When Scream premiered in 1996, it became a total hit for its unique mixture of horror and comedy. It's partially the film's place at this intersection of genres that led it to become a cult classic. But funnily enough, one of the movie's main stars had no idea it was supposed to be humorous when they started filming.
In case you need a little refresher, Skeet Ulrich played the role of Billy Loomis and was one of the killers in the first film along with Matthew Lillard, who starred as Stu Macher. But these two actors were on completely different pages when filming began: Skeet had no idea Scream was supposed to be humorous. So when did he finally figure it out? "Day one, scene one, take one, changed my whole perception of what it is we were out there doing," Ulrich said.
Skeet didn't pick up on the script's humorous side until they were on set and production got going. "I think part of it was the mindset of Billy and me getting into that mindset," he explained. "I saw it as this very serious documentary about two killers in high school and I was researching serial killers and the psychology of them and all that stuff, so I didn't really key into the humor of the story until take one of day one."
Ulrich was confused as they filmed one of the opening scenes - the iconic moments in front of the school fountain - and his co-stars were being funny. "Matt and Jamie obviously have some very humorous moments in it. And I just remember thinking, 'What are they doing? Don't they know?' Like, 'This isn't funny. This isn't supposed to be funny,'" the now 51-year-old recalled. "And man, was I wrong."
Luckily, it didn't take Skeet long to change his approach towards the film once he realized his mistake. "I very quickly aligned to the fact," Ulrich reassured Entertainment Weekly. "It took many instruments to make this orchestra."
The fifth installment of this horror-comedy orchestra is set to hit screens in January of 2022. And there's plenty of reason to get excited, as the latest film will feature some familiar faces from the original, including Courteney Cox, Neve Campbell, and David Arquette.
