The Truth About Tim Burton And Johnny Depp's Relationship

In the late '80s, Johnny Depp was just another teen heartthrob. Sure, he'd blown up (literally) in Freddy's first "Nightmare on Elm Street" and starred in eccentric auteur John Waters' film "Cry Baby." But mostly, he was known as the good-looking guy on one of Fox's first TV shows, the teen crime drama "21 Jump Street." According to legend, when Depp first read the script for Edward Scissorhands, he wept. But this much is certain: when he met Tim Burton in a coffee shop, they hit it off.

"You don't get that many times in your life where you just connect with somebody and it's really simple ... it's just there," said Burton in an LA Times article. According to that same article, the studios wanted Tom Cruise instead of the relative newcomer, and Burton had to fight to cast Depp.

The film's unique concept — a suburban twist on "Frankenstein" about a man with scissors for hands — would set the tone for both men's oeuvre together. 

Depp would cement his reputation as a different type of movie star, one with decidedly more edge and an embrace of the macabre than many of his contemporaries. Burton would find himself a dependable leading man he could lean on again and again, whose bankability would steadily increase over the next two-and-a-half decades.