Studying Time: 3 minutes
The 1993 movie What’s Consuming Gilbert Grape earned Leonardo DiCaprio his first Oscar nomination and introduced the younger star as a significant new expertise.
However Hollywood historical past virtually performed out very in another way, as ’80s icon Corey Feldman was initially solid within the position of Johnny Depp’s developmentally disabled youthful brother, Arnie Grape.
And evidently it was Depp who determined that Feldman wasn’t proper for the half.
At the least that’s the scandalous declare Feldman made throughout a current look on Billy Corgan’s new podcast.
Corey Feldman attends the Premiere of ‘My Truth: The Rape Of Two Coreys’ at Administrators Guild Of America on March 09, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photograph by Jerod Harris/Getty Photos)
(Sure, this story has extra Gen X and millennial nostalgia bait than a Nirvana cowl band performing in a Blockbuster car parking zone.)
Corey Feldman says he was handled unfairly following ‘What’s Consuming Gilbert Grape’ casting
“I was actually cast to play Leonardo DiCaprio’s role,” Feldman defined to Corgan.
“Johnny Depp … was cast after I was and apparently whispered into the producers’ ear that he wasn’t fond of me,” he mentioned.
Based on Feldman, Depp objected to his historical past of drug use. Which is considerably ironic, as Depp’s points with substance abuse have been well-documented through the years.
Johnny Depp attends the “Modì, Three Days on the Wing of Madness” Screening on the Pink Sea Worldwide Movie Competition 2024 on December 12, 2024 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. (Photograph by Tim P. Whitby/Getty Photos for The Pink Sea Worldwide Movie Competition)
“He said I was a junkie and that he didn’t work with junkies,” Feldman claimed, including that “this is the first time I remember ever telling this story, so I’m sure I’m gonna get hung by this one.”
Feldman says the dismissal was made much more painful by the truth that after being uncovered to medicine and alcohol at a really younger age, he was newly sober on the time.
“I was sober. I had just gotten sober,” he insisted. “I had simply gotten out of rehab. I had turned my life round.
“In fact, [I] was trying to help River [Phoenix] at the time,” Feldman added.
Phoenix, who was Feldman’s costar within the beloved 1989 movie Stand By Me, died of a drug overdose in a membership owned by Depp.
The 23-year-old handed in October of 1993, simply months after filming wrapped on What’s Consuming Gilbert Grape.
Feldman says he’s haunted by ideas of what may need been
DiCaprio, after all, went on to change into some of the revered stars in Hollywood historical past.
Would which were Feldman’s destiny if he had been allowed to stay on Gilbert Grape?
Corey Feldman attends the world premiere of Common Photos’ “NOPE” at TCL Chinese language Theatre on July 18, 2022 in Hollywood, California. (Photograph by JC Olivera/Getty Photos)
We’ll by no means know, after all, however Feldman says the reminiscence of being handled unfairly haunts him to today.
“Had I not been pushed out and done that role, who knows what would have happened from the point forward,” he mentioned. “That gave Leonardo his first [Oscar] nomination.”
Feldman says that greater than 30 years later, he nonetheless has not watched What’s Consuming Gilbert Grape.
It’s an unimaginable movie stuffed with superb performances — however in Corey’s case, that is perhaps extra purpose to not watch it.
