Credit: MGM/UA Entertainment Company
Wed 9 September 2026 1:30, UK
All actors have regrets. Maybe it’s working with a director they really shouldn’t have (remember when Timothée Chalamet donated his salary from A Rainy Day in New York after he got criticised for working with Woody Allen?) or putting their faith in a movie that would go on to be an absolute bomb.
Most frustrating must be the act of turning down a movie that ends up being a success and coming to realise that you made a grave mistake. You can never be sure how any project is going to turn out, of course, but it’s never going to feel great when you realise that you once rejected a piece of cinema that has since become a classic.
For Charlie Sheen, a role in a horror staple could’ve been his big break, but instead it was a certain future Hollywood star who bagged the part instead. Of course, he was going to break into Hollywood one way or another; his father, Martin Sheen, had already brought him onto the set of legendary movies like Badlands and Apocalypse Now, where he’d starred as an extra.
Still, Sheen could’ve found his first taste of acting recognition in Wes Craven’s popular slasher A Nightmare on Elm Street rather than the crime drama The Boys Next Door, which received mixed reviews.
He didn’t need to worry as roles in the likes of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Platoon would soon follow, but he couldn’t help but reflect on how stupid he was to turn down Craven’s movie due to his own self-confessed ignorance, and, of course, the actor who’d take on the role instead would be none other than Johnny Depp.
New Line Cinema’s Bob Shaye told Vulture that “Charlie Sheen was initially cast as Heather’s [Langenkamp, who played Nancy] boyfriend, and he wanted $3,000 a week, which we couldn’t afford”, but the actor rebuffed this claim, explaining, “I didn’t price myself out of it because I didn’t get greedy until years later. That came much later”.
Instead, he admits that he wasn’t smart enough to understand the appeal of Freddie Krueger or Craven’s vision, noting, “I just didn’t get it, and I’ve never been more wrong about interpreting a script. I just didn’t get it completely, but I still took a meeting with Wes. And when I met him, I said, ‘Look, with all due respect, and as a fan of your talents, I just don’t see this guy wearing a funny hat with a rotted face and a striped sweater and a bunch of clacky fingers. I just don’t see this catching on’.”
Further reading: Cutting Room Floor
Sheen was, of course, very wrong, as Krueger would go on to become one of the most iconic horror villains of all time, with A Nightmare on Elm Street grossing $57.1million against a budget of just over $1m. Standing as one of the most important horror movies ever made, Krueger would subsequently appear in various sequels and spin-offs, even merging with the Friday the 13th franchise to form Freddy vs Jason, but it’s the original 1984 movie that stands as the most iconic, though, becoming one of the highest-grossing horror movies of the decade.
Sheen just couldn’t understand what was so special about this world that Craven had conjured up, but clearly, he didn’t know what he was talking about.
