107 Fun Facts About Edward Scissorhands

What do the curious neighbours pressure Peg into hosting so they can meet Edward?

A barbecue. Joyce turns up at Peg's door and asks what time it begins before Peg has invited anyone, so the Boggses have to throw one to introduce their guest.

In Bill's ethics quiz, what would Edward do with a suitcase of money he found?

Give it to his loved ones. Bill is fishing for 'turn it in to the police', but Kim takes Edward's side and says his answer is the nicer thing to do.

Which screenwriter wrote Edward Scissorhands from a story she devised with Tim Burton?

Caroline Thompson and Burton were clients of the same agency, which paired them up; Fox then paid for the script and let the two write it with no studio input.

What is Peg Boggs's job when she discovers Edward?

Peg is a door-to-door Avon saleswoman. After a fruitless day on her rounds she drives up to the mansion on the hill and finds Edward alone in the attic.

Who plays Peg Boggs?

Dianne Wiest was the first actor to sign on, and Burton said that once she had given the script her stamp of approval, others soon got interested.

Who plays the Inventor, Edward's creator?

Vincent Price had narrated Burton's 1982 short Vincent, a tribute to him, and eight years later played Edward's creator. The director's childhood idol became the father of his hero.

Why was Edward left with scissors instead of hands?

The Inventor died before finishing him, collapsing at the very moment he was about to fit Edward with real hands. Edward was left alone in the mansion, unfinished.

Who plays Kim's jealous boyfriend Jim?

Anthony Michael Hall, famous as the geek of John Hughes's teen comedies, was trying to shake off that typecasting and here plays the film's villain.

Who plays Bill Boggs, Kim's father?

Alan Arkin plays Bill Boggs, Kim's father. He admitted the script left him 'a bit baffled', and that nothing made sense to him until he saw the sets.

Who plays Joyce, the neighbour who tries to seduce Edward?

Kathy Baker plays Joyce Monroe, the neighbour who makes a pass at Edward. She saw the part as a good chance to break into comedy.

What is the name of the religious fanatic neighbour who distrusts Edward?

Esmeralda warns the neighbours that Edward has been sent to tempt them and calls him a 'perversion of nature', which only makes Joyce find him more exciting.

How does Edward first repay the neighbourhood's kindness?

By trimming hedges into topiaries, starting in the Boggs' own back yard. His work then moves from plants to pets to people: the neighbours' dogs, then the women's hair.

What business does Joyce offer to help Edward open?

A hair salon, the natural next step once Edward has moved from hedges to dogs to the neighbourhood women's hair. The bank refuses him a loan.

What lie does Joyce tell the neighbourhood women about Edward?

That he tried to rape her. Jilted when Edward fled her advances, Joyce turns the story round, and the neighbours who had queued for his haircuts turn against him.

Why does Jim rope Edward into the break-in?

Jim plans to steal his father's electronics to buy a van, so he has Edward pick the lock of the locked room. A burglar alarm traps Edward inside while the others flee.

Why do the police decide Edward cannot be charged for the break-in?

Isolation left him without any morality, a psychologist tells the police, so the charges are dropped. Edward takes the blame alone and never tells them that Kim and Jim were there.

What does Edward carve in the Boggs' garden at Christmas?

An ice sculpture modelled on Kim, carved for the family's Christmas party. Kim walks out into the garden and twirls in the shavings that fly from his blades.

How does Kim get injured during the ice-carving scene?

Jim startles Edward, who cuts her hand by accident as he turns. Jim calls it an attack and drives him off, and Kim tells Jim she no longer loves him.

What does Kim ask Edward to do when he returns to the house?

Kim asks Edward to hold her. He answers 'I can't', so she steps into his arms and arranges the blades herself so they can embrace.

Whom does Edward push out of the path of a drunk driver?

Kevin, Kim's little brother: Edward pushes him clear of a vehicle driven by Jim's drunk friend, scratching the boy as he does, and onlookers think he is attacking him.

How does Jim die?

Edward stabs him and pushes him from a window of the mansion, but only after Jim has followed Kim there with a gun and fired at him while she tried to stop the attack.

What does Kim tell the neighbours after Jim's death?

Kim tells them that Jim and Edward killed each other, holding up a spare scissor hand from the Inventor's workshop as proof, so Edward is left alone in the mansion.

Who is the elderly woman telling Edward's story to her granddaughter?

Kim, who never saw Edward again after the night the town chased him back up the hill. She stayed away so he would remember her as she was in her youth.

Why does the elderly narrator believe Edward is still alive?

Because it would not be snowing without him. It never snowed in the town before Edward came down from the mansion, so to her every flake since is proof that he is still up there.

What inspired the character of Edward, by Burton's account?

A drawing he made as a teenager in Burbank: a man with long blades for fingers, which Burton said came from how hard he found it to communicate with the people around him.

Which Beetlejuice character had Winona Ryder played for Burton before he cast her as Kim?

Lydia Deetz, the goth teenager of Burton's 1988 comedy. He said he approached Ryder for Kim because the two had worked so well together on that film.

Which later film did the Edward Scissorhands screenwriter also write?

The Nightmare Before Christmas. She took over from an earlier writer when most of the songs were already written, so her script had to be built around them.

What did the Edward Scissorhands screenwriter call the script, written for Burton?

A 'love poem'. She called the script her love poem to Burton, the most articulate person she knew, she said, though she could not repeat one complete sentence of his.

Which studio passed on Edward Scissorhands before 20th Century Fox agreed to finance it?

Warner Bros. had made all three of Burton's earlier features but passed on this one; his own agent admitted the story 'didn't jump off the page as a hit picture'.

Which future Backstreet Boy was an uncredited child extra in Edward Scissorhands?

Nick Carter. Aged ten, he is one of the children playing on a Slip 'N Slide in the background as Edward gets his first look at the suburb.

What form did Burton originally want Edward Scissorhands to take?

A musical. Burton said the story 'seemed big and operatic' to him, but the idea was dropped and the film was made as a straight fantasy drama.

Which two projects did Burton set aside in 1989 to make Edward Scissorhands?

Batman Returns and Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian. The sequels' studio wanted both fast-tracked, but Burton, free to make anything he liked, chose his small personal film first.

Which pet does the film's screenwriter say she drew on for Edward's way of reacting to the world?

A dog. She said hers had a 'preternaturally alert quality' but no way to communicate it, and Depp played Edward 'like a dog that gives unconditional love'.

Which star did Fox insist Burton meet about playing Edward?

Tom Cruise. Fox urged Burton to consider him and the two parted ways after several hours of meetings; Burton later said Cruise 'certainly wasn't my ideal'.

What did Fox's preferred star reportedly ask for when discussing the role of Edward?

A happier ending. The star is reported to have asked for a 'happier' one, and Burton would say only that 'a lot of questions came up' and that things 'worked out for the best'.

Which actor on Burton's shortlist found the Edward Scissorhands script too 'quirky, strange' to pursue?

Gary Oldman. He told his agent the script was 'not my cup of tea' and never met Burton, then watched the opening shot in a cinema and got it 'within two minutes'.

Robert Oliveri, who plays Kim's younger brother, had played Rick Moranis's son in which 1989 hit?

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Oliveri played Nick Szalinski, the boy shrunk by his father's machine, so this was his second film in two years about an inventor's handiwork.

Which musician expressed interest in playing Edward, though Burton never spoke to him?

Michael Jackson was eager to play Edward and lobbied for the part, but he was never offered it and Burton did not return his calls.

Before Edward Scissorhands, which TV police series had made Johnny Depp a teen idol?

21 Jump Street, the Fox series in which Depp played an officer working undercover as a high-school student. Burton had never watched it, and Depp was keen to shed the teen-idol tag.

Whose films did Depp study to learn sympathy without dialogue?

Charlie Chaplin's. Edward has very few lines, so Depp studied the silent comedies, and one critic wrote that he brought 'the eloquence of the silent era' to the part.

Which actress had auditioned for Kim before the part was cast?

Drew Barrymore auditioned for Kim, but Winona Ryder had been the first actor attached to the project, and Burton went with the star he already knew.

Which 1990 sequel did Winona Ryder pull out of, citing illness, shortly before filming Edward Scissorhands?

The Godfather Part III. Ryder reported to the set in Rome and withdrew, so Francis Ford Coppola gave the part of Mary Corleone to his daughter Sofia; she recovered in time to play Kim.

Where was the suburban neighbourhood filmed?

Lutz, Florida: the then-new Carpenter's Run subdivision, north of Tampa. Burton felt his native Burbank had changed too much since his childhood, so this suburb stood in for it.

Which dish does Joyce insist on spoon-feeding Edward at his welcome party?

Ambrosia salad. Joyce announces she is bringing it before Peg has agreed to any party, then tells Edward she made it 'especially for you' and feeds it to him herself.

What did designer Bo Welch shrink on the suburb's houses to make the street look 'more paranoid'?

The windows. Welch said he found 'a kind of generic, plain-wrap suburb' and made it 'even more characterless' by painting the houses in faded pastels and reducing the window sizes.

Where was the facade of the Gothic mansion built?

Just outside Dade City, Florida. Only the castle's facade was built there, as a set of its own, while the pastel houses it looms over on screen were real homes in a subdivision.

Where were the mansion interiors filmed?

A Fox soundstage in Century City. After the Florida shoot the unit moved there to build the mansion's shadowy interiors, and worked through Los Angeles heat that passed 100 degrees.

Why does the bank refuse Edward a business loan?

He has no credit history: no record of jobs, no savings, no social security number. 'You may as well not even exist,' the clerk tells him, whatever the testimonials Peg has brought.

Who created Edward's scissor hands?

Stan Winston. He made the blades in steel and in chrome-look plastic copies, and Depp swapped between pairs from scene to scene.

Which costume designer began her long partnership with Tim Burton on Edward Scissorhands?

Colleen Atwood. Her black leather suit for Edward fitted so closely that Depp spent 45 minutes a day being sewn into it, after two hours in the makeup chair.

How were the giant topiaries made?

Thousands of small plastic plant sprigs.

In a flashback, what does the Inventor teach Edward from a book before switching to poetry?

Etiquette. The Inventor reads out the rules for taking tea in a drawing room, declares them boring and turns to a limerick instead, coaxing his creation to smile.

Where is Edward asked, in front of an audience, whether he has a girlfriend?

On a TV talk show. As Edward leans in to answer he gets an electric shock from the microphone, while Kim watches the broadcast at home and Jim laughs.

Songs by which singer appear in Edward Scissorhands?

Tom Jones. 'It's Not Unusual', 'Delilah' and 'With These Hands' all play in the film, the last a pointed title for a hero who has none.

Which later Burton film reused 'It's Not Unusual'?

Mars Attacks! (1996) brings the song back with the man who made it famous: the singer appears as himself, a Las Vegas headliner caught up in the Martian invasion.

Which two themes did Burton say Edward Scissorhands mainly deals with?

Self-discovery and isolation. Burton called it his most personal film, and crew members remarked on the eerie likeness between director and creature on set: two thin figures in black with wild dark hair.

Which classic film's climax does the mob-at-the-castle ending echo?

Frankenstein (1931). The neighbours' march up to the mansion mirrors the villagers storming the mill, a climax Burton had already parodied in his 1984 short Frankenweenie.

What would happen if Fox failed to green-light the Edward Scissorhands script in time?

The rights reverted to Burton. His agents built the deal so that Fox paid for the script and stayed out of the writing, then had a limited time to say yes or hand the film back.

Where has Kim been when she first comes face to face with Edward?

On a camping trip. Kim comes home from camping with friends to find Edward, still a stranger to her, in her bedroom; she screams and the family rushes in.

Which later Burton film won Depp the Golden Globe he had missed out on for Edward Scissorhands?

Sweeney Todd. Depp won in 2008 for singing the murderous barber, 17 years after his first nomination; his nods for the other three Burton films all fell short.

What did Fox studio chief Joe Roth consider marketing Edward Scissorhands as, before holding back?

An E.T.-sized blockbuster. Roth said he hated even to use the word 'E.T.', calling it sacrilege, and held back: 'We want to be careful not to hype the movie out of the universe.'

Which film was No. 1 at the US box office when Edward Scissorhands went nationwide in mid-December 1990?

Home Alone, in its fifth week on top. Edward Scissorhands took third place with $6.3 million that weekend, then held on through the holidays to earn $56 million in North America.

What reason does Edward give Kim for going along with the break-in?

Because she asked him to. He tells Kim he knew all along that it was Jim's own house, and he still never named her or Jim to the police.

Which critic gave it a mixed two-out-of-four-star review?

Roger Ebert. He gave it two stars out of four, writing that Burton had not yet found the storytelling strength to match his pictorial flair.

In which category did Edward Scissorhands earn its only Academy Award nomination?

Best Makeup, for a chalk-white face whose scars tell a story: they are nicks from Edward's own blades. The nominees lost to the team behind Dick Tracy.

Which BAFTA did Edward Scissorhands win?

Best Production Design went to Bo Welch, who said he gave the suburb 'old circus colors' to suggest the 'faded optimism' of neighbourhoods like it.

Who beat Depp to the 1991 Golden Globe for Best Actor, Musical or Comedy?

