The Scissor brothers

You've got to hand it to Sam Archer and Richard Winsor. At just 24 and 23, they're taking playing Johnny Depp on the Sadler's Wells stage in their stride. Well, isn't Depp the name everyone thinks of when it comes to Edward Scissorhands?

Archer and Winsor, sharing the role in Matthew Bourne's new dance version of Tim Burton's film, are keenly aware of the comparisons. As preparation, they admit they watched the Depp version over and over.

'Johnny Depp was the obvious starting point,' says Archer. 'But Matthew gave us a lot of other references to study. Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, a lot of silent comedy. And there's Fred Astaire in there, too. That whole way of dancing.

'There's a world of difference between what you do on stage and what you do in film. There are whole new scenes that make much more sense of how Edward came to be the way he is.'

Winsor reveals it took a while to work himself into the role. 'Until I got to do a complete run-through, I'd been doing a copy of Edward Scissorhands - I was concentrating on all the technical stuff,' he says.

And technical stuff there is aplenty in Bourne's Edward Scissorhands. With a blockbuster set worthy of Hollywood and a large-scale cast, the accent is on the spectacular.

But with Edward Scissorhands, it's all about the flying fingers - the razor-sharp digits which make the half-boy, half-lab creation stand out from the crowd. 'We do dance with blades on - only not steel ones,' laughs Archer.

'They're a kind of plastic-coated fibre with a rod through the middle. When we first got them, it was really awkward to move. And they do have an effect on you - you feel like you want to slash about in them.'

The physically draining nature of the role and the sheer weight of Edward's appendages, on top of the hours it takes to prepare the costume and make-up, made doubling up on the role essential.

And Archer and Winsor, flatmates as well as co-stars, are well used to shadowing each other. Their careers have been uncannily parallel since they joined Bourne's company for Car Man in 2001.