David Arquette Takes The Blame For Courteney Cox’s Infamous Scream 3 Bangs

Scream fans have one big question while going into each new movie in the saga. No, it’s not about who’s behind the Ghostface mask this time. It’s actually “what’s Courteney Cox’s hair going to be like in this one?” In the four previous films in the horror franchise, Cox has sported a wildly different look each time she played sassy reporter Gale Weathers. Her most infamous hairstyle, though, is definitely the weirdly short bangs she has in Scream 3.

The bangs, that truly belong in a horror movie, are probably one of the most memorable things about the third, and arguably weakest, entry in the series. But Cox has always taken the unfortunate ‘do with good humor. Last Halloween, for instance, she hilariously gave herself an impromptu haircut to recreate the look in an Instagram video that went viral.

Now, in a new interview, Cox’s longtime co-star and ex-husband David Arquette has come clean that the blame for the bangs rests with him, saying:

“The bangs were my fault. I have to admit, I was like, ‘Oh, you should do a like, Bettie Page thing, you know, just like, a little.’ That was my fault. Totally, I’ll take full responsibility. I mean they’re, you know, a professional hairdresser’s fault of course. And they didn’t really do Bettie Page kind of really blunt bangs. Like, that’s what the idea was. They tried to mess with them. You can’t. You have to go fully in. You can’t, like, halfway those kinds of things.”

Cox and Arquette were married in 1999 – the same year Scream 2 came out – and finalized their divorce in 2013 – two years after Scream 4. The last time we saw their characters, then, Gale and Sheriff Dewey Riley were happily married. But will they still be together in the upcoming Scream 5? Arquette told ET that whatever happens, he hopes the film stays true to the nature of those characters.

“We’re in touch quite a bit. It’s great. But we always love working together. She’s an incredible actress, so it’ll be fun to bring these characters back to life and see where they’re at…I just want them to be true to the characters, that’s all that really matters to me.”

After a whole decade, the Scream franchise is set to return to theaters sometime in 2021, with the fifth film due to start shooting later this year.