Exclusive! Willa Fitzgerald Took Us Behind-the-Scenes on Set of MTV’s ’Scream’ Lots of blood, but no spoiler alerts. Promise.
After watching any of the teasers for MTV’s upcoming series Scream, you’ll realize something pretty quickly: It’s not for the faint of heart. There’s just as much blood and guts as you would see while watching the original movies the show’s based on, but this time you get to come out from hiding under your blanket during commercial breaks.
After seeing Bella Thorne’s gruesome death in the first eight minutes of the show’s premiere a little early, we couldn’t help but wonder how MTV makes everything look so realistic. And how the actors feel about being in a series where they’re pretty much traumatized by a creepy mystery killer on the loose. Lucky for us, Willa Fitzgerald, who plays the lead of Emma Duvall in the show, took us behind-the-scenes and told us exactly what really goes down on set. Read on if you dare.
Teen Vogue: What’s it like starring in a horror series with so much gore?
Willa Fitzgerald: Honestly, it’s a ton of fun. I’ve always liked getting dressed up, and I’ve also always liked getting messy. So what’s better than getting dressed up and getting messy? The scare sequences and the gore sequences are always really exciting to film. There’s a lot of running, a lot of energy, and the whole crew working together at top speed to capture it all on camera. The sequences are also always really technical. It’s almost like choreographing a dance.
TV: How long did it take to get all made up in the fake blood?
WF: It totally depends on the situation! If I’m just getting generally bloody, it’s usually faster than getting made-up to look pretty. They just splatter me with some fake bloodwhich tastes a lot like syrupand maybe dab some extra blood on with sponges.
TV: Was it kind of terrifying seeing yourself like that?
WF: It’s definitely surprising! I tend to forget when I’m made-up like that and then when you see yourself in the mirror, you can make yourself jump. The goriest part is cleaning up afterward—it looks like the shower scene in Psycho.
TV: Does the cast play any pranks on each other? In this type of environment, it seems impossible not to!
WF: I think we’ve all found out how funny screaming is, especially if we all scream together. It’s just this humongous explosion of sound. It’s so surprising that you have to laugh after the take’s over.
TV: What’s been the scariest part of filming the show?
WF: Some of the locations that we work in are actually abandoned buildings, where it looks like people just left without taking anything with them. We can definitely freak each other out by speculating about what happened to make people leave so quickly.
Also, when we’re shooting the scare sequences, I can get pretty worked up with all the running and heavy breathing. You can quickly convince yourself that you’re actually running away from something real. But then the take ends and so does the panic—it’s hard to be scared after the director’s called ’cut.’
TV: What are some set secrets to making this show look realistic that no one would know about while watching?
WF: We’re filming in Louisiana where the daily humidity can be close to 100% and most days is somewhere between 90 and 100. In a lot of our outdoor scenes, we wear long sleeve and pants since it’s supposed to be during the school year. You hopefully won’t ever be able to tell how much we were sweating while we filmed those scenes thanks to our amazing makeup team coming and patting down our faces in between every take. The one exception to this is when they actually mist us with water to make it look like we’re so scared that we’re sweating.
Be sure to watch the premiere of Scream tomorrow night at 10pm ET on MTV.
Related:
This Creepy New ’Scream’ Trailer Will Make You Feel Like Someone’s Watching
