The cast of “Scream VI,” including returning icon Hayden Panettiere (Kirby Reed), Melissa Barrera (Sam Carpenter), Jasmin Savoy Brown (Mindy Meeks-Martin), Mason Gooding (Chad Meeks-Martin), Dermot Mulroney (Detective Bailey) and Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett join CinemaBlend to discuss what’s being called the most brutal film in the franchise. Watch as Corey Chichizola discusses Kirby’s return, which “Scream” legends they want to see come back, what makes this film so much more intense, and more with the cast.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 we knew that this movie was gonna be something different.
00:03 - Uniquely brutal.
00:05 - It felt like coming home.
00:08 - We share a certain history.
00:10 - Herstory in this case.
00:11 - People are dying to find out.
00:14 - I hear you're a horror fan.
00:22 - Hayden, if I could start with you,
00:24 I love Kirby so much.
00:27 "Scream 4" was the first "Scream" movie I got
00:29 was old enough to see in theaters
00:31 and I immediately connected with her
00:33 and never believed she was dead.
00:35 So what has it been like for you to kind of see fans
00:39 campaigning and hoping for your survival
00:41 and see like the Kirby hive rise?
00:44 - Amazing, amazing, so inspirational.
00:48 I needed it so badly and they came to my rescue, honestly.
00:56 And for them, I went knocking and I was like,
01:01 "Please bring me back 'cause there's more to be done.
01:06 There's more to be done."
01:08 - It was such a joy.
01:09 I was like cheering in my movie theater
01:13 when we saw you pop up for the first time.
01:15 - It's a great entrance for any character,
01:18 but in the case of a returning "Scream 4" into "Scream 6,"
01:23 you know it's super satisfying for the fans.
01:26 - It was so much fun.
01:27 I know that the fans are gonna be very pleased.
01:30 I saw all of that online, Twitter exploded.
01:33 And I do not believe that the fans will be disappointed.
01:36 It was really fun.
01:37 It really was like a meeting of the minds.
01:41 Thank you to our brilliant writers
01:42 and Hayden brought it and I think I brought it
01:46 and the rest is history, herstory in this case.
01:50 - It's been set.
01:51 - It was, it felt like coming home, honestly.
01:54 It felt like coming home.
01:57 I found myself in Kirby in "Scream 4"
02:01 and we are very similar, very alike.
02:05 And when she came back, I wanted to bring that back
02:10 and make sure that the same Kirby survived
02:13 and is that same lion, lioness that she has always been.
02:18 - This isn't like any other "Ghostface."
02:24 - It's for you.
02:26 - I didn't realize until it was the Gale's big scene
02:29 that like Gale had not had a "Ghostface" call scene.
02:32 I don't know why that didn't occur to me.
02:34 Can you speak to making that happen with Courtney
02:36 and having this like exciting huge moment for the franchise?
02:40 - Yeah, I mean, it's just something
02:41 that we had always wanted to see.
02:43 Jamie and Guy had always wanted to see.
02:45 Fans have always wanted to see.
02:47 Courtney wanted to do it.
02:48 Like Courtney was so excited about it.
02:49 Like shooting that whole sequence was so much fun.
02:52 And Roger Jackson called in and he was on the phone with her
02:55 which was the first time they really had it
02:57 like Gale and "Ghostface."
02:58 Like it was just exciting.
03:00 And you know, Courtney had so much fun on this one
03:03 and talking to him and that whole chase
03:05 and like the stunt rehearsals were so much fun.
03:08 Like watching Courtney like-
03:09 - Yes, like get into it.
03:10 - Get into it.
03:11 - Incredible.
03:12 - That was awesome.
03:13 It was really awesome.
03:14 And also Courtney's stunt double,
03:16 incredible and looked exactly like her.
03:18 - Yeah. - Crazy.
03:20 - This is long overdue.
03:22 - Was just wondering if there were any like legacy
03:25 characters that are on your bucket list
03:27 that you would like to see pop up in a future installment.
03:30 I was hoping Heather Matarazzo was gonna be
03:32 in this movie again.
03:33 - I was too.
03:34 We love her.
03:35 - She, I mean- - Mama.
03:36 - Any excuse to see mom on set is a big deal.
03:38 - I hope she shows up.
03:40 - Heather Matarazzo, that's, you know what?
03:42 Solidified.
03:43 - That's the answer.
03:45 - Bring her back.
03:46 Get her kicking "Ghostface's" ass.
03:48 Put her in a full fist fight with "Ghostface"
03:51 in the next one.
03:52 Roundhouse kicks and all, please.
03:54 - Yep. - She would kill.
03:55 - Yeah, that was my, I hoped,
03:56 I wanted her to be the cold open this time.
03:58 That was like my theory in my brain.
04:00 - That would have been sick.
04:01 - I mean, we brought Billie back as a hallucination.
04:04 So anything's possible.
04:06 - I mean, there's an Easter egg in this one
04:09 that to our knowledge,
04:11 well, maybe nobody's said anything to us yet,
04:12 but there is an Easter egg of a character
04:13 we would like to bring back.
04:15 - You guys, you got me with that last time
04:16 with the curvy Easter egg
04:17 and I had to go back and find it.
04:19 I love it.
04:20 - You want me.
04:22 - So let's finish this.
04:23 - You know, I felt like the violence
04:25 and the kills in this movie
04:27 were especially emotional and character driven.
04:30 Did that feel, did you feel that shift in this project?
04:34 - Yes, yes, we did.
04:36 While we were shooting the movie,
04:39 we would all look at each other
04:42 and like after they'd yell cut,
04:45 I'm talking like, I remember specifically a moment
04:48 when we were shooting the ladder sequence
04:50 and it was Jasmine, Josh, Devin and I.
04:54 And we were, every time that they would yell cut,
04:59 we'd be like, you know how when you cry
05:02 with like a lot of emotion with like with your whole body,
05:05 you get like shivers and you get like sighing
05:08 and stuff like that.
05:09 And we'd all be like that after each take.
05:12 And we knew like from that moment,
05:15 we knew that this movie was gonna be something different
05:18 on another level.
05:19 - Well, it was nice to have a movie under my belt
05:24 to experience what it's like to shoot with a ghost face,
05:28 but there's something I think uniquely brutal
05:32 about Scream 6's ghost face,
05:35 because every time I felt myself like run a little faster,
05:39 like I was like, I just had to, which is hilarious
05:43 'cause the stunt technicians
05:44 that operate the ghost face costume
05:47 and do a lot of the stunts are all nice guys every time.
05:51 - Yeah, they're not scary at all.
05:52 - But the second they don that
05:54 and start doing the like ghost face, like--
05:57 - Something happens.
05:58 - Mannerisms, it becomes like terrifying in a weird way.
06:01 - The rules are very clear.
06:04 Don't go to the other room and make out.
06:06 Don't get in the car, right?
06:07 I mean, each film reminds you exactly this stuff
06:11 so that you can survive it.
06:12 We do not disappoint in Scream 6,
06:14 but I'm literally telling you, like Scream itself,
06:18 where it feeds back on itself, that's all I had to do
06:21 was to listen to what Scream movies were telling me
06:25 to do in Scream 6.
06:26 So the mystery has been wonderful.
06:28 People are dying to find out,
06:31 but so is Detective Bailey,
06:33 who's out there trying to track down this killer.
06:35 - There's a certain tone to Scream and these movies,
06:38 these movies are funny,
06:40 but I think the fact that they grounded,
06:43 like Jamie and Guy are brilliant writers,
06:45 grounded it in family and in like the family dynamic,
06:49 and it just gives it a lot more gravity, I feel like.
06:53 It just feels very intense in a way.
06:57 - Yeah, I thought that really paid off,
07:00 like from an audience perspective.
07:01 - I'm glad to hear that because we definitely,
07:04 it does feel like they took this movie
07:08 and stretched it out in both directions,
07:10 in like the more serious direction
07:12 and like the more heart-wrenching direction,
07:14 and also in like the more brutal, funnier,
07:19 bigger, louder direction.
07:22 And I think it's such a delicate balance,
07:25 but Matt and Tyler did a beautiful job.
07:27 - If it followed me here,
07:29 then it's gonna keep coming for us.
07:31 - What I really love about these last two movies
07:33 is how much the story is really about family
07:36 and about your relationship with your sister.
07:39 Can you speak about your continued collaboration
07:42 with Jenna Ortega and kind of fleshing out these two women?
07:46 - I mean, it's so funny because from the moment we met,
07:52 it just felt so easy and it felt so natural.
07:56 And it's like, we met on Zoom for the first time
08:01 and it was just there.