Gérard Depardieu for Green Card won the award. Depp's first Globe nomination had come for a part with almost no dialogue.

Which two genre awards did Edward Scissorhands win?

The Hugo and the Saturn. Science-fiction fans voted the gentle fairy tale their 1991 Hugo over Total Recall and Back to the Future Part III, and it was the Saturn Awards' Best Fantasy Film.

What does the elderly narrator of Edward Scissorhands still sometimes do when it snows?

Dances in it. 'Sometimes you can still catch me dancing in it' is the film's closing line, an echo of the night decades earlier when she first twirled in falling flakes.

Which metal band recorded 'Scissorhands (The Last Snow)' in homage to the film?

Motionless in White wrote it as a tribute to the film's hold on goth culture and used it to close their 2010 debut album, Creatures.

In which animated series did Depp voice Edward again in a 2012 episode?

Family Guy. Depp voiced Edward in the 2012 episode 'Lois Comes Out of Her Shell', in a gag where Edward takes a babysitting job with grim results.

What extinct creature is named Kootenichela deppi after Depp's role?

A lobster-like Cambrian arthropod, found in British Columbia's Kootenay National Park and named in 2013; 'chela' is a Latin word for claws or scissors, hence Depp's scissor-handed role.

Which comics company released a ten-issue Edward Scissorhands sequel from 2014 to 2015?

IDW Publishing. Writer Kate Leth picked the story up with the granddaughter from the film's bedtime scenes, now in her teens, in a town where Edward has faded into myth.

Which car was sold by a 2021 Super Bowl advert based on Edward Scissorhands?

The Cadillac Lyriq. The advert sells its hands-free driving: Edward's scissor-handed son struggles with everyday life until his mother gives him a car that can steer itself.

Who played Edgar, Edward's son, in a 2021 Super Bowl car advert?

Timothée Chalamet played Edgar, the scissor-handed son who struggles with everyday tasks until his mother, Winona Ryder's Kim, hands him a car with hands-free driving.

Which video game added an Edward Scissorhands skin in October 2024?

Fortnite brought Edward in for Fortnitemares, its yearly Halloween event, and sold him in the item shop alongside villains such as Mephisto.

Which choreographer turned Edward Scissorhands into a wordless dance show that reached Sadler's Wells in 2005?

Matthew Bourne. He built the show with the film's own screenwriter and composer, told it without a word of dialogue and moved the story back to the 1950s.

What did Winona Ryder wear to play Kim, against her natural look?

A blonde wig. Burton said he laughed every day at the sight of the dark-haired Ryder in a cheerleader outfit and 'Hayley Mills-type' wig: 'She looked like Bambi.'

Into what did Depp alter his Winona tattoo after their 1993 split?

'Wino Forever'. Depp had 'Winona Forever' tattooed on his right arm while the two were engaged; after they split in 1993 he had the last two letters of her name taken off.

What was Depp's feature film debut?

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), in which Depp played Glen, the boyfriend swallowed by his bed. He said he 'ended up acting by accident' after moving to Los Angeles with his band.

Which 2012 film was Depp's eighth with Burton?

Dark Shadows. Depp had been obsessed with the vampire soap since childhood, when he wanted to be Barnabas Collins; he signed on first, and Burton came aboard to direct later.

Which John Waters film did Depp also star in during 1990?

Cry-Baby, Waters' 1950s juvenile-delinquent musical, which cast Depp as the teen rebel Wade 'Cry-Baby' Walker to lampoon his pin-up image.

What was the Kim Boggs actress's birth surname?

Horowitz. Born Winona Laura Horowitz in Minnesota in 1971, she was named after the nearby city of Winona and took her stage surname from singer Mitch Ryder.

At which 1989 premiere did Ryder first meet Depp?

Great Balls of Fire!, in which Ryder played Jerry Lee Lewis's 13-year-old bride. She met Depp at its June 1989 premiere, and they were engaged within months of their first date.

Which Woody Allen comedy won the Peg Boggs actress her second Academy Award?

Bullets Over Broadway (1994), in which she played Helen Sinclair, a faded, hard-drinking stage star cast in a mobster-backed play; her first Oscar had also come in a Woody Allen film.

Which pop megahit features a spoken part by the actor who played the Inventor in Edward Scissorhands?

Thriller. He recorded its spoken horror verse in two takes, reading words the songwriter had written in a taxi on the way to the studio that day.

Which animated Disney villain did the Inventor's actor voice in 1986?

