Twilight Star Turned Down the Role in Scream, Refusing to 'Touch' What Drew Barrymore Did

The first Scream film, released in 1996, revived the horror genre by mixing in meta-commentary on horror tropes and introducing the horror world to its signature feature: the opening kills.

Saw's first opening scene featured Drew Barrymore as Casey Becker, who receives a phone call from the mysterious killer Ghostface. The conversation quickly escalates into a terrifying cat-and-mouse game that ends with Casey's brutal and, more importantly, unexpected demise.

This opening kill became a revolution in the horror genre, killing off the main character within the first few minutes and playing an important role in setting the tone for each Scream movie.

With its macabre dialogue, subversion of audience expectations, and always an A-lister as the victim, Scream's opening sequence usually sets the stakes so high that everyone dreams of getting there.

However, according to the star of The Twilight Saga, Kristen Stewart, she once turned down the opportunity to appear as the opening kill in Scream 4. Stewart shared that she was initially approached to portray a character similar to Drew Barrymore's iconic role from the first Scream movie, but the actress was too worried about taking on such an iconic role.

She expressed her reluctance by stating that she "can't do a Drew'' and touch her legacy, even though she is in love with Wes Craven's self-aware horror franchise. When asked about the possibility of participating in a future Scream movie, Stewart made it clear that she would consider it if she liked the script.

Stewart also expressed her admiration for Neve Campbell, who is a central figure in the franchise, describing her as a genuinely nice person and praising the film's deep appreciation for the medium of film itself, calling it a "total film-nerd type of movie."

However, she also noted that the intense and visceral nature of the movie, suggesting that it can be a challenge to watch as it unfolds its gruesome narrative, is what is holding the actress back from taking part.

Set in the familiar town of Woodsboro, Scream 4 boasts the most star-studded opening scene featuring Lucy Hale, Kristen Bell, Anna Paquin, and more.

In this hyper-meta sequence, two teenagers are gruesomely killed by Ghostface, only for it to be revealed that they were part of the fictional Stab 6 movie watched by two other women who, in a surprising twist, are also characters in the fictitious Stab 7 film watched by two teenagers in the actual Scream universe.

While it's unclear which of these characters Stewart could have played in the opening scene, seeing the actress as Ghostface's first victim would've been one of the most legendary things to happen onscreen, especially considering the buzz surrounding Kristen and the Twilight cast back in 2011.

Source: People