Corey Feldman is reflecting on his career and one missed opportunity that still stings.
On a recent episode of The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan podcast, Feldman told the host he was originally cast opposite Johnny Depp in the 1993 film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.
“I was actually cast to play Leonardo DiCaprio’s role,” Feldman said.
When Corgan asked if he was pushed out of the film, Feldman said, “Johnny did.”
“He was cast after I was, and apparently whispered into the producers’ ear that he wasn’t fond of me,” Feldman continued. “He said I was a junkie and that he didn’t work with junkies and this is the first time I remember ever telling this story, so, I’m sure I’m going to get hung by this one.”
The Hollywood Reporter reached out to Depp’s rep for comment.
The Goonies actor claims he wasn’t using drugs at the time and was clean. “I had just gotten sober; I just gotten out of rehab. I had turned my life around and, in fact, was trying to help River [Phoenix], who Depp was running with at the time. As we all know River’s last night on earth was at Johnny’s establishment,” he said. “So, as you can imagine, there was a bit of a thorn in the side on that one.”
Phoenix, who co-starred with Feldman in Stand by Me, died in 1993 of a heart attack from a drug overdose, at the Viper Room, a nightclub in Los Angeles which Depp used to co-own.
While the Gilbert Grape role ended up going to DiCaprio and earned him his first Oscar nomination, Feldman noted elsewhere in the conversation that he’s never seen the film because it’s “still a bitter leaf.” He questioned, “Had I not been pushed out and done that role, who knows what would have happened from that point forward?”
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