Corey Feldman says he was originally cast in the role that Leonardo DiCaprio played in the 1993 film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, but was fired after Johnny Depp told a producer that he didn’t want to work with a “junkie.”
As a guest on the latest episode of Billy Corgan’s new podcast The Magnificent Others, Feldman told the Smashing Pumpkins frontman that he landed the role of Arnie Grape before Depp was cast as older brother Gilbert Grape.
“I never saw the film because I’m still bitter,” Feldman told Corgan. “Bitter leaf in that one. But yes, I was originally cast for that role.”
The actor-singer continued, “Johnny Depp … was cast after I was, and apparently whispered into the producer’s ear that he wasn’t fond of me. He said I was a junkie and that he didn’t work with junkies. This is the first time I’m ever telling this story, so I’m sure I’m gonna get hung by this one.”
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Feldman, who did battle drug addiction in his teen years, insisted he was clean and sober when he got the role. “I had just gotten out of rehab,” he recalled. “I had turned my life around. In fact, was trying to help [late actor] River [Phoenix] at the time, who [Depp] was running with at the time, as we all know.”
He surmised that losing the part changed his career trajectory. “As you can imagine, there was a bit of a thorn in the side on that one,” Feldman added. “And, had I not been pushed out and done that role, who knows what would have happened from that point forward … There was a bitter tea there, but that said, you don’t hang on those, you get past ‘em.”
DiCaprio received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the role, and went on to become one of Hollywood’s leading actors. It apparently wasn’t the only role that DiCaprio and Feldman were both up for, as the latter also told Corgan that he auditioned for Titanic.
“Ironically, just a couple years later, I also was up for Titanic,” Feldman remembered. “So there was kind of a double banger with Leo. But that was OK, 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.”
Another high-profile role Feldman says he lost out on was that of Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings franchise. That role went to Feldman’s Goonies co-star Sean Astin.
“I couldn’t have gained the weight [for the role],” Feldman conceded about losing out to Astin. “So, I’ll give him that. He did a great job aesthetically. Because to add that weight, it’s something I cannot physically do.”
Watch Corey Feldman’s appearance on Billy Corgan’s The Magnificent Others podcast below. The conversation about What’s Eating Gilbert Grape starts around the 10-minute mark.
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