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Director Wes Craven put his stamp on the teen horror scene of the 1980s with “A Nightmare on Elm Street,”<\/a> which\u00a0also led to a major career moment for one of the film’s cast members. When Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) realizes that a deceased child murderer is killing teens in their sleep, she tries to get her friends to help her. That includes her boyfriend Glen Lantz (Johnny Depp<\/a>), who does his best to support her even though his shaky efforts take a wrong turn.\u00a0“A Nightmare on Elm Street” was Depp’s first film, and only his good looks saved his awful audition.<\/p>\n Casting director Annette Benson told The Ringer<\/a> that his agent, Ilene Feldman, was gushing about the young musician, but Wes’ wife, Mimi Craven, admitted that they didn’t see his potential at first. “He comes, he reads. He sucks. He wasn’t an actor,” Mimi recalled. “Annette and I are looking at Wes, and he scratches Johnny’s name off. He said, ‘Well, he was terrible.'” It seemed like Depp’s movie dreams had been dashed, but a meeting with Wes’ preteen daughter and her best friend changed everything because they were swooning over his appearance.<\/p>\n “They were squealing [over him],” said Mimi. “They were that<\/em> high-pitched. Only dogs can hear the thing that young girls do. And Annette looks at Wes.” Of course, the rest is history. Depp’s acting career was born, and he has his own fond memories about the audition that felt like a nightmare on its own.<\/p>\n Read more: Actors Who Are Actually Terrible People<\/a><\/p>\nHow Johnny Depp felt about his audition<\/h2>\n