Cruise could have gone on to become the titular character, except for one thing: he wouldn’t stop quizzing the filmmakers about semantics. “[He] wanted to know how Edward went to the bathroom,” Caroline Thompson, the film’s screenwriter, told Dazed. “He was asking the kind of questions about the character that can’t be asked for this character!” Allegedly, Cruise refused to be part of the production without knowing all the details—unpleasant or otherwise—about Edward Scissorhands’ daily routine.