Warning: This story contains spoilers from Scream.
New film, familiar faces. David Arquette and ex-wife Courteney Cox had no trouble reuniting on the set of Scream, but their characters were a different story.
In the new movie, Gale Weathers (Cox) and Dewey Riley (Arquette) have split up after marrying earlier in the franchise. Though fans may be unhappy about this development, the Never Been Kissed actor, 50, was a fan of the characters’ new direction.
“It was a really interesting sort of place you find Dewey [in],” the former wrestler exclusively told Us Weekly on Thursday, January 13. “His life hadn’t turned out the way he would’ve wanted or expected, and I thought that was a brave choice — really unique of the incredible writers, James [Vanderbilt] and Guy [Busick], who did a great job.”
The Virginia native and the Friends veteran, 57, met while filming the first Scream, which was released in 1996. The duo, who share 17-year-old daughter Coco, called it quits in October 2010 after 11 years of marriage. The latest Scream film is the first entry in the franchise they’ve filmed since their split, but Arquette said it wasn’t at all “hard” to reunite with his former spouse.
“It’s great when you know people really well and you get to act opposite them,” he told Us on Thursday. “There’s just little stuff about them in general as people, so it makes it really comfortable. And, you know, they say, like, 80 percent of communication is nonverbal. So, the more you know someone, obviously you’re gonna have advantages.”
Earlier this month, Cox revealed that her ex-husband teared up on set while filming his first scene with her in the new movie. “He got very emotional while he was filming it,” the Cougar Town veteran told The New York Times. “He said the next day the crew didn’t look at him.”
Arquette, for his part, said acting with Cox again was a “cathartic experience” despite their shared history. “It’s been 25 years of our lives,” he explained in the same interview. “We’ve grown up together. We have a child together.”
That child, however, is not a fan of the Scream franchise, even though her dad says she does enjoy horror movies. “We tried to watch one of the original Scream [movies] together,” the Eight Legged Freaks star told Us. “She was like, ‘I just can’t.’ [But] she’s excited for this one.”
Arquette’s other kids are too young to see the films, but they still know about their reputation. The actor shares sons Charlie, 7, and Augustus, 4, with wife Christina McLarty, whom he wed in April 2015.
“They know about the mask and stuff,” the Blossom alum told Us, adding that Charlie was excited to see a Scream poster at the theater when his father took him to see Sing 2. “To the people serving the popcorn, he was like, ‘Tell ’em you’re in Scream!’ I was like, ‘You don’t really do that. That’s not something you do.'”
Scream is in theaters now.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
