This has been consuming Corey Feldman up for a very long time.
The actor, 53, appeared on Billy Corgan’s “The Magnificent Others” podcast this week and claimed he was initially set to star alongside Johnny Depp in 1993’s “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” — however Depp, 61, allegedly sabotaged his alternative.
“I was actually cast to play Leonardo DiCaprio’s role,” Feldman shared. “I never saw the film because I’m still bitter. Bitter leaf in that one. But yes, I was originally cast for that role.”
“Did they push you out?” Corgan, 58, requested.
“Johnny Depp,” Feldman stated. “He was cast after I was, and apparently whispered into the producers’ ear that he wasn’t fond of me.”
Feldman claimed of Depp, “He said that I was a junkie and that he didn’t work with junkies. And this is the first time I’ve ever telling this story, so I’m sure I’m gonna get hung by this one.”
As a younger actor, Feldman handled alcohol and drug abuse. He beforehand stated his dependancy began from being sexually abused in Hollywood. Feldman spent 10 months in rehab for his heroin dependancy.
In “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” the coming-of-age drama directed by Lasse Hallström, Depp performs a grocery retailer clerk who cares for his household, together with his disabled youthful brother Arnie (DiCaprio). The movie additionally stars Juliette Lewis, Mary Steenburgen, John C. Reilly and Darlene Cates.
Feldman stated on the podcast that, regardless of Depp’s alleged claims to producers, he “was sober” when he was up for the position of Arnie.
“I had just gotten sober. I had just turned my life around,” he insisted. “And actually, [I] was attempting to assist River [Phoenix] on the time, who he was working with on the time. As everyone knows, River’s final evening on Earth was at Johnny’s institution.
Phoenix, who struggled with dependancy, overdosed at Depp’s LA nightclub, The Viper Room, on Halloween in 1993. He was 23 years previous.
“So as you can imagine, there was a bit of a thorn in the side on that one,” Feldman continued. “And, had I not been pushed out and done that role, who knows what would have happened from that point forward.”
Feldman famous that “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” scored DiCaprio, 50, his first Oscar nomination in his profession.
“There was a bitter tea there,” Feldman added about allegedly being reduce from the movie, “but that said, you don’t hang on those, you get past ‘em.”
The Put up has reached out to Depp’s rep for remark.
Feldman went on to disclose that he and DiCaprio confronted off for an additional film position not lengthy after “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.”
“Ironically, just a couple years later, I also was up for ‘Titanic’, so there was kind of a double banger with Leo,” he stated to Corgan.
“But that was OK, because that one I wasn’t as close,” he admitted. “I was up for it, I read for it, I know that I was in the contention somewhere.”
Feldman stated he was additionally within the combine to play Samwise Gamgee in “The Lord of the Rings,” however the job in the end went to his “Goonies” costar Sean Astin.
“I was actually up for Sean’s role, and I heard I got pretty close on that as well,” he recalled. “Although I couldn’t have gained the weight, so I’ll give him that. He did a great job aesthetically being able to add that weight. It’s something I cannot physically do.”
