Some of the most enduring love stories start on a movie set — and for David Arquette and Courteney Cox, it started on one of the scariest. Nearly three decades after the cameras rolled on the first Scream, Arquette is reflecting on how a fictional romance between two of the film’s characters quietly turned into the real thing.
The moment came while Dewey and Gale were lying together in the road during the filming of Scream. Wes Craven told Arquette exactly how to play the look between them: to gaze at Cox like he’d been searching for her his whole life.
Arquette, 55, recently told People that he and Cox first connected on the set of the 1996 horror film. They began dating, married in 1999 and welcomed daughter Coco in 2004. Although they divorced in 2013, they remain friends.
Craven wasn’t just matchmaker — he became a mentor. During Scream 2, the director sat Arquette down amid a difficult period and encouraged him to believe in himself, make better choices and work toward the life he wanted. Arquette said he’s carried that conversation with him ever since.
Now he’s marking the franchise’s milestone with a 14-date U.S. theater tour, Behind the Scream, celebrating the 30th anniversary of Scream and beginning in October.
Craven died in 2015 at 76, and Arquette said revisiting the film still makes him emotional: “We’ve lost Wes, and that’s super sad.”
