Skeet Ulrich SaysScreamWas 'Almost Shut Down' After Studio Saw the Iconic Drew Barrymore Scene

Mar. 15, 2025

Drew Barrymore’s opening scene inScreamlaunched a slasher series for generations — but the movie almost never made it past Ghostface’s first kill.

Skeet Ulrich, who starred in 1996’s originalScreamalong withMatthew LillardandNeve Campbell, among others, said during a Friday, Feb. 7 panel about the franchise atMegaCon 2025in Orlando that the film’s studio Miramax nearly shut down filming after executives saw that iconic opening scene.

“It took [director Wes Craven] and two of the producers editing the beginning section of the movie together, rushing it to New York from Napa Valley, California, for the [Miramax founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein] to look at it and go, ‘Oh okay, now we get it. Keep going,' " Ulrich said, noting that the movie almost ceased production just “two weeks into filming.”

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“So we were really just up there enjoying ourselves, taking a risk,” Ulrich added of the film’s cast, which largely featured young and unknown actors beyond Barrymore, now 49, andFriendsstarCourteney Cox. “Had no idea that anything like this would ever exist. We’re just doing what we love to do.”

Ulrich reprised his role for appearances in the fifth and sixth entries. It’sunclear whether he will returnfor the currently in-productionScream VII, in which Campbell, 51,returnsafter she sat outScream VIdue to a contract dispute.

Everett

During the MegaCon panel, Ulrich admitted he was “kind of unaware of the fandom that was out here” for theScreamseries until recent years.

“Really when I started doing conventions was when I noticed it, and it’s taken a rise in the last five years that was completely unexpected,” he said. “I don’t know why it is — it’s certainly not anything that we thought about when we were making it.”

“We were a bunch of kids trying to break into the business in a bigger way, but we were really a bunch of actors who got together and took a chance on a film that even Hollywood didn’t necessarily want to take a chance on.”

source: people.com