Yahoo Movies Scream VI writers break down that history-making Gale Weathers scene
There are plenty of Scream 2 Easter eggs in Scream VI, but writers Guy Busick and James Vanderbilt were excited to discover they could still make franchise history.
"We realized Gale Weathers had never had a Ghostface phone call, which was a crazy kind of thing," Vanderbilt tells EW. "It's like, 'How do we get six movies and never have a phone call?' But on the other hand, it's like, "Thank you so much, [Scream franchise creator Kevin Williamson], that she's never had a phone call because we get to finally do it."
Busick and Vanderbilt crafted a tension-filled moment that sees the boyfriend of Courteney Cox's Gale die before she takes on Ghostface in an intense hand-to-hand battle. But the drama of that phone call begins with the scene prior, which features Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara (Jenna Ortega) walking through Central Park as bait and Kirby (Hayden Panetierre), Chad (Mason Gooding), and Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) monitoring their Ghostface phone call from a van nearby.
Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group Courteney Cox in 'Scream VI'
"We loved also the idea that in the Scream 2 to VI kind of parallel, that you're maybe waiting for the Randy character to go. So we wanted to play with that tension of, 'Are we going to lose Mindy somewhere in this movie?' Putting her in a similar scenario that Uncle Randy went out in," says Vanderbilt. "I love how it works out in the movie, with her explaining to Kirby why this is such a terrible idea: 'And stab, stab, stab, no more Randy.'"
"And then to take that tension and transfer it over to Gale immediately..." he continues. "Because you're like, 'Well, someone's probably going to die here.' And then the twist being, he's nowhere near us. He's at this apartment on the Upper West Side. And then it's like, 'Oh, no!' And hopefully that adds to the dread of, 'Is this going to be the big death of this movie? Much like Randy in 2, is Gale's time at hand?'"
Of course, they had to break up that tension with some classic Gale quips about her boyfriend's muscles and her "brains and sex appeal."
"Gale's going to Gale," Busick says with a laugh.
Filming the scene "took a little while," Cox adds. "That was the bulk of my time filming. It was very physical. It was my favorite scene that I've ever had in a Scream movie because I got to really fight with Ghostface," continues the actress, who did most of her own stunts in the scene. "I can't believe that at this point in my life, I was able to do all that stuff. And I think the directors, they're so great...[but] I was like, is this normal, me doing this? I loved it; it was great. I was proud of myself."
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