Professor Ratigan, the rat villain of The Great Mouse Detective. After five decades on screen he still agreed to audition, saying that had anyone but Disney asked he would have been offended.

In which John Hughes film did the actor who played Jim play Brian, the 'brain'?

The Breakfast Club (1985). To escape the geek image he then turned down Hughes's roles of Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Duckie in Pretty in Pink, and here he plays a bully.

Which CBS series won the Joyce actress three Emmys as small-town doctor Jill Brock?

Picket Fences, set in Rome, Wisconsin, a small town where weird things keep happening, from exploding cow udders to bodies turning up in freezers. Her Emmys came in 1993, 1995 and 1996.

For which film did the Bill Boggs actor win his Academy Award?

Little Miss Sunshine (2006) won him Best Supporting Actor as Edwin Hoover, the heroin-snorting, foul-mouthed grandfather, four decades after his first nomination.

Which band did the Edward Scissorhands composer front before he turned to film scores?

Oingo Boingo. Elfman fronted the new-wave band before Burton and Paul Reubens, both fans, hired him to score Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985).

Which TV series' theme tune did the Edward Scissorhands composer write?

The Simpsons. He has said he wrote the tune in his car on the way home from meeting Matt Groening in 1989, and he calls it the most popular piece of his career.

Which 1991 film won the maker of Edward's scissor hands two Oscars in one night?

Terminator 2 won him the Oscars for both makeup and visual effects in 1992. James Cameron had drafted him back for the sequel after his killer robot made the 1984 original; he finished with four Oscars.

Which comic-book villain's prosthetic makeup did the maker of Edward's scissor hands design next for Burton?

The Penguin. His studio built Danny DeVito's prosthetics for Burton's 1992 sequel, down to the villain's black saliva, and earned an Oscar nomination for the makeup.

Which actress, met on an earlier Burton set, did production designer Bo Welch marry?

Catherine O'Hara. They met in 1987 on the set of Beetlejuice and married in 1992; decades later he directed her in episodes of A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Which 2003 family film was Bo Welch's debut as a director?

The Cat in the Hat (2003), starring Mike Myers. It drew eight Razzie nominations, Worst Director among them, and Welch went back to production design.

Which two later Burton films did cinematographer Stefan Czapsky shoot after Scissorhands?

Batman Returns and Ed Wood. He shot Ed Wood in black and white, a choice Burton held to even after Columbia put the film into turnaround over it; Disney then took it on.

Which Ryder film had producer Denise Di Novi made before Scissorhands?

Heathers, the black comedy in which Ryder's Veronica turns on her school's ruling clique. Its producer went on to head Burton's own production company before founding hers in 1993.

In which 1990 film did Winona Ryder play Cher's teenage daughter?

Mermaids (1990). Ryder took over the role of Charlotte Flax from Emily Lloyd, who had been cast first, and earned a Golden Globe nomination for it.

Which studio gave the young Tim Burton an animator's apprenticeship?

Walt Disney Productions. Burton's CalArts short Stalk of the Celery Monster caught the studio's eye and he joined Disney as an apprentice animator, working on The Fox and the Hound.

Which 1994 film was the Scissorhands screenwriter's directorial debut?

Black Beauty (1994), which she adapted herself from Anna Sewell's novel. Animal stories had become her speciality: she had just scripted Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey.

What does a startled Edward puncture when Kim comes home and finds him in her room?

Her waterbed. Peg had tucked Edward into it for the night, and when Kim's scream makes him panic his blades poke it full of holes.

Why was the Inventor's role in Edward Scissorhands cut back?

The actor's failing health. His lung disease and Parkinson's were especially severe during the shoot, so his schedule was shortened; Burton's boyhood idol made only one more screen appearance.

In which US state was Johnny Depp, 27 when Edward Scissorhands opened, born?

Kentucky. Depp was born in Owensboro in 1963 but grew up mostly in Florida, where he quit high school for music and later left for Los Angeles with his band.

How does Officer Allen help Edward get away from the angry neighbours?

He fires into the air. Allen lets off the shots, tells Edward to run, then tells the crowd it is all over and to go home; Joyce does not believe him.

What is the title of the Edward Scissorhands score cue heard as Kim twirls in the falling 'snow'?

'Ice Dance' plays as Kim walks out and twirls in the flakes thrown up by Edward's carving.

In which Oliver Stone war film did Depp have a small role before Edward Scissorhands?

Platoon (1986). He played a young soldier named Lerner, a part so brief that he later called it 'my three seconds in Platoon'.