- [Off-camera] And you’re speeding, sir.
- Chris Connelly, on the set of the blood —
[Trills tongue]
Thank you.
Chris Connelly in Pasadena, on the set of the blood and
gag-filled sequel to ‘Scream,’ where we'll serve up the stars
and count up the carnage.
- [Crew member] Roll sound, please. We're rolling.
- [Crew member] Rolling. Quiet, folks. We’re rolling.
- [Crew member] Speed. - [Crew member] A mark.
- Kevin Williamson, who wrote the first one — - Right.
- Wrote this one, and he really stepped it up.
As opposed to high school students analyzing horror films,
it's now become about a bunch of film students
in film school analyzing horror sequels
to find out the next step of the killer.
So, it's really clever how it stepped it up.
- So, did you know from the very beginning,
I mean, even when you were doing the last one,
that they wanted you to come back for number two?
- I was signed on. I was signed on in my contract [laughs],
but you never really know.
It always depends on how the first one does,
whether they're gonna make a second one,
and we didn't know at the time, but,
obviously, it did quite well, so —
- [Chris] And did you know what would
happen to your character?
Did you get any kind of input saying,
you know, “I'd like to live.”
“I'd like to not be a victim the whole time.” - [Laughs]
- “I'd like to get a little” —
- Not really. I have a great trust in Kevin Williamson,
the writer, and also in Wes [Craven],
and knew they'd do a good job with the character.
And it's not in their best interest
to make her look like a victim constantly, either.
So no, I trusted that they would
make her stronger and they have.
- [Wes] What we're really continuing is the story of
the heroine, of Neve Campbell’s character.
- [Chris] Is it weird to do it with the scrutiny
of the internet as you mentioned before?
Everyone dying to know what happens in the movie?
- [Wes] Yeah. - [Chris] Who lives, who dies?
- [Wes] That’s been very strange.
The first 40 pages that came in from Kevin,
I think, the next night, they were on the internet.
- [Chris] Whoa.
- We had no idea how they got there,
but we suddenly realized, “My God, this is a new day,”
and you really have to take extraordinary measures.
So, thereafter, we all bought shredders
and we were printing out on paper
that couldn't be xeroxed, and passes, and —
you know, I literally shred every call sheet
that I have at the end of the day. After I —
- [Chris] Wow. - Do my shot list for the next day,
I shred everything [laughs].
I look like a confetti manufacturer,
you know, if you look at me on trash day.
- We didn't get the last scene
until the day we were shooting it.
So, it's very classified, very top secret.
It's kind of fun!
I feel like James Bond,
when I get an envelope at home,
delivered by an armed guard, and, you know,
I have no idea what it is.
I open it up, and it's revisions to a scene.
I'm like, “You guys have gotta be kidding me.”
I have to sign my name and everything.
- [Chris]Jerry was just telling us,
you guys didn't exactly get to take the script home
and show it to everybody? - No, you know what was very funny?
Before I got the job,
you know, I hadn't even read the script.
And it started to dawn on me, like,
“What if I'm just not in this for more than two minutes,” you know?
- [Chris] Now, did you feel any awkwardness
about coming into the second film in a series,
when everybody has relationships?
- Hell no! I think every actress in town
wanted to come into this
second part of this series. - [Laughs]
- Like, they killed off a bunch of them, you know?
- This has all the hallmarks of a disaster,
because it hit so fast,
and it wasn't written when we started,
and many, many pictures
get in terrible trouble that way.
It's just, the fact that Kevin [Williamson] stayed with it
and was writing all the time
while we were in pre-production —
all the time, even while we were shooting,
he would be on the set, writing,
you know, a week or two ahead.
- The movie is slated to be released
less than a year from the release of the first film,
in which the few plucky survivors managed
to make it to college somehow,
where they have a little more on their minds
than just getting their papers in on time.
- [Crew member] Set. - [Wes] Action.
- [Chris] Now, Sidney was a pretty smart cookie
last time around. - [Neve] Yeah.
- [Chris] And was a lot smarter at the end of the
movie than she was at the beginning.
How does that knowledge help her
as she begins this movie?
- Well, I think because she had gone through
such great trauma in the first film,
she's come into a place where
she's definitely a lot braver
and knows what it is to deal with, I guess,
serial killers, or people who are after her.
[Laughs] It sounds kinda silly, but, you know,
if you're gonna be in circumstances like that,
you are gonna learn from it
and become stronger for it.
- Derek is a Delta Lambda Big Brother,
- And we like to keep it in the family.
- [Chris] How'd they get you in this thing?
What are you doing in this movie?
- [Portia] I play a very, very nasty sorority girl.
- Uh-oh. - And I try to recruit as many people as I possibly can.
- [Chris] Now, what’s going on in this scene we’re shooting here tonight?
- This is a party scene. Can’t you feel the festivities here, Chris?
- It’s got a kinda sorority feel, sure. - Look out, we have the lanterns working.
We got everything happening here.
This is actually one of the cooler parties I’ve been to in my life.
- Matthew [Lillard], get back there. Why don’t you go back there?
What about a cameo?
- I don't know, sir. The pressure's mounting.
Alright, where do you want me to go?
Continuity.
- [Crew member] OK, this is the one. - The psycho killer would be in one shot.
- There you go [laughs].
