Neve Campbell Improvised This Iconic Line, Plus 18 Other Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The New "Scream"

Guess which cast member got scared by Ghostface as a little kid...

WARNING: There are mild spoilers for the new Scream in this post.

If you love movie trivia as much as I do, read on for some behind-the-scenes fun facts about the new Scream.

@screammovies / Paramount Pictures / Via giphy.com

1. Roger L. Jackson returned to provide the voice of Ghostface, and as with all the previous films, he was actually on the phone with the characters he called.

@screammovies / Paramount Pictures / Via giphy.com

Jenna Ortega told Collider that while the scene was “complicated and tricky” to film, having Jackson “on the phone doing the actual voice and not really breaking character in between takes” helped keep her in the moment.

2. Scream was released on January 14, 2022 — 25 years and 25 days after the original movie hit theaters on December 20, 1996.

Dimension Films

Though this probably wasn't always the plan. There was never an official 2021 release date, but it's likely the film was originally going to hit theaters last year (possibly around Halloween, or late September, when the film takes place) instead of in 2022 and was pushed back because of COVID-19.

3. Wes, played by Dylan Minnette, was named after Wes Craven, who directed the first four films and passed away in 2015.

Paramount Pictures

At the end of the movie, there's a card reading, "FOR WES."

4. Neve Campbell came up with the idea to say, "I'm Sidney fucking Prescott — of course I have a gun" when Dewey calls her.

@screammovies / Paramount Pictures / Via giphy.com

Tyler Gillett told Empire that he and co-director Matt Bettinelli-Olpin sought feedback and input from the legacy cast "because they’ve lived with these characters for years and know them inside and out."

5. Melissa Barrera, who plays Sam, (understandably) got emotional while filming with Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox.

Good Morning America / Via youtube.com /

During an appearance on Good Morning America, Campbell said: "Yeah, it was a really sweet moment... She had her first scene with Courteney and I, and we started the scene, and they said cut, and she had tears in her eyes! She started crying. And I was like, 'What are you — are you OK?' And she was just so excited to work with Courteney and I."

Meanwhile, Barrera told Entertainment Tonight: "It was just a moment where I realized that I was standing in front of two actresses that I admire and I’ve looked up to for so long."

6. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jack Quaid revealed that David Arquette — a certified Bob Ross instructor — taught the cast how to paint like Bob Ross during filming.

Entertainment Weekly / Via youtube.com /

They still can’t quite decide whose came out best.

7. Melissa Barrera was cast without an audition.

@screammovies / Paramount Pictures / Via giphy.com

She told Collider: “I met with Matt, Tyler, Chad, William, our producer, and Jamie, one of the writers, via Zoom and it was just a casual getting-to-know-you, I want to see their vision for the script, I want to see their vision for the character so that I can do well in my audition. And it ended up being an hour and a half Zoom of just talking about life and scary movies and the movies that we like.”

She went on to say that the next day her team called her and told her she'd been offered the part, no audition needed, and that it was "the first time that ever happened in [her] life."

8. Mason Gooding is a bit of a Hermione Granger.

Paramount Pictures

When he was a student at NYU, he wrote a six-page essay arguing that Scream deserved a reboot. He mentioned this while meeting with directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, who asked to read it.

“I sent it to them and heard nothing for like two weeks,” he told the Hollywood Reporter, adding that when he got the offer to play Chad Meeks-Martin, he "muted [himself] and screamed."

9. Meanwhile, Jasmin Savoy-Brown, who plays Chad's twin sister, Mindy, had never seen any of the Scream movies before being cast in the new one.

Paramount Pictures

She told the Hollywood Reporter that for her callback audition, she was asked to perform a monologue similar to the one Randy (her future movie uncle) performed in the original Scream, and she was afraid she would "overthink it and copy him" if she saw Jamie Kennedy's performance.

She ended up watching the original Scream during shooting, and a few more times after that.

10. At least one of those times was on Halloween night of 2020, with the rest of the cast.

The Drew Barrymore Show / Via youtube.com

During her appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, Jenna Ortega, who plays Tara, revealed that everyone got together that night, watched the original Scream on a projector, and had some popcorn (hopefully Jiffy Pop!).

11. This is the first Scream movie not to be distributed by Dimension Films.

Dimension Films

Instead, look for the Paramount Pictures logo before the movie starts. (Paramount also has the distribution rights to the first three Scream movies, following its purchase of a minority stake in Miramax, Dimension Films' former parent company.)

12. Samara Weaving, who worked with Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin on Ready or Not, was almost cast in the film.

Fox Searchlight Pictures

In an interview with Collider, she said: "We were talking about it, but our schedules aren't gonna work, which is a bummer. We talked about it a lot, but unfortunately, because of scheduling, I couldn't do it."

13. Jenna Ortega is only the second actor in the entire Scream movie franchise to actually be a teenager while playing a teenager.

Paramount Pictures

She turned 18 shortly after filming began. Emma Roberts, who played Jill in Scream 4, was 19 during filming.

14. Just like on the set of Stab 3 in Scream 3, the cast of the new Scream got multiple versions of the script to avoid leaks.

Dimension Films

Jack Quaid told Bloody Disgusting: "I was never really quite sure what the situation was. In some versions some characters die, in other versions, someone else is the killer. It was like a big game of Among Us."

15. Rian Johnson was approached about making a cameo.

Dominik Bindl / WireImage

If you've seen the new film, you know the Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Knives Out director is mentioned as being the director of Stab 8. 

But Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin wanted to take it a step further. Gillett told Variety: “We reached out and wanted to do a fake ET/Extra press junket thing with him. He was off making Knives Out 2. So he had bigger fish to fry than our Scream sequel.”

16. Jack Quaid was scared by Ghostface as a kid.

@screammovies / Paramount / Via giphy.com

He told Men's Health that when he was 4, he came across a trick-or-treater with a Ghostface mask that pumped fake blood down the face.

"I remember that scared the shit out of me..." he said. "So I was like, ‘Oh no, no, no. I don't want to watch that movie.'" When he finally gave horror movies another chance (in his early 20s), he "came to realize that no horror movie was ever going to be as bad as what [he] imagined it to be."

17. The original vision for a fifth Scream movie was very different.

Dimension Films

Had Scream 4 been a box-office success, screenwriter Kevin Williamson planned to have Jill survive and go off to college, where Sidney would be a professor.

18. The movie isn't meant to set up future installments...

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Cowriter James Vanderbilt told ScreenRant: "Coming into this, we really looked at it as, 'If we got to make one Scream film, what would we put if we only got one shot at it?' We want it to do everything we could in here and put it in here and make sure that, like Wes' films, it's a full meal from beginning to end."

19. ...But that doesn't mean we won't see more Scream movies.

@screammovies / Paramount Pictures / Via giphy.com

Vanderbilt also told ScreenRant: "If the opportunity came along to make more, I think all of us would jump at the chance."