A list of collaborations between actors in the Scream franchise, trivia details about the actors, and callbacks to related actors in the films themselves.
Emma Roberts and Rory Culkin also starred together on Lymelife, making Scream 4 their third movie collaboration. Emma's character also seduces Rory's character in that movie.
W. Earl Brown appeared in a 2001 episode of the television show, Charmed where Rose McGowan who played Tatum Riley, later starred in as played Paige Matthews.
Rose McGowan was forced to dye her hair blonde for the role of Tatum in order to look different then Neve Campbell, seeing that at the time they both had black hair.
Shannen Doherty and Charisma Carpenter tried out for the role of Sarah Darling but it eventually went to Jenny McCarthy. Ironically, Shannen was on Charmed also, however she left the series before Jenny had a role three seasons later. Charisma also had a small recurring part on Charmed with Rose McGowan and was a main character on Buffy, with Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Neve Campbell and Skeet Ulrich played opposite each other in The Craft, the same year Scream (1996) released.
Rutina Wesley signed on for Scream 4 as Marcie Perkins before being dropped due to budget cuts. Anna Paquin, her True Blood co-star, had a role nonetheless as Rachel in the movie-within-a-movie of Stab 7.
Neve Campbell had a recurring role on Medium, in which David Arquette's sister, Patrica is the main star in.
Anna Pacquin and Adam Brody were in The Movie The Romantics
In all of the Scream movies, a stuntman is usually used for the role as Ghostface except for parts when they reveal themselves. However, in Scream when Randy Meeks is watching TV and Ghostface appears behind him, that was actually Skeet Ulrich. He specifically asked if he could wear the mask for at least one scene.
Anthony Anderson appears prominently in the Scary Movie franchise, which began as a parody of Scream, while also using its original title.
Emma Roberts dyed her hair brown for the role of Jill Roberts in order to look more mysteriously than her being blonde. This last happened in Scream where Rose McGowan had to dye her blonde in order to differ her appearance to Neve Campbell.
Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec who are the screenwriters and producers of Scream later worked on the television show The Vampire Diaries together.
Sarah Michelle Gellar discusses Party of Five with her friend. This show stars Neve Campbell and implies she exists separate from Sidney Prescott in a fourth wall break moment. This is similar to Carrie Fisher portraying someone who looks exactly like herself named Bianca in Scream 3, bitter that the one "who sleeps with George Lucas" got the part. In another wall-break moment, Bianca asks Gale asks her, "Or do you want me to tell you who you look like?" Gale smiles, knowing she means Courteney Cox.
Gale Weathers in Scream 2 mentions nude photos of her leaked, but it was just "her head" with Jennifer Aniston's body.
Sidney jokingly adds that Tori Spelling would play her in a movie and in Scream 2, Tori Spelling does indeed play her inStab.
Kirby mentions the movie Piranha and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Wes Craven created The Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Scream 2 actor, Jerry O'Connell is in the movie Piranha along with Steven R. McQueen who stars in The Vampire Diaries which was created by Scream writer, Kevin Williamson.
Scott Foley worked on Courtney Cox's show Cougar Town for a couple of episodes.
To keep Drew Barrymore crying and looking scared, Wes Craven kept telling her real life stories about animal cruelty. She is a keen animal lover in real life.
Scott Foley appeared in a Scream parody episode of Dawson's Creek with Joshua Jackson (who appeared in Scream 2). This scene was used in Scream 5, where Tara watches it from the hospital. In Scream-universe context, it is Roman Bridger portraying the character in a brief stint as an actor.
In Grey's Anatomy, Neve and Patrick portray siblings, but in Scream, they are romantically linked and later shown to be a married couple. Neve Campbell joked about this, upon discovering Mark was Sidney's husband in 2022. She also joked about playing his sibling after portraying "pseudo love interests" in 2012.[1]
In Grey's Anatomy, Patrick's character is called Derek, who loathes his best friend, Mark for sleeping with his wife. On Scream, Sidney's previous love interest before Mark (Dempsey) was called Derek.
In each film, a killer comes back to life for "one last scare".
Feeling bad about the line "With my luck they'd cast Tori Spelling", Neve Campbell sent Tori Spelling flowers and an apologetic card.
The scene where Billy sneaks into Sidney's room is almost identical to the scene where Glen sneaks into Nancy's room in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).
In the beginning of Scream (1996) when Casey's parents come and hear her choking on the phone, Casey's dad says "Listen, I want you to drive to the McKenzies and call the police." At the end of the movie Halloween (1978), Laurie Strode tells the two little kids she's babysitting to walk over to the MacKenzie's house to call the police. In Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), Laurie repeats something similar, telling her son and his girlfriend to go to the Beckers, a tie-in, as Kevin Williamson penned the original Halloween 7 script. Finally, in Scream 5, Liv McKenzie is seen, a member of this family.
Linda Blair, who portrays the possessed daughter, Reagan in The Exorcist appears in Scream (1996). Jamie Lee Curtis also appears through archive footage of Halloween (1978). In Scream 4's callback and remake theme, Robbie references both in comparison to Sidney.
The killer's costume in the Scream movies has come to be known as "Ghostface". When the costume's package is first shown to the Police Chief by Dewey, it is actually called "Father Death". The only time "Ghostface" is actually mentioned is by Tatum right before she dies, when she calls him "Mr. Ghostface".
Naming the costume "Father Death" was a red herring clue to the possibility that Sidney's father, Neil, was the real killer.
Billy is named after Sam Loomis, the name of two different protagonists in Psycho (1960) and Halloween (1978). His daughter is also homaged through this. She is Sam Loomis, going by Sam, and while Carpenter is her legal surname, she is Billy's daughter and a Loomis.
Nancy Loomis is a blunt expy of Pamela Voorhees. She shares identical motives with her, and both were mothers to a single child who turned out to be a killer.
Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant play husband and wife on Netflix’s Santa Clarita Diet. Their on-screen daughter is played by actor Liv Hewson, who also acts as Jasmin Savoy Brown’s girlfriend on Yellowjackets. Liv Hewson has also acted alongside Mason Gooding in Let it Snow (2019).
Sarah Michelle Gellar as Helen Shivers in I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Sarah Michelle Gellar starred as Helen Shivers in I know What You did Last Summer which was written by Kevin Williamson and came out the same year as Scream 2. Helen has a similar scene to Hallie Mcdaniel and Sidney Prescott when Mickey Altieri kills the officers protecting them and they became trapped. Helen is able to escape but is ultimately killed by Ben Willis just like Hallie was killed by Mickey. Also just like Randy Meeks, Helen is killed not far from bystanders.
