With his reveal being one of the more unique of the franchise, Dermot Mulroney reveals a hidden detail he included to hint at his Scream 6 Ghostface reveal. The latest installment in the horror franchise saw the story shift to New York City as Melissa Barrera’s Sam and Jenna Ortega’s Tara tried to leave behind the terrors of Ghostface in Westboro, only for a new series of killings to bring back their trauma. Also featuring the returns of Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding and Courteney Cox, the movie was a critical and commercial hit, beating Scream 2 to become the highest-grossing in the franchise in the US and Canada.
While speaking with Screen Rant for his new action-thriller Ruthless, Mulroney was asked about his big Scream 6 reveal, specifically the scene in which he has to pretend his daughter was killed by Ghostface. The star revealed a hidden detail he included during the scene was putting a bit of Tiger Balm on the cuff of his sleeve in order to help him look like he was crying, later realizing the character implications this would have. Check out what Mulroney shared below:
So, that movie feeds back on itself, so that I have to, as an actor, figure out a way to make my eyes tear, and be crying, right when I walk out of that door, if you can picture it, and then come toward the street. So, of course, what some actors do in situations like that, maybe use the menthol or some sort of a [trick], right? So, okay, guilty here, guilty as charged. [Laughs] I was doing so so that I could be believably grieving without having to worry as an actor about how to make tears.
But then it occurred to me, “Well, wouldn’t Bailey be doing that, too? Wouldn’t he have put the Tiger Balm on the cuff of his sleeve, and made himself fake cry?” [Laughs] So, it’s fake on top of fake, and then I find out that I’m really doing the fake thing from the movie. So, when you watch that scene out on the street, catch it next time. I thought of it while I’m in the vestibule, about to leave out there, putting Tiger Balm on my eye so that I would cry.
I thought, “Well, wouldn’t Bailey do that?” So that whole scene where he’s faking his daughter’s death — spoiler — you watch me, it’s on the cuff of his sleeve in that scene. I wipe my eye like that. [Wipes sleeve cuff against eye] So, that explains why he’s crying. When you look back on it, that’s an insight of an insight.
How Scream 6’s Bailey Twist Honored The Franchise’s Past
After initially attempting to convince Sam and Tara that Hayden Panettiere’s Kirby was Ghostface after suffering a mental break, it’s revealed in the Scream 6 ending that Bailey is one of the three perpetrators behind the latest killings alongside his daughter, Liana Liberato’s Quinn, and son, revealed to be Ethan. As the trio hold the sisters at knife and gunpoint, they reveal their motivations to be out of revenge against the two for killing their brother/son, Jack Quaid’s Richie, in the prior sequel, having also been behind the campaign to defame Sam online as the real psychopath rather than the prior Ghostface.
Ethan & Quinn Family Link In Scream 6: How It Makes The Twin Ghostface Scene Even Better
Ethan and Quinn’s sibling connection in Scream 6 makes the double Ghostface scene even more iconic, and a standout in the horror franchise.
In addition to tapping into such past red herrings as suspicious characters and fake deaths, Scream 6‘s twist is actually a unique honoring of the franchise’s past by slightly twisting that of the very first sequel, Scream 2. The 1997 movie saw one of the two Ghostface killers to be Nancy Loomis, the mother of original killer Billy Loomis, who is looking to get revenge for Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott killing her son. Much like Ethan in the most recent installment, Nancy also initially introduced herself with a fake name, frequently diverting suspicion from her as a suspect until the reveal, where Sidney recognized her right away.
Similar to Nancy before him, Mulroney’s Bailey in Scream 6 refused to allow his son to be responsible for any of his actions, instead looking to paint the franchise’s new final girl as the real perpetrator in the hopes of keeping Richie’s name in a brighter context. Much like the Scream 2 villain, however, his emotions would get the better of him as Sam still came out victorious and murdered him and his children brutally in revenge for the deaths of her friends while moving forward with Ghostface hopefully behind her. With a new director behind the in-development Scream 7 and both Barrerra and Ortega no longer attached, it will be interesting to see how the next installment continues to honor the franchise’s past.
Scream 6
Scream 6 is a horror-slasher film that brings the terror of the iconic Ghostface to the streets of New York City. The survivors of the 2022 fifth Scream entry have moved to one of the biggest cities in the world – but not even a population of eight million will stop a mysterious new assailant from trying to fulfill the Ghostface legacy.
- Director
- Matt Bettinelli-Olpin , Tyler Gillett
- Cast
- Melissa Barrera , Courteney Cox , Jasmin Savoy Brown , Mason Gooding , Jenna Ortega , Hayden Panettiere
- Rating
- R
- Runtime
- 2h 2m
- Main Genre
- Horror
- Genres
- Horror , Thriller
- Writers
- James Vanderbilt , Guy Busick
- Prequel
- Scream 5
- Studio(s)
- Paramount Pictures
- Distributor(s)
- Paramount Pictures
- prequel(s)
- Scream (2022) , Scream , Scream 3 , Scream 2 , Scream 4
- Franchise(s)
- Scream