08:03 And I think that's why Matt and Tyler were like,
08:06 "These are the girls,"
08:07 because it just felt like we had known each other
08:10 for forever.
08:11 And I am a very protective older sister.
08:14 I have three younger sisters myself in real life.
08:17 So the idea of this older sister doing anything
08:21 and going above and beyond to protect her younger sister
08:24 was something that felt very natural to me.
08:27 And I love that you get to spend so much time with them
08:31 in this next movie,
08:32 and you get to see more colors to their relationship
08:34 because in the fifth one,
08:37 it's pretty much like the younger sister's getting attacked
08:41 and the older sister's trying to protect her
08:43 and that's it.
08:44 And in this one, you get to see the frustration
08:48 that comes with spending so much time together.
08:50 That's so common of a sibling relationship
08:54 when you're living together.
08:56 And so you get to see friction and you get to see laughter
09:01 and you get to see now the younger sister
09:04 being protective of the older one.
09:05 And so I think it's just a beautiful thing
09:08 to get to play out with someone that I love
09:11 as much as Jenna.
09:12 - Ready?
09:13 - I'm ready.
09:14 - Come on, mother!
09:15 - I really loved how throughout the movie,
09:18 you all referenced so many fan theories,
09:20 either with the passing line
09:22 or by making it an actual part of the plot.
09:25 Can you speak to why this was important
09:27 besides giving us more red herrings possibly?
09:31 - Yeah, I think that one of the things
09:33 that really excited us about this movie is,
09:35 and it was very much on the page,
09:37 but I think we're still sort of surprised
09:39 at how well the meta conversation
09:44 is actually baked into the plot of this.
09:46 That there aren't a lot of side quest conversations
09:51 where they're just referencing things.
09:52 That it feels like the legacy of these movies,
09:56 the fan theories, all of that
09:57 is very much plot specific, right?
10:00 It has a reason to exist in the movie
10:03 outside of just a fun way for the movie
10:06 to wink and nod at the audience.
10:08 And that to us is one of the really fun kind of twists
10:13 on the genre that we're playing with in this movie.
10:16 - Well, there were so many moments
10:17 where I thought I caught something
10:19 and then you guys got me.
10:20 It really keeps the audience on their toes
10:22 in such a fun way.
10:24 - Look, I would say too,
10:25 I think one of the things that we love about this fandom
10:27 is that there's a standard
10:28 that we have to hold ourselves to
10:30 because of how detail oriented and smart the viewership is.
10:35 Like that to us, that's an amazing thing
10:38 to have to achieve at a certain level
10:40 because you're gonna hold us accountable
10:42 in a really honest way.
10:43 And that's really fun to create under that.
10:46 - It's so funny, the release.
10:48 I talked to you in the last,
10:50 dug in for the last movie about yellow jackets
10:53 and being so excited for it.
10:54 And once again, these two things are coming back
10:56 at the same time.
10:56 - What great timing for me.
10:58 - That's right.
10:59 - I was so like.
11:00 (laughs)
11:01 - Is there a connection at all?
11:02 Is it just all coincidence?
11:04 Like, what do you think that,
11:05 what is the experience on your end
11:06 of the fact that they keep dropping together?
11:08 - It's bizarre.
11:09 I think it's, well, I don't know
11:10 'cause they're both paramount.
11:12 So maybe someone up there has my back.
11:14 But I think that it's God.
11:16 I think that it's really just great timing.
11:21 But I will say it is odd that the yellow time,
11:24 the yellow times, the what the heck?
11:27 The yellow jackets Showtime jacket
11:29 looks like Chad's jacket from screen.
11:32 - I noticed that.
11:33 - That is weird.
11:33 - People kept tagging me in photos
11:35 and I was like, yeah, she looks great.
11:36 Leave me alone.
11:37 (laughs)
11:38 I'm not bitter.
11:39 - A lot of Mark's synergy.
11:40 - Yellow jacket.
11:41 - Yeah, interesting, right?
11:42 - That's the best show.
11:43 I love it so much.
11:44 - Thank you.
11:44 - And I love Jasmine.
11:45 - The best.
11:46 - You and me both, man.
11:47 - But thank you so much.
11:48 - Thank you.
11:49 - Congratulations, you guys.
11:49 - Thank you.
11:50 - Take care.
11:51 (dramatic music)
11:55 (screams)
11:57 (explosion)
11:59 [BLANK_AUDIO]