Was Tom Hanks going to take the place of Johnny Depp in Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands? At the time, Depp surely thought so.

While the celebrity enjoyed working with filmmaker Tim Burton, he always felt insecure, especially on that movie, which was released the first week of December 1990, according to a 1999 interview with Charlie Rose discovered by Heat Vision.

During the conversation, the actor stated that he was certain he would be sacked from the movie since Burton would rehearse with the entire cast except for him. The actor continues by saying that no one knew what he was going to do.

“He didn’t know exactly what I was going to do when I walked on the set, the same thing with Ed Wood. In fact, I spent the first two weeks of Ed Wood and Scissorhands and Sleepy Hallow thinking I was going to be fired, that I was going to be replaced. But luckily Tim was happy with the stuff, and I didn’t lose my job,” Depp explained.

Rose challenged Depp’s sincerity, to which Depp replied, “I swear to you.”

Looking back on the interview, which is now over two decades old, it’s fascinating to see how the actor was at the time. He then went on say:

“I can remember when we were doing Scissorhands we were living in this sort of resort, some kind of country club thing, and there was a knock on the door … one afternoon while everyone was off rehearsing,” Depp said. “There were two young girls at the door and I thought, ‘Oh, they found me and maybe they want me to sign something, I don’t know.’ So, I opened the door and said, ‘How do you do?’ and they said, ‘Hi. Is Tom Hanks here? Does he live here?’ I said, ‘What? No. Not yet.’ And I was convinced that Hanks would be replacing me. I was convinced. It was one of the most frightening moments in my career.”

Even in 1990, Tom Hanks in Edward Scissorhands doesn’t make a lot of sense. Even for Tim Burton, that would have been just too strange. In the end, Johnny Depp and the legendary filmmaker have collaborated on several occasions, leading one to wonder if Depp still harbors such fears while working with Burton.

They worked on films like Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Alice in Wonderland, to name a few.

Currently, Depp appears in the film Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. A musical billed as a satirical homage to Edward Scissorhands is coming to The Rockwell this month in Los Angeles.