For fans of Scream, the lack of Neve Campbell in Scream VI was hard to swallow.
It wasn’t just the fandom that felt the effects, as writer Kevin Williamson recently spoke about the situation that led Campbell to walk away from the long-running slasher franchise.
Speaking on the latest episode of the Happy Horror Time podcast, the filmmaker opened up about what it would take to bring back Campbell to the franchise. “All I can say is, ‘Pay her the money,'” Williamson said during the interview.
“I know her well. I love and adore her, and that’s what she did, and it’s great for her,” he said. “I love everyone involved with Scream, and all I can say is pay her the money. Yes, you heard it, everyone. That’s what I would do. I would give her that… One day, they’ll figure that all out.”
For those who don’t recall, the actress felt undercut with the pay offered when it came down to bringing Neve Campbell back for Scream 6. She implied that if she were a man, she wouldn’t get paid the same as she did for the original in 1996. “In my soul, I just couldn’t do that,” she said at the time. “I couldn’t walk on set feeling that — feeling undervalued and feeling the unfairness, or lack of fairness, around that.”
The conversation for fair pay in the acting world has boiled over from bad negotiations like this between actors and the studio to the full-blown SAG-AFTRA strike we are currently in.
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The Scream franchise did hold strong without the actress though, with Scream VI breaking franchise records by bringing in $168 million at the global box office. A seventh Scream film was announced pre-WGA strike, with Happy Death Day and We Have a Ghost helmer Christopher Landon set to direct.
