Scream Off Screen

"I was like, 'Ta-da!'  And they were like, 'It's awful!'  So I wore this really great Sandra Dee wig with the bangs and flip.  She's really kind of luscious and cute, and the poor little lamb gets terrorized."
Drew Barrymore on going to the SCREAM set the first day with jet-black hair.
  • The opening scene was shot on the first five days of filming on a 30-acre vineyard.
  • Kevin Williamson wanted to get a lead name to play Casey Becker so it would be more shocking when she died.
  • All the glass in the house was supposed to symbolize Casey Becker being in a safe house looking out at the world.  When the glass shatters, her world also shatters.
  • The popcorn acts as a clock, it goes from normal to out of control, as does the scene.
  • Wes Craven wanted to take out the "The first one was (A Nightmare on Elm Street) but the rest sucked line because he didn't want to seem conceded, but Williamson pointed out that she says New Nightmare also sucks.
  • It took weeks and weeks to find the "phone voice."  They settled on Roger Jackson who had done radio work.  It was hard to find an evil side of life.
  • Drew was never allowed to see Roger, they did the calls over a real phone. Around 3:00 AM the police came because they thought someone had been harassing someone.
  • Wes Craven chose not to have opening credits to make it seem more like you were watching real life.
  • To get Drew to get to the "point of terror" take after take, Craven would remind Drew of a story about a man that lit his dog on fire.
  • Skeet had open heart surgery when he was 10 so there is a steel wire in his chest that is very painful if hit. When the stunt woman stabbed Billy with the umbrella, it hit the wire.
  • The MPAA censored 20 seconds of footage that included...
    • Steve's guts falling out.
    • Caset getting stabbed one more time.
    • Kenny looking at the killer.
    • Casey hanging from the tree.
  • Williamson was at a bar that had a movie trivia night. If you could stump the audience, you got a free drink. Williamson got the drink with the question, "Who was the killer in Friday the 13th?"
  • The MPAA felt that Scream was just too easy to copy and too intense.
  • At the first script meeting with Wes they posed the question, "How can no one tell who the killer is by just looking at his other clothes?" and Williamson said, "Not my problem."
  • The killer was originally going to have a white robe, but ultimately they decided black would be scarier.
  • In order to leave in the scene where Drew Barrymore is stabbed in the shoulder, Wes told the MPAA that he had only shot that scene one time because Drew was so disturbed by it. Which was a lie.
  • In Williamson's script he wrote "...one closet door and the other door and it jams up." They had to build the closet because no houses had that sort of setup.
  • Craven did not cast Skeet Ulrich because he looked like Johnny Depp (which was a popular theory in '96).
  • Drew Barrymore was originally cast as Sidney Prescott, but she was worried that the film would bomb and ruin her career. So she talked them into letting her be Casey Becker, and promised to promote the film as if she was the star.
  • Freddie Prinze Jr. was very close to landing the role of Stu.
  • The song "Don't Fear (The Reaper)" was used in Halloween and was used in the scene with Sidney and Billy at the beginning (a cover by Gus).
  • Kevin Williamson was happy that Wes Craven opted for no T&A.
  • Linda Blair (Reagan in The Exorcist) plays an obnoxious reporter.
  • Courteney Cox found a piece of chewed gum that was the same color as her dress (the green one) but they didn't stay in shot long enough.
  • Rose McGowan dyed her hair blonde to contrast with Neve and Courteney.
  • Neve Campbell was chosen for the role because of her beauty and physical strength.
  • Henry Winkler had the same agent as Wes Craven.
  • Winkler played the role with a "demonic glee" that included touching Sidney a little too much.
  • The school board in Santa Rosa would not let them shoot in the school because of the dialogue.
    • Note: It was originally thought that Santa Rosa declined due to the violence, but that is false.
  • In the middle of the whole school board ordeal, one of the men who said the film was "giving a bad example" was arrested for beating his wife.
  • Jamie Kennedy came up with doing the Jerry Lewis impression.
  • David Arquette originally came in to audition for the part of Billy.
  • Lisa Beach (the casting director) has a cameo as a reporter.
  • ...
BEHIND THE SCENES