Dewey Riley, reporting for duty? David Arquette‘s beloved Scream character was killed off from the franchise in this year’s Scream 5 — but returning for flashbacks or in some other capacity is always a possibility.
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“Oh my gosh, I don’t know. I love playing the character and I love being part of that world and so I wouldn’t take anything off the table,” Arquette, 51, exclusively told Us Weekly. “That’s for sure.”
The Cougar Town alum has played Woodsboro’s deputy since the 1996 original film. After several close calls, he was stabbed by Ghostface in a brutal, bloody hospital hallway in this year’s movie.
Although Arquette seemingly isn’t reprising his role in Scream 6, he has recently reunited with a former costar — Scott Foley. The Alias alum, 50, portrayed Roman Bridger, Sidney Prescott’s [Neve Campbell] half-brother, in 2000’s Scream 3.
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Arquette and Foley play Lambiase and Daniel, respectively, in The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, which was adapted by the 2004 Gabrielle Zevin book by the same name.
“He’s great and an incredible actor. Watching him play this character, he plays a real full of himself writer who was just amazing,” Arquette told Us. “I really enjoyed working with everyone. Kunal [Nayyar], I really got such a kick out of seeing him portray this character and just sit back in awe of these guys and women that I worked with. It was really a special project to be a part of.”
The pair star alongside Nayyar, Lucy Hale and Christina Hendricks, who plays Arquette’s love interest. “She’s so talented,” he gushed of the Good Girls alum. “I was a huge fan. So our characters went to school together, but she kind of didn’t remember my character. I kind of brought a lot of that to it as if like, you know, I’m almost a fan of her, so there’s some nervousness about that. There’s like, ‘Oh, wow, I know your work.’ And it’s kind of almost like we had gone to the same school together and I was just a fan of her, you know, so I could bring that into the scenes. So it made me kind of nervous, but you use all of that stuff and it’s really easy to fall in love with such a wonderful actress on screen.”
Arquette was “really honored” to be a part of the project, which shows the unfolding of A.J.’s [Nayyar] life after he loses his wife, misplaces a valuable book and gains a daughter. Arquette, for his part, played a town police officer who tries to track down the bookseller’s stolen novel.
“He was really a great character, good guy, small town cop. I just wanted to keep his town safe. And he says in the film that he is the old kinda cop that just really loves his community. There’s something about his heart and his natural calm that I really appreciated,” he noted.
Arquette delivers perhaps the most profound line of the drama — “Every bad thing in life is a result of bad timing, every good thing is a result in good timing” — which is a common theme in A.J.’s life.
“Timing’s a real magical thing. And I think a lot of it goes into flow,” Arquette told Us, revealing he resonates with the notion. “If you can get into the flow of life and start making the right choices and just sort of, when you get obstacles, judo through them, so you don’t let them take you down and you really sort of understand yourself, [your] self-worth and where you want to go and what you want to do with your life and where you wanna spend your time. It’s really important once you start understanding the self-love of it all and not beating yourself up. At least for me.”
With timing, the producer has landed various roles in his career that have spanned between TV and film. “It always starts with the script. And then the fellow actors,” he said of how he chooses to direct his energy.
“I’m such a fan of all these incredible people,” he said of the Storied Life of A.J. Fikry cast. “They filmed it in Cape Cod, it’s set on Alice Island, fictional island. But Cape Cod’s such a beautiful setting and it was an interesting world to be a part of. I was studying accents of the locals around town and sort of picking up a nice subtle version. But the turnaround for me, reading the script and having to do the part really quick, so I kinda had to jump in there, do a bunch of scenes right off the bat.”
Arquette, however, most likely won’t watch his work on screen any time soon. “I don’t watch myself too much anymore,” he told Us. “Once you’ve been in it for over 30 years and [look] back on some things and you’re like, ‘Well, I have no recollection of that ever happening,’ which is a really strange feeling. Sometimes you look back and it’s like, ‘Well, is that even me?’ It seems like such a different person.”
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry is in theaters now.
