It feels surreal writing an interview introduction for one of my favorite films of all time, but here we are! In celebration of Scream’s 25th anniversary and the movie’s 4K release, I got the chance to chat with Billy Loomis himself, Skeet Ulrich.

Wes Craven’s Scream played a significant part in turning me into the movie lover I am today. Not only is it the film that made me totally enamored by the horror genre and the thrills it could deliver, but it also served as a gateway to the classics. As a teeny tiny child who probably shouldn’t have been seeing Scream when it hit theaters, I had never seen films like Halloween or Psycho. But right then and there, Scream ignited an insatiable appetite to watch it all.

scream-1996-ghostface-social
Image via Dimension Films

And I did — but I also re-watched Scream over and over again. I’m willing to bet I can recite the movie from top to bottom at this point. That being said, it should come as no surprise that I had a list of questions a mile long for Ulrich including one especially big, burning question that many (including myself) have very much enjoyed overanalyzing over the years; who killed who in Scream? Who did Billy kill and who did Stu (Matthew Lillard) kill? Here's what Ulrich had to say about that:

“Nobody ever knew, to be honest. [Laughs] There were no conversations about it. I know that for insurance reasons etc., Ghostface had to be a stuntman. But yeah, we didn’t know and it never really was part of the conversation. Now though, going to conventions and stuff, I hear it’s a big, burning question and people have theories and have figured things out. And yet, I know Matt Lillard had a conversation with Kevin Williamson and he never thought out who was doing what. I guess that kind of speaks a little bit to the genius of Wes, that people feel like they have clues in there as to who was who. And I think some are more obvious than others in hindsight, obviously. If I’m appearing right after, it’s clearly not me.”

Skeet Ulrich, Jamie Kennedy and Matthew Lillard in Scream.
Image via Dimension Films

Another burning question for Ulrich? What’s his favorite Matthew Lillard one liner? The movie is absolutely packed with unforgettable dialogue, but everything Lillard says in particular feels so unique and specific to him that it winds up turning every single one of his lines into something that sticks and is an utter joy to keep repeating. “Liver alone!” “I’ll be right back.” “My mom and dad are gonna be so mad at me.” I could go on and on. Which one is Ulrich’s favorite? He went with one of the most iconic, unscripted lines of the bunch; “You hit me with the phone, dick!”

“It wasn’t scripted that he gets hit by a phone, it wasn’t scripted that the had a reaction to it. I was venting at having lost Sidney at that moment or knowing where she was, and the fake blood was so sticky that when I went to throw the phone just in frustration, it didn’t go the direction I intended and what you see — it hit him and his reaction was in the moment.”

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Skeet Ulrich, Neve Campbell, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan and Jamie Kennedy in Scream
Image via Dimension Films

Ulrich has quite a few quotable lines himself, and there’s one in particular I find myself repeating often. It’s just one word, but now I can’t say it any other way than how Ulrich delivers it in the movie. It’s after Billy insists that Sidney move on a mere year after her mother’s murder. She runs off into the bathroom, he’s in frame alone and says, “Stupid.” It does feel as though the scene could have ended before Billy uttered that word — but I’m glad it didn’t — so I opted to ask if that moment, which happens to be Billy’s only private moment in the whole movie, was scripted. Here’s what Ulrich said:

“I can’t remember to be honest. And in trying to remember it as you say it, I feel like it wasn’t, but I’m not much of an ad libber so I’m thinking maybe it was. Regardless, I think it is kind of an interesting moment. Once everything’s revealed to reanalyze that moment and what is he talking about necessarily. But I can’t remember. And a lot of times what happens is, you ad lib something like that and then it gets written in the script notes and then it will get printed in the new pages. So it may look like it’s in the original script, but it really wasn’t.”

Looking for more from Ulrich on his experience working on Scream? Be sure to check out our full conversation in the video at the top of this article!

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