Actress Aubrey Plaza has revealed she went 'full method' during an audition for a role in Scream 4, which ended up costing her the role. In an interview, Plaza revealed that deciding to go method ended up making her 'look insane' in front of late director Wes Craven.
Scream 4 was a return to the franchise after 11 years of dormancy. It was a "requel," a reboot-slash-sequel that featured Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette reprising their roles as Sidney Prescott, Gale Weathers, and Dewey Riley. The movie also featured a new, teen cast that had to go up against Ghostface and had plenty of the satire Scream is known for. It did not do amazingly, however, and ultimately the franchise went dormant for another eleven years before the franchise returned for a fifth installment this year, simply titled Scream.
During an appearance on Hits Radio, Plaza recounted the story of her audition. “One of the earlier auditions I had was for Wes Craven for like the Scream remake or something,” she stated. “They told me, ‘You’re going in to audition to play a character that you eventually find out is the killer’ or whatever. So, I took that really literally, and I was thinking, ‘Alright, I’m gonna dress like the killer.'” Plaza said she dressed less-than-glamorously, calling her look "frumpy," which made her obviously look like a killer. The casting crew told her that she simply appeared too obviously antagonistic, whereas Scream 4's Ghostface was meant to be an unassuming character.
Plaza conceded that the approach was not the best to take, saying, "Anyway, I blew that one. Didn’t make it very far. I went full method and it was bad, really bad idea.” The slasher whodunnit was perfected by the Scream franchise, as each film invariably has the killer revealed to be a member of the new cast. Some reveals are more obvious than others, and it appears the casting director felt Plaza was too obvious a choice for the killer.
The role Plaza appears to have been talking about is likely that of Jill Roberts, Sidney's teenage cousin who wants to capture her own dose of fame by killing her cousin and friends and taking Sidney's mantle of the final girl. The Jill Roberts role eventually went to Emma Roberts. The twist in Scream 4 essentially makes Jill, the Sidney stand-in in the "requel," the killer, and is supposed to turn the series' conventions on their head.
Plaza did go on to play horror when she did the contentious Child's Play reboot in 2019. She played Karen Barclay, Andy's mother, a very different role than if she played the killer.
Scream 4 is available on Paramount Plus.
Source: Hits Radio