Corey Feldman claimed Wednesday that Johnny Depp sabotaged his chance at filming the 1993 movie What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? While on Billy Corgan’s The Magnificent Others podcast, The Goonies star recalled how he was “originally cast” to play the part of Arnie, a role which ultimately went to Leonardo DiCaprio who earned an Oscar nomination for his performance. According to Feldman, Depp landed the part of Gilbert after he was already cast and allegedly “whispered to the producers’ ear that he wasn’t fond of me.” The actor claims: “He said I was a junkie and that he didn’t work with junkies.” “I never saw the film because I’m still bitter. Bitter leaf in that one,” Feldman told Corgan. The Gremlins star dealt with drug and alcohol abuse early on in his career, having to go to rehab for 10 months for his heroin addiction. But he clarifies to Corgan that when he was cast for the film, he “had just gotten sober,” and was turning his life around. He also remembers trying to help River Phoenix at the time, who later overdosed at Depp’s nightclub in 1993 at only 23-years-old. “Had I not been pushed out and done that role, who knows what would have happened from that point forward,” he said. The actor also remembered how a few years after the incident, “ironically,” he and DiCaprio were up for the same role in The Titanic, “so there was kind of a double banger with Leo.” DiCaprio ultimately snagged the part of Jack, but Feldman didn’t feel much bitterness about that since he wasn’t “as close.”
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