Scream Star David Arquette on the Challenges of Filming During the Pandemic

Originally slated to hit theaters earlier this month, the new Scream was one of the year’s most anticipated horror films, only for the coronavirus pandemic to cause filming to be delayed and its release date ultimately pushed to January of 2022, with star David Arquette recently detailing the challenges the cast and crew faced while filming under new health and safety protocols. While those new protocols did present new challenges for the team, it also did come with some unexpected opportunities that wouldn’t have been afforded to the team otherwise, as Arquette noted that the actual filming allowed for an altogether different sense of discovery.

“You do rehearsals with your mask on,” Arquette explained to RadioTimes. “And then you take the mask off and it’s your scene but it’s the first time you’ve done it face to face. And it gives you this other layer of discovery when you’re having a scene with someone and see their face for the first time. There are certain things that are really interesting about it, and others that are a real drag obviously.”

The upcoming film marks the first film in the series that wasn’t directed by Wes Craven, who passed away in 2015, with this new Scream being directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick. Arquette went on to show his appreciation of the new filmmaking team, even if he might not be able to pick them out of a crowd.

“They’re incredible,” the actor divulged. “We did it during COVID, so half the time I’m only looking at their eyes, but they’re great. They were inspired by Wes Craven and they’re filmmakers because of him partially, he was one of their heroes so it’s great to see these people work on the movie.”

That appreciation goes both ways, as the filmmakers previously praised the contributions to the film from returning stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and Arquette.

“This is their world. We are the new guys and we were very conscious of that and wanted to make sure everybody knew that going in,” Gillett shared of the original cast during the film’s Virtual Production Press Day. “It wasn’t, like, ‘Our way or the highway.’ It was, ‘Here’s this script that Guy [Busick] and Jamie [Vanderbilt] wrote that we love. These are characters that you guys have built over the last 25 years. All input is not only welcome, it is encouraged.’ And everybody had really good thoughts that helped guide the character stories. And, in a lot of cases, the story overall, where it was like, ‘This is a thing that wouldn’t make sense for X, Y, and Z, so we should adjust it.’ Then we all sat down and talked about it and figured that out. It was truly invaluable. It was really invaluable getting all the information, or just the feedback from them, because they know these characters better than anyone and they really help guide that in a lot of ways.”

Scream hits theaters on January 14, 2022.

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