How did Drew Barrymore break the final girl mold in Scream?

Drew Barrymore recently revealed in an interview why she asked Wes Craven to kill off her character of Casey Becker early in Scream.

Drew Barrymore has been a beloved actress ever since she stole moviegoers’ hearts as Gertie in Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Hard to believe that she has been making movies for 40 years now.

Like many of her fellow thespians, Drew has a history in horror. Starting in 1980 when she played William Hurt and Blair Brown’s daughter, Margaret in Ken Russell’s brilliant film, Altered States.

She later starred in two Stephen King movies, Firestarter and Cat’s Eye. Not to mention she had a bit part in Waxwork II: Lost in Time as a Vampire Victim. Of course, who can forget her in the chilling Doppelganger as a woman being stalked by her insane and deadly alter ego?

The list of her genre work continued with her acting in and executive producing Donnie Darko with Jake Gyllenhaal. Culminating in her recent Netflix venture, the hilarious zombie comedy, Santa Clarita Diet which lasted three seasons.

So, clearly, she has an affinity for the darker side of cinema. However, one of her more prominent gigs was in the original Scream.

Recently, the actress was a guest on Sean Evans’ unique talk show, Hot Ones. Here, the actress was being interviewed about her appearance in Scream while sampling a wide variety of hot wings. The key to At First We Feast’s segment is that the interviewees must cope with the wing sauce increasing in heat levels while still maintaining their composure and focus on the questions they are being asked.

As reported in Entertainment Weekly, Drew Barrymore explained to Evans why she wanted Wes Craven to kill Casey Becker off in the first 12 minutes of the film. She wanted to break the final girl mold.

Craven agreed that Scream was going to be different. Familiar horror tropes would be turned upside down. Instead of having Casey, (who was supposed to be the lead in the film) be the last character standing after fighting the slasher off, the director decided that murdering her would be the appropriate course of action.

In Barrymore’s words:

"“What I wanted to do is to take that comfort zone away. I asked if I could be Casey Becker so we would establish this rule does not apply in this film.”"

It is very similar to what Hitchcock did in Psycho when he had Marion Crane meet her demise early rather than having her being chased by Norman Bates throughout the duration of the production.

For those of you who are Scream fanatics, Scream 5 is on the way. David Arquette and Courteney Cox are reprising their roles. Neve Campbell is in talks to join them.

Recently, Deadline announced that Melissa Barrera from Vida is onboard and Jenna Ortega (You) is the most recent addition to the Scream 5 roster.

Do you have a favorite Drew Barrymore movie? Let us know in the comments.