User:FishLoveHam/Sam Carpenter (Scream)

Sam Carpenter is a fictional character in the Scream franchise, played by Melissa Barrera. Sam first appears in Scream 5 (2022).

Appearances
Sam first appears in Scream 5 (2022) and returns in Scream 6 (2023).

After having left for years, Sam returns to Woodsboro with her boyfriend Richie Kirsch (Jack Quaid) to meet up with her estranged sister Tara (Jenna Ortega) after she hears news that she was brutally attacked by Ghostface. She meets her in the hospital. Later at the hospital, Sam is chased by Ghostface, before telling Tara that she has been struggling with hallucinations of Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), who Sam learned was her biological father as a teenager. The paternity caused the family to break and Sam to become estranged. In search of help, Sam and Richie meet with Dewey Riley (David Arquette), as he has survived numerous Ghostface attacks. He joins them at Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad Meeks-Martin's (Mason Gooding) house to discuss things. When Ghostface attempts another attack on Tara, Sam and Dewey save her, but this causes Dewey to be killed. Sam is then met by Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) at the hospital, who arrived after hearing of Dewey's death. Sidney asks Sam for help to stop the killer, but Sam declines and leaves town with Richie and Tara. They instead arrive at Amber Freeman's (Mikey Madison) for a party to honor Wes Craven. After guests clear out, Amber reveals to everyone that she is the killer, and Richie reveals himself as Amber's accomplice and Tara's attacker. Amber and Richie reveal that their plan was to provide new material for the Stab franchise, as they had become disappointed with the franchise's trajectory, with the intention of framing Sam as the killer. While Sidney and Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) take down Amber, Sam is able to get the upper hand on Richie, stabbing him to death.

Almost a year later, Chad, Mindy, Sam, and Tara now live in Manhattan, New York, where Sam attends Blackmore college. She is now in therapy due to her killer tendancies, with her therapist dropping her as a client and threatening to report her behaviour to the police. Her new roommate, along with Sam, is named Quinn Bailey (Liana Liberato). Since the events of Scream 5, rumours have spread that Sam was the Woodsboro killer and that she used Richie as a scapegoat due to being Billy Loomis's daughter. Sam's drivers liscence was found at the scene of a recent Ghostface crime scene. Sam and Tara recieve a call from Ghostface, who says he will make sure the world knows Sam is a liar and a killer, promising to punish her. He attacks them inside a bodega, but they escape right as the police arrive. They are questioned by Detective Wayne Bailey (Dermot Mulroney), who says he found DNA at murdered Jason Carvey and Greg Bruckner's (Tony Revolori and Thom Newell) apartment which belonged to Richie. Once the sisters are harassed by press, Tara punches Gale due to publishing a book about Scream 5. The group theorise this new killing spree is a mocking of the events of Scream 2. The "core four" hang out at the Carpenter apartment before being attacked by Ghostface, again escaping. They discover that the decoy masks have been from a weird museum thingy for the Stab films memorabilia. They go to the theatre, where Sam sees Ghost billy, who gives her advice on what to do. Sam realise Kirby has been fired, so try escaping but it is locked. Two Ghostfaces then stab Chad repeatedly. Bailey, Quinn, and Ethan (Jack Champion) are revealed as the killers. They are revealed to be family of Richie, who want to kill Sam and Tara as revenge. Sam, Tara, and Kirby take down the three Ghostfaces. Sam brutally stabs Bailey.

Development
Melissa Barrera was instantly interested in Sam's character after reading the script, enjoying the darker take on the final girl trope. The actress called the contradiction in the character not necessarily being a hero or a villain "fascinating".

Barrera believed her casting was a step forward for representation, saying "the role was written to be played by a white girl".

Talking on a potential Scream 7, Barrera was excited about where the character could potentially go, particularly on the character's mental health.

Barrera shot all the scenes where Sam and Billy are together alone. "Because of COVID, Skeet [Ulrich] didn’t come until the very end of the shoot. He was there for a couple days, and we shot all of his stuff".

