Corey Feldman Has Very ‘90s Beef With Johnny Depp
Corey Feldman, poster child for 1980s teen stardom, has had more than his share of celebrity feuds. Over the decades, he’s publicly griped about Diddy, Michael Jackson, Howard Stern, Charlie Sheen, Barbara Walters, Marilyn Manson, Aaron Carter and even his BFF Corey Haim. Now we can add another name to the Feldman Enemies List: Johnny Depp.
Leonardo DiCaprio received his first Oscar nomination for playing disabled boy Arnie in Who’s Eating Gilbert Grape? in 1993, but Feldman had a role in that movie too, the former teen idol told Billy Corgan on his Magnificent Others podcast. In fact, he claims, he landed the part before either DiCaprio or Depp were hired for the film. “I was actually cast to play Leonardo DiCaprio’s role,” Feldman explained. “I never saw the film because I’m still bitter. Bitter leaf in that one. But yes, I was originally cast for that role.”
That could have been a career changer for the star of License to Drive, and Feldman knows it. “Had I not been pushed out and done that role, who knows what would have happened from that point forward,” he maintained.
Don't Miss
So why DiCaprio and not Feldman? Someone, it seems, pushed Feldman out.
“Johnny Depp,” Feldman confirmed. “He was cast after I was, and apparently whispered into the producers’ ear that he wasn’t fond of me, and thought — he said that I was a junkie and that he didn’t work with junkies. And this is the first time I’ve ever told this story, so I’m sure I’m going to get hung by this one.”
Not surprisingly, Depp didn’t confirm the story despite Entertainment Weekly’s request.
Was calling Feldman a junkie a fair accusation? It depends on your timeline. “I was sober,” Feldman insisted before clarifying, “I had just gotten sober.”
Maybe Depp hadn’t heard the news. “I had just gotten out of rehab,” Feldman clarified. “I had turned my life around, and, in fact, was trying to help River (Phoenix) at the time, who (Depp) was running with at the time, as we all know.”
DiCaprio was stealing roles from Feldman throughout the ‘90s — allegedly. “Ironically, just a couple years later, I also was up for Titanic, so there was kind of a double banger with Leo,” he told Corgan. “But that was okay, because that one I wasn’t as close. I was up for it, I read for it, I know that I was in the contention somewhere.”
Who will be the target of Feldman’s next celebrity beef? Maybe it will be Corgan, based on the awkward exchange at the top of the podcast. After the Smashing Pumpkins frontman said it was nice to see Feldman again, the former kid actor noted that they’d only met once before.
“Not true,” corrected Corgan. “We’ve met probably 10 or 12 times.”
Well, it’s not the first time that a celebrity’s memories of the past didn’t match up with Feldman’s.
