Scream (1996): Henry Winkler helped Ghostface stuntman get in the killer mindset
When I went to see the slasher Scream on the big screen during its initial theatrical run in 1996, I was very glad to see a familiar face who had been popping up on my family’s TV screens throughout my childhood: Henry Winkler, best known for playing The Fonz in Happy Days. During a Q&A at a recent GalaxyCon, stuntman Lee Waddell, who played the killer Ghostface in the first and second Scream movies, revealed that he was very glad to have Winkler on the set of the movie – so glad, that he was having trouble carrying out his slashing duties. So the legendary actor helped him get into the killer mindset.
Discussing the scene where he kills Winkler’s character, Principal Arthur Himbry, Waddell said (with thanks to Deadline for the transcription), “I loved my time with Henry Winkler. Man, what a class act. That’s the only time out of my career at that point, and I’ve never done it since, he was the only guy that I ever fanboyed out on. He got on set and, you know, I grew up on Happy Days. I’m supposed to stab him and I was so just fanboyed out that I wouldn’t give him the energy to react accordingly. I’m just not giving him what he needs.” So Winkler took him behind the door that Ghostface was supposed to be hiding behind and “[he was] literally hitting me in the shoulder. And he starts kinda screwing with me, and I’m like, ‘What are you doing?’ Well, what he did was he went into the Himbry character, right, as the principal that everybody despised. And he starts effing with me. And he says, ‘I’m gonna suspend you’ … and he’s getting in my face. And I realize what he’s doing, and in that moment, I clicked into Ghostface, and I got pissed. Righteously pissed. I’m like, ‘Oh, I get it.’ I snapped in and he starts screwing with me like this. I’m like, ‘Oh, I am going to gut you like a fish.’ “I give him that burst of energy to get him to react. And it was a great take, and that’s what you guys see on the final cut.“
Directed by Wes Craven from a screenplay by Kevin Williamson, Scream has the following synopsis: After a series of mysterious deaths, a seemingly peaceful community becomes a place where no one is safe, and everyone is a suspect. That is when an offbeat group of friends rally to unlock the town’s deadly secrets, and gets caught up in a lively mix of thrills, chills, and surprises. In addition to Winkler and Waddell, the film stars Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Skeet Ulrich, Jamie Kennedy, W. Earl Brown, Joseph Whipp, Liev Schreiber, and Drew Barrymore, with Roger L. Jackson providing the voice of Ghostface.
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