Well, first things first, do you remember the first time you saw a Scream movie?

I was probably 11 or 12, and I saw the first three movies because they were already out. And then I became obsessed with scary movies because of them. After the Scream movies, I started watching all of the Final Destination movies and then the I Know What You Did Last Summer movies. I watched everything I could get my hands on. So I grew up with those movies, and it’s kind of crazy that I got to be in one. I still can’t believe it. (Laughs.)

So I didn’t know going into Scream (2022) that you’d be the central figure in this story. Do you remember the circumstances in which you found out that you’d basically play the new protagonist?

I read the script before I got the part so I knew that the part was big. But I didn’t know if it was a one-off thing or not. In a lot of the other movies, there are characters who come in and have really big roles, but then in the next one, they go back to the originals. So it wasn’t until I rewatched the first three movies that I recognized the formula. There’s a formula to the movies where there’s a first kill, they cut to black and then it opens on Sidney. And then you follow Sidney through the entire movie. And now, they open on Sam. So I was like, “Oh, OK. This is big!” So I tried not to think about it too much and I tried not to harp on it, because I was already so nervous. I knew that I was going to have to act opposite [original stars] Neve, Courteney [Cox] and David [Arquette]. So I was trying to keep it together, not lose my cool and do the best job that I could. I didn’t want to let anybody down. There was a lot of pressure in that sense. [Original director] Wes [Craven] was no longer with us and we tried to honor him in every way possible. We also wanted to give the fans a worthy fifth installment. So there were a lot of emotions.

I loved all your scenes with Jenna [Ortega] as I was quite invested in that relationship. Did the two of you read together over Zoom during the casting process?

Yes, we did! That’s actually how I met her. I knew of her because I’d watched her work, and I thought she was brilliant. They told me I was going to read with a few actresses for Tara, and I saw that Jenna was one of them. I was like, “Oh my god, I hope she gets it.” And it’s not because the other actresses weren’t great; I just was a fan of Jenna’s. So maybe it was that kind of admiration that I had for her, but there was an immediate connection between us. It just felt different with her. Even on Zoom! Going into a Zoom chemistry read, what even is that? Zoom and chemistry, how do you even measure that? But it was so easy with her. And when we met, I just fell more in love with her. I’m the oldest sister of four; I have three younger sisters, so I immediately just adopted her. I was like, “You’re my sister for life!” She’s also familiar with the sister dynamic. She is one of six or seven kids in her family, I think. She’s one of the middle ones. So she has older sisters, and we just fell into it. It felt so easy with her. Actually, the first day of shooting for us was the scene where Sam confesses everything to Tara about who her dad is.

Did you perform that confession scene for your Zoom chemistry read as well?

Yes, we did. During that Zoom, I just felt like I sucked. I was like, “They’re going to fire me after this chemistry read,” even though it wasn’t my audition. I already had the part, and they were just auditioning for Tara. But after that Zoom, I was like, “Oh my God, I bombed. I sucked. They’re probably going to recast me.” And then I got a call from Matt and Tyler right after the Zoom meeting, and they were like, “We have a very clear choice, but we want to know how you felt.” And I was like, “Jenna Ortega. And I’m sorry that I sucked, guys.” And they were like, “No, the chemistry between you guys was there, even on Zoom.” It’s hard to say it when it’s you, but they said that they felt an instant connection between us, even on the computer. So I’m just glad that they didn’t fire me and that I got to do this with her.

When you’re on the phone with Ghostface, who’s actually performing his line readings out of frame?

