Lily-Rose Depp recently told Harper’s Bazaar UK that she was left “traumatized” by her father Johnny Depp‘s 1990 fantasy movie “Edward Scissorhands.” The Tim Burton-directed classic stars Johnny as a societal reject who has blades for fingers. But it wasn’t the character’s physical appearance that distressed Lily-Rose as a child.
“I was traumatized by it. Not because I thought he was scary, but because everyone was being so mean to him and I got really upset,” Lily-Rose told the publication, calling out the film’s ending when the suburban townsfolk turn on Edward as being particularly horrifying.
“I remember being petrified by that, which is weird, because I don’t have many memories from when I was that young,” she added. “It’s a difficult childhood memory.”
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Lily-Rose said she’s often been attracted to the characters who are supposed to be the monster, which applies to the vampire at the center of her acclaimed new movie “Nosferatu.” As she explained: “Edward’s the good guy and Nosferatu’s kind of the bad guy, but there’s a part of me that feels a little bit of empathy for Nosferatu. I mean, am I sick for feeling that way?”
“Edward Scissorhands” proved a success for Burton and Johnny Depp in 1990 and was the first of several collaborations between the two artists. The actor revealed in Tara Wood’s documentary on Burton that Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and Michael Jackson were all in contention for the Edward Scissorhands role. Cruise “was not far away from actually playing Edward — true story,” Johnny said. With so many A-listers up for the part, he nearly rejected the chance to audition despite desperately wanting the role.
“Tim is never going to cast me when everyone in Hollywood is after the part,” Johnny remembered thinking. “Tim’s really juggling because he’s getting hit by his agent, the studio, everybody. So I called my agent after reading the script and said, ‘Please cancel the meeting, I’m not going.’ She said, ‘Are you fucking nuts?’”
Johnny was ultimately convinced to go to the audition, and the rest is history. Burton made headlines at the Marrakech International Film Festival last month for saying that he’s certain he will work with Johnny again, although it won’t be an “Edward Scissorhands” sequel.
“There are certain films I don’t want to make a sequel to,” Burton said. “I didn’t want to make a sequel to that because it felt like a one-off thing…Certain things are best left on their own, and that, for me, is one of them.”
Head over to Harper Bazaar’s website to read Lily-Rose Depp’s latest cover story in its entirety.