Why Courteney Cox Worried David Arquette Would ‘Hurt’ Himself on ‘Scream’ Set

Why Courteney Cox Worried David Arquette Would ‘Hurt’ Himself on ‘Scream’ Set originally appeared on Parade.

David Arquette revealed why Courteney Cox was worried that he would “hurt” himself while filming the Scream franchise.

Arquette, 53, spoke to author Ashley Cullins about his experience filming the franchise for her tell-all book, Your Favorite Scary Movie: How the Scream Films Rewrote the Rules of Horror. During their conversation, he opened up about how challenging it was to film Scream 2.

“Scream 2 was really hard for me,” the actor, who played Dewey Riley in the franchise, said. “My mom was really sick and about to die. When we had gotten back to L.A., [director Wes Craven] just sat me down and gave me this really sweet man-to-man, fatherly conversation that had a huge impact on my life. It was just about, ‘I know you’re going through a hard time, but I really want to see you do great things and get your life together.’”

He also revealed that his romance with co-star Cox, 61, was affected as he navigated the loss of his mother.

“At the time, I was dating Courteney, we were on-and-off. And he said, ‘I think she really likes you, but she’s scared like a lot of people are that you’re gonna hurt yourself,’” Arquette said of his conversation with Craven. “It was something that not a lot of people do in Hollywood.”

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After they met on set of the 1996 movie Scream, Arquette and Cox got married in 1999 and welcomed their daughter, Coco, in 2004. The pair split in 2013, and Arquette went on to marry his wife, Christina McLarty, with whom he shares kids Charlie, 8, and Augustus, 5.

“It kind of was like life imitating art. The meta elements went even beyond the story,” Arquette told Cullins. “We ended up having our daughter and that was in large part because of the advice Wes had given me to get my life together.”

Your Favorite Scary Movie: How the Scream Films Rewrote the Rules of Horror was released on Tuesday, August 19.

Why Courteney Cox Worried David Arquette Would ‘Hurt’ Himself on ‘Scream’ Set first appeared on Parade on Aug 19, 2025

This story was originally reported by Parade on Aug 19, 2025, where it first appeared.