Neve Campbell is welcome to return to the Scream franchise, producer William Sherak says.
“I think the door is always open from my perspective,” Sherak says in our latest MovieMaker podcast. “She’s Sidney Prescott. She’s amazing in that role, and then the second part of that is she’s an amazing person.”
Campbell opted not to return to Scream 6 because of a salary dispute. We asked Sherak if brining her back for Scream 7 or a future Scream film is just a matter of money.
“I mean, the answer is a qualified maybe,” he says. “That lives In a different in a different world, and everybody has to do what’s good for them. And I think that the hope is there’s a way to find common ground at some point.”
You can listen to our full interview on Apple, wherever you get your podcasts, or right here on Spotify:
Neve Campbell on Not Returning for Scream 6
Last August, Campbell told People that she passed on Scream 6 because “I did not feel that what I was being offered equated to the value that I bring to this franchise, and have brought to this franchise, for 25 years.”
“And as a woman in this business, I think it’s really important for us to be valued and to fight to be valued,” she added. “I honestly don’t believe that if I were a man and had done five installments of a huge blockbuster franchise over 25 years, that the number that I was offered would be the number that would be offered to a man.”
Since his company, Project X, took the lead on reviving the Scream franchise with last year’s Scream 5, Sherak has emphasized how much he tries to create a “really fun, familial environment for everybody” on the cast and crew, even flying in bagels from all over the world.
He stressed how much he enjoyed working with and hanging out with Neve Campbell on Scream 5.
“I would love to work with her again, Scream or not Scream. She’s just awesome,” he adds. “I would like nothing more than to work with her again.”
Sherak also noted the closeness of the cast, including the new Screamers who constitute the “Core Four” — Jenna Ortega, Melissa Barrera, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding — as they filmed the fifth Scream in Wilmington, North Carolina.
“She’s awesome. Unbelievable as a cast mate to the to the kids in 5,” he says. “We had a ton of fun with her in Wilmington, in a really weird experience, because COVID was still going strong. We spent a lot of time playing board games on the weekend as a group, and she was unbelievably gracious, and somebody who has been playing this character for a long time, and a character that she crushes as a horror icon.”
Sherak’s praise for Neve Campbell echoes the support of the foundational franchise star by the rest of the Scream team, including Scream 5 and Scream 6 co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (also known as Radio Silence). The Scream 6 script takes care to express nothing but love for Sideny, and, by extension, Neve Campbell.
And Ortega had only positive words about Campbell in a recent interview with ET.
“You know, it’s nice because there’s still a protectiveness in the script and that’s something that the actors had naturally over her because obviously we respect her and we want the best for her,” Ortega says. “She’s missed and thought of.”
Scream 6 is now in theaters.
Main image: Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott in Scream 5.
Share:
