Why Skeet Ulrich Thought Matthew Lillard And Jamie Kennedy Were Ruining Scream

When Wes Craven's "Scream" was released in 1996, it became an instant hit. The meta-horror film pokes fun at the genre with self-aware characters and infuses familiar tropes with campy humor. "Scream" grossed $173 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo) and spawned four sequels, with the most recent, "Scream 5," hitting theaters on January 14, 2022. The movie turned its final girl Neve Campbell into a bona fide scream queen, and the actress has reprised her role as Sidney Prescott in subsequent films.

"Scream" threw audiences for a loop by killing off movie star Drew Barrymore's character at the start of the film, letting them know upfront this wasn't going to be any ordinary slasher pic. In addition to established Hollywood stars Courteney Cox and David Arquette, the cast included up-and-coming talent, including Campbell, Rose McGowan, Matthew Lillard, Jamie Kennedy, and Skeet Ulrich. The film also gave birth to the iconic Ghostface; the mask donned by the movie's killer(s) in every installment.

Although "Scream" peeks into the minds of two demented killers, Ulrich took his role a little too seriously, causing him to second-guess the on-screen antics of his co-stars.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of "Scream," Entertainment Weekly interviewed Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard, who respectively played the movie's teenage serial killers, Billy Loomis and Stuart "Stu" Macher. Ulrich recalled his irritation while filming the scene in front of the fountain where Sidney, Stu, Tatum Riley (McGowan), and Randy Meeks (Kennedy) are hashing out the ugly details of Woodsboro's latest murders. Kennedy's and Lillard's humorous take went right over his head. "I just remember thinking, 'What are they doing?' Don't they know? Like, 'This isn't funny. This isn't supposed to be funny.' And man, was I wrong," Ulrich said.

At the time, Ulrich didn't get the memo that "Scream" was no "Silence of the Lambs." The "Riverdale" actor told Entertainment Weekly, "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, so I didn't really key into the humor of the story until take one of day one." In fact, it was Lillard who jokingly told Ulrich that he was the one ruining the movie. Obviously, Ulrich caught on, and the rest is movie history.