Charlie Sheen Almost Starred In A Nightmare On Elm Street

Ready for some fun horror trivia?

Though A Nightmare on Elm Street is now an iconic and notable film for a number of reasons, one thing that it did was that it basically launched Johnny Depp’s Hollywood career, as the actor played Nancy’s boyfriend, Glen. It was his first role in a movie and though it all worked out well in the end, director Wes Craven almost went with someone else. That being none other than Charlie Sheen.

Speaking to Vulture in a recent interview, New Line’s Bob Shaye explained that the Two and a Half Men star was originally cast as Glen, but he demanded too much money.

“Charlie Sheen was initially cast as Heather’s boyfriend, and he wanted $3,000 a week, which we couldn’t afford.”

Given that the film’s entire budget was only $1.8 million, it’s easy to see why the studio turned down Sheen. Not to mention that though he’s a big name now, back in 1984, he was still pretty fresh in the business and quite frankly, probably wasn’t worth spending that much dough on. Especially not when someone like Depp could come in and do the job for considerably less.

That’s not to say it wouldn’t have been fun seeing Sheen in A Nightmare on Elm Street, but Johnny Depp gave a solid performance as Glen and it’s not like either his or Sheen’s career have suffered as a result of what happened. After all, both have gone on to become tremendously successful – if not a little nutty, too. Still, it’s fun to think about what could have been and as usual, you can leave your thoughts on this interesting bit of trivia in the comments section!