Rose McGowan recalls her iconic death scene from SCREAM for NYMag‘s TheVulture just in time for Halloween.
That was me in the garage door, up about six-and-a-half feet, just hanging. Going up and down in the real garage door. The stunt woman they hired was about 30 pounds heavier than me. You can almost usually tell, and this one was specifically focused on the butt. I had bruises from chest to waist. But it was great fun, and I never noticed in the meantime when I’m being hurt.
It was a real garage door that I was actually going up and down in. It was my second film, and I thought every set was going to be like that. Wes Craven is so lovely. He used to be a professor, and he’s professorial. I had to throw a beer bottle at the bad guy. I have bad aim. I shattered the film lens and the camera, so I set them back about five hours. It was all through the night, about 12 hours, except for the five hours that I broke the camera.
You want to stay in the moment. You want to stay in this weird fear place. I added in — right as her neck gets munched — I scream, “Mom!” Which I just thought was hilarious because I actually can’t scream. I can yell, but I can’t scream. And I had to tell Wes that night, “I know your movie is called Scream, but I can’t scream. I have like a physical block.” So I just added, “Mom!” to make it extra sad.
I love that line in there, “Please don’t kill me, Mr. Ghostface. I want to be in the sequel.” The funny part was referencing a lot of horror films in that movie, because I’ve never watched them, so I didn’t know what I was talking about. That’s acting.
I love Rose, but she is seriously missing out in not watching horror movies. They are some of the best cinema.