(Laughs.) Oh my God, it was a whole thing. My first scene with Ghostface was the attack in the hospital break room where the vending machines are. So there was a PA reading the lines with me, and it was so bad. I felt so bad for him because it literally was not his job. He wasn’t an actor, and he wasn’t giving me anything. It just wasn’t scary. So I just felt off. Acting scared is one of the hardest things because you feel so stupid and you have to get out of that mind-set of feeling like an idiot. You have to try to just go for it, but I was in my head. So I went to Matt and said, “Matt, we need to do something about Ghostface. I know that Roger [L. Jackson] is not available …” Roger actually read with Jenna when they shot the initial scene. He was actually on the phone with her live, but he couldn’t do that every day, all day. So I told Matt that I needed someone with a little more emotion and sounds a little more menacing. So Matt, our co-director, was the one reading the Ghostface lines with me.

So what’s it like to have a showdown with Ghostface? Is it a violent dance sequence in a lot of ways?

It is, yeah! There’s choreography that we’ve rehearsed, and we’ve been taught how to sell certain falls. We’ve also been taught how to do certain moves or pushes with props, like the chair that I grab in that hospital attack. There’s a stunt double obviously, and it depends on your comfort level. I did almost all of my sequences in the movie — except for falling down the stairs. I’m just very intense that way. I was like, “Let me do it!” And they were like, “No, Melissa. You can’t do it.” And I was like, “Yes, I can!” So they finally gave in and let me do the entire [hospital] sequence by myself. And I ended up hurting my wrist from falling on the ground repeatedly. It wasn’t because I fell in the wrong way; it was because I did it 40 or 50 times. So there was a lot of landing on my wrist when Ghostface came from behind the door and hit me.

Funny story about that scene … There are rubber knives and real knives that we would switch in and out. And we did most of it with a rubber knife, but when they would get closer and you could see the glint, the shimmer, of the knife, they would switch it out for the real knife. They would tell me, obviously, when we were using the real knife. But apparently, the gloves that Ghostface wears are super slippery and it’s really hard to hold on to anything. So we were doing a part of that sequence where I was on one side of a round table and he was on the other, doing stabs across the table to try and reach me. Well, during one of those stabs, the knife flew out of his hand and hit the window right behind me. And it was a real knife! (Laughs.) And everyone got so freaked out. Luckily, it went a little off to the side, away from me. But from then on, they had to glue the knife to the glove so that it didn’t happen anymore. But poor Keith [Ward], our stunt guy, was mortified. I felt so bad for him. I was like, “I’m fine!” And they were like, “Yeah, but it could’ve gone really, really wrong. Imagine if you would’ve gotten stabbed with a flying knife!” So that was my first experience with Ghostface.

Since we’re on the subject of Billy Loomis, was Skeet actually on set with you during those reflective moments? Or was VFX wizardry added to a double?

It was both! Sam always saw him reflected in a mirror because it’s a part of herself. So it’s always through a mirror when Sam sees Billy, and I shot all of those scenes by myself. Sometimes, I would shoot those scenes with a tennis ball on a stand, and someone would also read his lines. And because of COVID, Skeet didn’t come until the very end of the shoot. He was there for a couple days, and we shot all of his stuff. So I was there for him, doing my performance for him, so that he knew what to give me. Because I had already shot all of my stuff. I wish that he had been for there all of my stuff when I shot it, but sadly, COVID … So we couldn’t do it.

Did you go back and watch the original movie just to see if you could adopt a tic or mannerism of Billy’s?

A hundred percent! And I did sneak some in there. So I hope that the hard-core fans catch them.

After the second hospital attack involving Dewey, Sidney tried to give Sam advice on how to handle the situation, but Sam resisted as she chose flight over fight. What made her say, “Thanks, but no thanks,” to Sidney?

Staying in Woodsboro is just too painful for her. She was using drugs and alcohol and acting out as a way to escape a reality she could not handle. So the idea of having to deal with something that she’s been running away from would be taking steps back. At this point in her life, she has a job, she has a boyfriend and she feels like she’s finally made it out of the dark cloud. But then all of this starts to happen. She knows that it’s related to her and that she’s the reason it’s happening to Tara. So it’s scary, but she just wants out. She doesn’t have the fighting instinct in that way. She has a different fighter instinct because she’s tough, but she doesn’t have any inclination to stay around a figure that has haunted her for so long. There’s just no interest. She’s run away; that’s her MO. She’s a runner. If it weren’t for Ghostface who lured her back to the Macher house, she would’ve just gone away and put that in the past. But then there would be no amazing act three that we have in the movie, so they had to bring her back.

