Skeet Ulrich initially thought Matthew Lillard and Jamie Kennedy were ruining Scream by being funny

Scream is one of the biggest slashers of all time because it’s thrilling—but it’s also hilarious. Matthew Lillard injects his comedy chops into it, with lines like “My parents are gonna be so pissed at me!” (his reaction to being caught as Billy’s accomplice to the murders). But turns out that, initially, his co-star Skeet Ulrich didn’t understand that Lillard was supposed to be the comedic relief in the classic horror movie.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly for Scream’s 25th anniversary, Ulrich admits that he didn’t quite pick up on the darkly humorous tone Wes Craven set for the movie. Ulrich explains that he’d seen the movie as being about “two killers in high school” so he “was researching serial killers and the psychology of them” without keying into “the humor of the story until take one of day one.”

That first take was the fountain scene, where Lillard’s character Stu flippantly talks about Ghostface’s first murder victim Casey (Drew Barrymore), who also happened to be his ex-girlfriend. Billy (Ulrich), Sidney (Neve Campbell), and Tatum (Rose McGowan) are disturbed that he’d talk about their friend being killed with a jokey tone, but Stu only takes it further.

He and Randy (Jamie Kennedy) start cracking more jokes about it, and Stu comes up with the pun “You better liver alone.” He’s so proud of it that he repeats it twice, making himself laugh.

“I just remember thinking, ‘What are they doing?’ Don’t they know?,” says Ulrich in the interview.

Lillard jokes, “You’re ruining the movie!”

Ulrich adds, “Like, ‘This isn’t funny. This isn’t supposed to be funny.’ And man, was I wrong.”

Speaking of Scream, there’s a fifth movie set to come out on January 14, 2022. Ulrich and Lillard, who were killed off in the first movie, won’t appear, but survivors from the franchise will return, including Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette.