What was the first movie Johnny Depp appeared in?

Back in the '80s Johnny Depp was just another guitarist playing LA clubs with his band The Kids. He had zero interest in acting until his friend Nicolas Cage suggested he try it to make some extra cash. One headshot and a lucky break later, he found himself on the set of a soon-to-be horror classic. Which movie kicked off his reluctant acting career?

Reveal answer and learn more:

▼

The answer is: "A Nightmare on Elm Street"

Johnny Depp's first film role was getting demolished by Freddy Krueger in "A Nightmare on Elm Street." He landed the part of Glen Lantz after Wes Craven's teenage daughter spotted his headshot in a pile of photos and insisted her dad give him a shot. She thought he was dreamy, but her dad thought he needed a bath. She won.

The death scene turned out to be one of the most memorable in horror history. The crew built a rotating bedroom set and rigged it to pump roughly 500 gallons of fake blood through a hole in the mattress. When they filmed it, the blood blast was so powerful it actually broke through the set's ceiling. Depp spent hours getting spun around and soaked while his character became horror's most impressive human fountain.

Depp took his paycheck and put it straight into his band's expenses. He was still convinced music was his future, and this acting thing was just a temporary gig to pay bills. He kept playing shows with The Kids even while filming, not realizing he'd just stumbled into the first scene of a very different kind of career.