Caffeinated Clint
Emma Roberts, Anthony Anderson, Rory Culkin, and Hayden Panettiere are the fresh meat, if you will, in the latest ”Scream” chapter. In this very fun chat, Moviehole asks the young actors what it was like to join such a popular film series this late in the day.
What drew you to this – were you fans of the ”Scream” franchise, horror fans in general, why did you want to play these characters?
Anderson: Well, being the only person of color in a horror film, I would stand out (laughs). I’m a fan of the franchise. I was actually in another film that spoofed this franchise and now I’m in this franchise. So that was that. Seriously… to be the sole person of color in a horror film, you might think you know what my demise would be in this, but it’s a new decade and new rules, so I might make before the end of the opening credits. You never know.
Panettiere: Well my character’s not a virgin, so she might not… because apparently virgins are dying…
Roberts: I’m a huge fan of the franchise and a huge fan of Wes Craven and the fact that he was coming back to direct this one, meant it was going to be good. I loved the part and I read the script and it was an interesting role. I’ve never done a horror movie, so why not?
Panettiere: It’s exciting and an exciting thing to be a part of. For four years, I was in a show that was in this sci-fi, and at times in the horror genre, the horror family and horror films can really go one way or the other – they can go amazing or they can go terribly and it’s generally an extreme one way or the other, so you have to be very careful. And then a film like this comes along and I love how long it’s been since the last film. It’s a sequel, but at the same time a remake, but it’s a combination, and its, yeah a reboot. It’s cleverly remembering where it comes from – the cliché’s, and really using them to our benefit, and growing with the audience, because the generations go on and become harder to scare and all that stuff. It’s a very cool movie, a fun thing to be a part of. Who wouldn’t want to be in Scream?
Were you guys intimidated coming into this franchise that’s already established?
Roberts: I don’t think I was intimidated coming into it but I was definitely excited. I didn’t know what to expect. So I kind of relinquished expectations and just went into it thinking like, “I hope I have fun, I hope everyone’s cool, and I hope we make a good movie. I think for the most part that’s what happened, so I’m really happy.
Did you guys know who would be the killer? How important was it to keep the secrets?
Roberts: We had to keep everything a secret.
Anderson: I’ll be honest, I haven’t seen the movie yet, I just found out who the killer was, like, twenty minutes ago, honestly, because my script never had an ending to it. I don’t know if they didn’t trust me. But my script never had an ending to it. The lines that I prepared the night before, when I got to set, everything was different.
Panettiere: I haven’t seen the movie either and I have some sort of feeling that they lied to all us. And we think that the killer is one person but it’s not. I mean, how can they trust actors, really, to not give away the secret? C’mon, I would lie to us.
What’d you guys do on your downtime?
Roberts: We all got cast and thrown into it pretty quickly. We were in Michigan, and it was the summer, so we all were staying pretty near each other. We’d get together, go out to dinner, go out and hang out. It was really fun; it was a fun summer.
Panettiere: It’s a really fun town.
Roberts: Yeah, Ann Harbor’s really fun. We had a really good time.
Panettiere: And we also, which is a really cool thing to have the original cast there and to get to know them, sometimes Neve would rent this cottage for a weekend and would invite everyone to come out for a barbeque, which is where Anthony [Anderson] and David [Arquette] almost set the trees on fire… We all got to really bond and it was very much like summer camp.
What do you think makes Ghostface scary even after the decade hiatus the franchise has taken?
Culkin: He’s always a different person, with different motives and you don’t really know why they’re doing this. And it’s also weird because the whole town sort of celebrates this massacre that only happened like ten years earlier. So everyone in the town is sort of twisted. It’s just a sick little town.
Did you guys ever try on the mask?
Panettiere: I never went near that mask.
Anderson: Nuh-uh, not me. My head’s too big.
– Kat Gelato
