The horror genre continues to have a slew of massive successes, despite the somewhat precarious position of the theater industry. Case in point: the new Scream movie, which went to #1 at the box office and has been a critical success. Fans were thrilled to see returning actors back on the big screen, including Scream 4’s Marley Shelton. And she described to me how she became Judy Hicks years after the fourth movie.
Prior to the release of Scream, I had the privilege of speaking with both the cast and directors about what it was like returning to Woodsboro. That included a chat with Marley Shelton herself, as you can see in the video above. I asked about the process of finding a character she hadn’t played in nearly a decade, to which she said:
That’s a really good question. I think once you create a character, at least in my experience, it’s sort of downloaded. It’s on your hard drive in your body and you can access it. You can find it again. You might have to do some recalling, but it’s in there.
Well, there you have it. Despite the time that passed, it sounds like Marley Shelton found it fairly easy to become Judy Hicks on the set of Scream. Although she did previously admit that filming in the midst of the pandemic provided some awkward challenges. Luckily she was able to jump back into the Woodsboro Police Officer’s shoes.
Marley Shelton was one of the few returning actors to appear in the new Scream apart from the trilogy of main heroes played by Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette. She was an excellent red herring for Ghostface in the fourth movie, and was (seemingly) the only survivor to make it out of the massacre. Although this version of the perky deputy has changed a bit.
Later in our same conversation about Scream, Marley Shelton cued me into some of the actual challenges that came with playing Judy Hicks the second time around. Namely because of the time passed and changes that happened to her character since we saw her in Scream 4’s final battle in the hospital. As she put it,
I think the difference with Judy this round is that alot’s happened to Judy offscreen when we meet her again in this installment. She’s now the sheriff, right? She’s been promoted from deputy to sheriff so she’s the boss lady. And she has a 16 year-old son. So those are some major developments. So it was more ‘How would Judy incorporate that into her Judy world, but still stay intrinsic to Judy?’
Another solid point. Deputy Judy became the Sheriff of Woodsboro’s Police Department after Dewey was asked to step down, which no doubt greatly changed the character. Add in having a teenage son Wes (played by 13 Reasons Why star Dylan Minnette), and she’s no doubt have to grow up quite a bit. And that’s what Marley Shelton tried to bring to her character this time around.
Scream is in theaters now, with fans hoping it makes enough money to warrant a sequel. In the meantime, check out the 2022 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.
