I just lately revisited Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands, and got here away utterly understanding why it stays among the finest films of the ‘90. The gothic fairy story helped outline the auteur director’s film profession whereas additionally additional launching Johnny Depp into superstardom. In a latest interview, Oscar winner Gary Oldman addressed the truth that he was on Burton’s quick record for the dialogue-lite function, however that he’d turned it down as a result of he merely “didn’t get” the script.
Talking with The Hollywood Reporter, Oldman admitted that he was given the script within the late ’80s, earlier than Tim Burton was totally established as a tonal visionary. Even when Beetlejuice and Batman had been each already out on the time, these distinct tales nonetheless would not have offered Oldman a blueprint to understanding Edward Scissorhands on the web page. As he tells it:
Effectively, that’s going again a couple of years. It will have been within the late ’80s. I used to be on Tim Burton’s record for the function of Edward Scissorhands. It was a small record. My agent thought I had a extremely good probability of getting it. They stated to me, ‘Learn the script.’ They despatched the script over, and I principally stated, ‘I don’t get it.’
Truthfully? Truthful. It is onerous to think about one thing like Edward Scissorhands from simply phrases on a web page with out listening to Vincent Value’s voice or seeing Winona Ryder in snowglobe mode. There are such a lot of concepts that go into making a film as iconic as this flick, and never having Burton round to color a psychological image would have made it difficult certainly.
Oldman defined that with out Burton’s later filmography to assist contextualize the venture, the idea simply struck him as complicated and even unappealing. The actor continued:
It’s important to keep in mind at this cut-off date you’re not Tim Burton’s entire physique of labor. I learn this quirky, unusual little script, and I didn’t get it. The Avon girl and the child with the scissor arms. It simply didn’t register with me. I stated to the agent, ‘I simply don’t perceive this. It’s not my cup of tea.’
That call meant Oldman by no means really met with Burton to debate the half, which propped the the door open extra for Johnny Depp to tackle what would develop into one among his finest roles.
Regardless of his preliminary disinterest, Oldman wasn’t resistant to the completed movie’s magic finally. He confessed:
So I didn’t meet Tim Burton. Then Scissorhands got here out and I went to the cinema to look at it. With that opening shot — all these brightly coloured homes, after which the digicam pans as much as the castle-like factor on the hill — inside two minutes I went, ‘I get it!’
It’s a traditional “sliding doorways” second in Hollywood historical past the place one actor passes on a task as a result of it appears too odd or dangerous, just for one other to step in and assist flip it right into a cultural phenomenon. It is wild to consider the place each of their careers would have gone, and what Edward Scissorhands merch would appear like with Oldman within the function.
In fact, Oldman’s profession didn’t precisely endure. Whereas he missed out on enjoying Edward, he went on to construct a decades-spanning résumé that features a ton of nice characters. He’s achieved every part from punk legend Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy to Sirius Black in Harry Potter, Commissioner Gordon in The Darkish Knight trilogy (out there to stream with an HBO Max subscription), and Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour — a task that lastly earned him an Oscar.
Oldman frames the Scissorhands episode as one among many moments the place intuition, timing, and perspective formed his path. As THR’s profile highlights, his willingness to pivot away from typecasting and later embrace quieter, extra internalized roles gave him endurance in a enterprise that usually chews up actors recognized for depth alone.
Gary Oldman’s 2025 film slate has been quiet, however his sequence Sluggish Horses returns for its fifth season on September 24, 2025. Obtainable to anybody with an Apple TV+ subscription.