[Cast laughing]
- [Chris] A lot of people wanted to be in this movie.
Is that because they all
liked the first movie so much?
Did you love it?
- I did. I really enjoyed ‘Scream.’
I think that we needed a ‘Scream’ movie.
You know, the writing is so witty, and
it's sort of fresh and hip and young and new, you know?
- Hey baby, want to dance?
- I'd love to, with that tall, wide-shouldered —
- [Wes] Cut!
- What?
- OK, that was the one.
- [Chris] Was it all tough for you to fit in,
given the fact that so many people
had a relationship on the first movie,
you're like the new kid in town?
- Not at all. You know, everybody's been really great.
Like, we were just down in Atlanta,
and we hung out every night, like, all of us,
and we went to, like, at least 15 different restaurants together,
and just went to clubs and partied
and really got to know each other.
So, it was fun!
Nobody was like, “Ugh, the new kid, let them just try to figure it out by themselves.”
- How you doing? The witch being nice to you?
- Painfully nice.
- [Chris] We know most of these other people
in the movie, who are you?
- I play Derek, Neve's boyfriend,
and I'm a very good guy. I'm a very nice guy,
but, you know, you can't always trust
those nice guys in these movies.
- [Chris] Wes works pretty quickly, doesn't he?
He knows what he wants —
- [Jerry] Wes works very quickly.
Actually, I went to NYU film [school].
I did two papers on Wes Craven.
- [Chris] Really? - [Jerry] And I'm thinking about
bringing them in, so we could sign them,
but I'm afraid he'll find flaws in them. - [Chris laughs]
- [Jerry] He is, as far as I'm concerned,
the best actor’s director I have ever worked with.
- Now, you've worked with a few pretty decent
actor’s directors in your time, Rob Reiner, Cameron Crowe.
- He is a great actor’s director, Wes.
I mean, those guys aren't too shabby, but
Wes is right up there.
- [Chris] Were you stunned by the success
of the first movie?
- [David] Yeah.
Personally, in my opinion of
why it was so successful is ‘cause
it finally gave the audience some credit, and sort of
let ‘em in on the joke, and didn't take ‘em for granted,
like a lot of blockbuster films do.
And Courteney Cox was in it, of course,
and she always is a big, incredibly huge draw.
- Did you know you were gonna come back for a sequel
if they did one, when you were making the first movie?
- Well, I mean, they had talked —
they've always thought of this as a trilogy.
They've always said that, from the second I read the first one,
but you never know.
I mean, you didn't know if it was gonna do well or not, but
I knew that if Wes Craven was gonna do it,
and David, and Neve, I would definitely.
- [Chris] Is there any sense you can give us
as to what actually takes place,
at least, at the very beginning of this movie?
- [Wes] A book has been written by Gale Weathers,
Courteney Cox's character,
that has been turned into a movie called ‘Stab.’
So, that is opening about the same time
that our story begins.
- [Chris] Behind me, the opening sequence for the sequel to ‘Scream,’
in which all kinds of interesting things
are going to happen.
You'll see behind me,
it's a sneak preview for the movie ‘Stab.’
You can probably say this, we saw you on line
for this movie ‘Stab.’ - [Jada] Yes. I have yet to see it.
We're just shooting that part, you know.
All I know is that it's called ‘Stab,’
and then, the line is, “This might hurt.”
[Laughs] - [Chris] And it so often does.
- Right, you know?
So, we're going to see a movie, ‘Stab,’ and —
- [Chris] And this is you and Omar Epps?
- [Jada] Yes, me and the very handsome Omar Epps
are going to see ‘Stab.’
- [Crew member] Set.
- Ready, and camera, action!
- [Jada, in character] I hate scary movies. I should be studying,
I got a bio lab due. - Excuse me, did I mention that
we have free tickets? Free.
- Sandra Bullock is right down the street.
- Look, baby, nobody wanna pay $7.50
to see no Sandra Bullock movie.
- [Chris] And what's happening?
We couldn't hear your dialogue.
What's happening in this scene here?
- We're just, yeah, going to see ‘Stab.’
Yeah, that's all we doing here [laughs].
Just going to a movie within a movie.
- [Chris] What’d you like about the first one?
- [Omar] I liked the first one, ‘cause you watched it until the end.
You didn't know until the end.
So, it was still a classic horror film,
or suspense film, rather.
- [Wes] The best thing that could happen is,
this kind of a film, which is
available to a very popular, wide audience,
can be also smart and exciting
and innovative and will draw in
both audiences and talent on the directing, acting side
that will get a chance to work in things that they might
not have had a chance, otherwise.
- [Chris] So, will you do number three if they do a third one
on your next hiatus, or will you —
- If I don't die in this one, and I still don't know.
So, you know, I don't know.
It's my last day of filming, you'd think I'd know. - [Laughs]
- But I don't know what happens to myself.
- [Chris] If they make a third one,
would you grow the mustache again?
Would you come back as a twin brother,
without the mustache? - [Laughs]
I don't know if I made it to a third one.
Well, in this one, I have sort of injuries from the last one.
So, if I was to pull through again, or if I was the killer,
because in sequels, the killer never dies.
- [Chris] Do they have you signed for ‘Scream 3,’ or are you gonna
think about that before you —
- I'll be thinking about that [laughs].