‘Wow, Wes, What Can I Do?’: David Arquette Recalls Brutally Honest Feedback He Received From Wes Craven While Filming Scream 2
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When it comes to the best horror movies we’ve ever seen, 1996’s Scream has gone down in history as one of the most clever versions of a slasher. Coming off the wild success of the original movie, director Wes Craven and the main cast reunited for Scream 2 in 1997. However, when David Arquette looks back on the sequel, he has one memory that might be scarier than Ghostface.
Sure, those Scream kills are terrifying, but what about getting a harsh note from your director, the legendary Wes Craven? When David Arquette guested on the podcast Off the Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe, he recalled getting a brutally honest note on the set of the 1997 movie. As he said:
It was so bad in one scene [in] Scream 2 that Wes Craven came up to me, and he goes like, ‘That is unusable, David. That was terrible, absolutely horrible.’ I was like, ‘Wow, Wes, what can I do?’ He’s like, ‘Do it again, do it faster, do it better’. But yeah, we had to reshoot that whole scene. It was a big, long monologue.
During the interview, David Arquette immediately went into said monologue like he had rehearsed it yesterday. As it turns out, the scene he was talking about included a famous line of Dewey’s which fans of the franchise like to quote. Here’s the line:
How do you know that my dimwitted inexperience isn’t merely a subtle form of manipulation, used to lower people’s expectations, thereby enhancing my ability to effectively maneuver within any given situation?
Hey, it’s a lot of long words to say in one go! I imagine many actors would have received the same note from Wes Craven given the dialogue.
As fans, we typically don’t think twice about the work that goes on behind the scenes to make some of the best lines work. Arquette’s memory is more about some of the technical elements and showing up imperfectly on set. Of course notes (in any job) can often help make us better at what we do. However, at the time, the actor felt super embarrassed about having to shoot the scene again because he was “so bad.”
The Scream movies were not only a big deal for David Arquette in terms of his career, but they also changed his life. It was on set of the first film that he met Courteney Cox, who he would go on to marry and have his first child with, Coco. As the actor has shared before, it was Wes Craven who actually suggested he date Cox. Over the years, Arquette and Cox have starred in almost all the Scream movies, but Dewey did die in the fifth one.
Suffice it to say, that means that Arquette will not be part of the seventh Scream movie, which will star Neve Campbell. Scream 7 is reportedly going to start filming this December. While we wait for its release date, check out what other upcoming horror movies are on the way.
