In 1984, a very young Johnny Depp took his first steps as an actor in a classic of horror cinema, “The Claws of the Night”, Freddy Krueger's first nightmare. A look back at exciting beginnings.
Did you know that Johnny Depp made his film debut in a great horror classic? The American, who was barely 20 at the time, played a supporting role in the first part of a nine-film cult saga.
In 1984, Johnny Depp was unknown and far from the international star he would become, especially with his role as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, a saga from which he believed he was fired after filming the first part would be. No, the young American was an anonymous person in the mid-80s who didn't even want to become an actor. He wants to be a musician.
The story is funny: it is Nicolas Cage, with whom Johnny Depp is friends, who will put his foot in the actor's stirrup. “We were good friends and when he won a game of Monopoly, I looked at him and said, 'Why don't you try acting?'” Cage told The New York Times in 2019. “He wanted to get into music. At the time he said, 'No, I can't play.'”
Nicolas Cage insisted and arranged a meeting between his agent and Johnny Depp, which led to an audition for the horror film Nightcrawler, starring the fearsome Freddy Krueger. The actor gets an important role not only because of the successful casting, but also because, according to director Wes Craven, his daughter and a friend of the latter would have been particularly seduced by a photo of the young man.
One of the many victims of the terrible Freddy…
In Freddy – Chapter 1: The Claws of the Night, the first part of the Freddy saga, which was released in French cinemas in early 1985, Johnny Depp plays Glen Lantz, the boyfriend of the heroine played by Heather Langenkamp. After falling asleep, his character dies in a very bloody scene that you can discover below.
Be careful, this excerpt is particularly violent and should therefore be reserved for an informed audience.
Johnny Depp seems to have taken this first experience as an actor very seriously. “He worked really hard to be Glen,” actress Heather Langenkamp said on the Inside of You podcast. “I can't tell you if he really enjoyed being in the film because he was very committed and serious about what he was doing.”
After Johnny Depp played in “Freddy – Chapter 1: Claws of the Night”, he received one of the main roles in the series “21 Jump Street” in 1987, which brought him great fame. Then comes Cry-Baby and Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands. Everyone knows the rest…
False Connection: The Errors and Mistakes of Freddy, the Claws of the Night