Nightmare on Elm Streetat 40: Looking Back on Johnny Depp's Film Debut and His Now-Iconic Crop Top in the Horror Movie

Mar. 15, 2025

Johnny Depp in ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ in 1984.Photo:Courtesy of Warner Brothers

Courtesy of Warner Brothers

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At the time of filming, Depp — who has gone on to star in a number of Tim Burton films and earn three Best Actor Oscar nominations forPirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,Finding NeverlandandSweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street— was just 21 years old. And according to Langenkamp, 60, he was very green on set.

Nick Corri, Amanda Wyss, Johnny Depp and Heather Langenkamp on the set of ‘A Nightmare On Elm Street’ in 1984.New Line Cinema/Getty

New Line Cinema/Getty

Despite any nerves, Depp bonded with Englund, who toldVulturethat “Johnny Depp was the most polite young actor I’ve ever worked with.”

Later, whilespeaking with PEOPLE, 77-year-old Englund remembered how the two unwittingly scared a restaurant employee during a lunch break on set. After getting “sick of the catering,” the pair went out to eat. “We just couldn’t do it anymore. No more peanut butter and jelly and macaroni and cheese,” Englund said, revealing that the two of them “went across the street to a Thai restaurant.”

The issue was that Englund was still in his full Freddy costume. “We went into this darkened Thai restaurant and we were sitting there, we were in the back towards the kitchen and a guy came from the back kitchen area,” he recalled. “I remember it had a porthole window in the door and I had taken off the hat and the door opened and that fluorescent lighting from the kitchen spilled out and illuminated me. And I just sort of looked up at the guy and I wasn’t thinking — I was playing with my chopsticks, I think — and the poor guy dropped his whole tray of food for this other group of people that were there waiting to be served. And he ran back into the kitchen.”

Johnny Depp in ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’.© New Line

When it comes to Depp’sfamous death scene, the production team used a contraption that rotated the bedroom set before spilling tons of blood into the room. It was something that he described as an “unbelievable effect” during an on-set interview withEntertainment Tonight, saying even though “the room was spinning” that it “was no big deal.”

And in the world of horror, Depp’s signature outfit still remains in the pop culture zeitgeist, with nods to his shirt appearing inScream— another Craven slasher classic— as well as Netflix’sChilling Adventures of Sabrina, and most recently,Agatha All Alongon Disney+.

In 2015, following Craven’sdeath at 76 years old, Depp reflected on his time makingA Nightmare on Elm Street. PerVariety, when asked about the director during a Q&A at the time, the actor said, “Wes Craven was the guy who gave me my start, from my perspective, for almost no reason in particular.”

“I read scenes with his daughter when I auditioned for the part. At the time, I was a musician. I wasn’t really acting. It was not anything very near to my brain or my heart, which is pretty much how it remains to this day,” he continued. “But Wes Craven was brave enough to give me the gig based on his daughter’s opinion. I guess she had read with a bunch of actors, and after the casting sessions, she said, ‘No, that’s the guy.’ "

Depp added, “I always think of her for putting me in this mess, and certainly Wes Craven for being very brave to give me this gig. But he was a good man — so rest in peace, old Wes.”

source: people.com