How Scream 3 and Wes Craven Helped Pave the Way for Emily Mortimer

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How ‘Scream 3’ and Wes Craven Helped Pave the Way for Emily Mortimer

By Perri Nemiroff

Published Jul 14, 2020

'Scream 3' wasn't the only thing Mortimer worked on with Craven.

At this point, some of you may know how strongly I feel about the Scream franchise and Wes Craven’s work in general. (And if you don’t, why not check out my list of the Scream movies ranked right here?) When Emily Mortimer took the time for a Collider Ladies Night interview to promote her new movie Relic and to talk about her career, I absolutely had to ask about her experience working on Scream 3. The thing is though, despite being such a big fan of both Craven and Mortimer, I never knew how much she credited him for helping her carve a path for herself in Hollywood.

After discussing why the Nicole Holofcener-directed film Lovely and Amazing was such a game-changer for her, Mortimer revisited what happened after scoring the role of Angelina Tyler in Scream 3:

scream-3-emily-mortimer — Image via Dimension/Allstar

“I did this audition and I got the job and it was Wes Craven, and I do really have him to thank. Because that was before Lovely and Amazing actually, and I wouldn’t have got Lovely and Amazing, I’m sure, if it hadn’t been for the fact that I’d already been in a movie and done an American accent; you know what I mean? And he was a real advocate of mine and I loved working with him. I just think he was the most gentle, intelligent, quiet, softly spoken guy, but with just such a great humor and intelligence, and such a kind person and he really sort of took to me for some reason. After I worked with him on that, I then did a Paris, je t’aime - you know they did the New York, I Love You and Paris, je t’aime, [series of] shorts all put together and all these kind of filmmakers could make little shorts set in Paris and it was the first one, and he chose me for that. And I did this little short with him and then filmmakers were approached and asked to dress up their kind of muses, or whatever, I don’t know, as famous movie stars and he chose me and dressed me up as Audrey Hepburn for The New York Times.”

I know not everyone feels as strongly about Scream 3 as me, but it seems there’s no denying that that film and collaboration with Craven wound up having a major effect on the trajectory of Mortimer’s career:

“I felt like he was a sort of mentor and he promoted me and he definitely paved the way in a way for people like Nicole Holofcener and others to feel good about casting me in things.”

If you’d like to hear even more about Mortimer’s journey from being a shy kid to delivering a stunning performance in Relic, be sure to keep an eye out for her episode of Collider Ladies Night dropping later this week!