Yeah, I love when you unleash the beast in act three. You’ve even got that great action movie moment, “Never fuck with the daughter of a serial killer.”

After the second hospital attack involving Dewey, Sidney tried to give Sam advice on how to handle the situation, but Sam resisted as she chose flight over fight. What made her say, “Thanks, but no thanks,” to Sidney?

Staying in Woodsboro is just too painful for her. She was using drugs and alcohol and acting out as a way to escape a reality she could not handle. So the idea of having to deal with something that she’s been running away from would be taking steps back. At this point in her life, she has a job, she has a boyfriend and she feels like she’s finally made it out of the dark cloud. But then all of this starts to happen. She knows that it’s related to her and that she’s the reason it’s happening to Tara. So it’s scary, but she just wants out. She doesn’t have the fighting instinct in that way. She has a different fighter instinct because she’s tough, but she doesn’t have any inclination to stay around a figure that has haunted her for so long. There’s just no interest. She’s run away; that’s her MO. She’s a runner. If it weren’t for Ghostface who lured her back to the Macher house, she would’ve just gone away and put that in the past. But then there would be no amazing act three that we have in the movie, so they had to bring her back.

Yeah, I love when you unleash the beast in act three. You’ve even got that great action movie moment, “Never fuck with the daughter of a serial killer.”

Yeah!

When you first saw that powerful image of Sam standing triumphant next to Sidney and Gale, what went through your mind?

Oh my gosh, I couldn’t believe it. It was a pinch-me moment that literally brought tears to my eyes because I was standing beside Courteney and Neve. And that’s also why this franchise is so good, because it’s always been focused on badass women. So the fact that I got to be a part of that trio is so surreal. It’s still incredible to me that I got to be a part of it and that I got to work alongside them and learn so much from them. And now I have that image immortalized forever. I get to have that image and those memories from that day, and I’ll remember how much fun we had.

When you read the script for the first time, were you relieved that Tara wasn’t the co-killer? It really would’ve stung if Sam and Tara didn’t get a second chance to be sisters.

I’m trying to remember because the first script that I read had different killers. They gave us different versions of the ending, and they had produced different versions of the ending as a precaution in case someone leaked the ending. They could cover themselves this way. But in my script, I remember the killers were both female. I don’t think it was Tara; I think it was Amber [Mikey Madison] and Mindy [Jasmin Savoy Brown] or Amber and Liv [Sonia Ben Ammar]. And when I talked to the directors, I was like, “Oh my God, it’s so amazing that it’s all women at the end. The killers are women and the survivors are women. It’s so epic!” And they were like, “Yeah, that’s not the real ending.” So I was like, “OK! I’m still going to be excited.” So they didn’t give me the right ending, and I actually didn’t know who the killers were going to end up being until later.

Did you shoot any fake endings or takes just to keep people guessing?

No, we didn’t shoot any fake scenes or anything like that. We were pretty protected in Wilmington, and during COVID and with the budget that we had, we didn’t have the luxury of just spending more time shooting other scenes that we weren’t going to use. It sounds like fun doing that, but we didn’t do any of that.

Would you jump at the chance to play Sam again?

A hundred percent. There’s nothing I would rather do, especially if I get to go back with Jenna, Mason [Gooding] and Jasmin, who are the other survivors. I would also work for Matt and Tyler until the end of time. I would do anything with them. They did such a good job with this and they created such an incredible environment to shoot this movie. So I just want to repeat it again and again. The environment that Wes created kept Courteney, David and Neve coming back, and I think Matt and Tyler have done their best to try and replicate that experience for everyone. They’ve done a really good job.

                

Reception