. “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.”

Filmmaker Wood’s documentary on Burton, which is seeking distribution, premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Festival; the series also features interviews with Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Helena Bonham Carter, Danny Elfman and more.

source: people.com