Hey there! If you want to learn a big secret about Scream VI, keep reading! We’re going to chat about Quinn Bailey, the Ghostface killer played by Liana Liberato. Have fun discovering who she is and what happens in the movie!
Recently, the Collider Ladies Night Pre-Party had an interview with Liberato. During the interview we talked about his film and TV journey as well as how to become a Scream killer and how he developed Quinn’s world.
In the movie’s ending, there were three killers – which is something that has never happened in this franchise before. It gets even crazier because those three not-so-nice people are family members of a past killer! Quinn, her brother Ethan, and their father Wayne are actually Richie Kirsch’s relatives. They’re out to make Sam pay for stabbing their brother and son 22 times at the end of Scream 2022.
Have you ever wondered how you can get the role of Ghostface Killer in a Scream movie? Liberato explained the process, starting from when she made her audition tape. Surprisingly, that same tape was actually being considered for Scream VI! This is what she shared about it:
“I was totally surprised when I auditioned for the movie ‘Scream VI’ because I had no idea what it was! Before leaving the country for a friend’s wedding, I got an audition calling me to tape something really quick and funny. But even then, I still couldn’t figure out what that “untitled Paramount/Spyglass movie” actually was!”
The next thing happened was when I learned what the project was about. At first, it made me feel confused but once I figured it out, everything made more sense.
“I was really surprised when I got an email in London saying that I had a meeting with the directors of Scream VI. That shocked me even more when they told me that it was because of my audition. They gave me extra sides which seemed interesting to me as it had some lines from Richie and Amber’s monologue from Scream 5. Then, I wondered if this meant that I was supposed to be the killer? But they clarified that everyone else was reading for the same character as well as mine. I was nervous because I had to reschedule my appointment since my country trip but luckily they were understanding.”
The audition was a chance for Liberato to do something unusual in movies and TV shows: be the bad guy.
I was really excited to play the part of a killer in Scream VI, because most people don’t take me as this type of person. I saw the fifth one in theaters and it made me wonder what I could do differently for this role. Even though I was nervous, when the directors showed up on screen during our Zoom call, they didn’t give any notes – just said ‘great’. That made me feel so good that afterwards, I wrote down ‘I booked Scream VI’ in my sides (scripts).
Turns out, Liberato had a feeling something good was going to happen – and it did! She waited one long, difficult week until she eventually got the job – and she couldn’t contain how happy she felt.
She was super excited until she got the first two acts of the screenplay, where she discovered her character didn’t live very long–or so it seemed.
“When I got the first two acts of the movie, I found out that my character dies in it. At first I felt disappointed because I was wishing for my character to be the killer or the final girl and have an awesome fight scene with a really cool death scene. However, I soon realized that even if these things didn’t happen, it doesn’t matter as long as I’m part of this movie.”
One day, Liberato discovered something about her costume fitting that she wasn’t aware of before. She remembered how everything changed from that moment onward.
“I had already tried on every piece of clothing I was wearing, and the people in charge were about to tell me to leave. But then Matt and Tyler showed up on Zoom video call, and they said something surprising: ‘Hey, have one more outfit for you to put on!’ It was the Ghostface costume. At first, I couldn’t believe it – I thought this means I’m dead! But they reassured me that I’m not – it was a surprise! So I got to put on the costume and it looked amazing.”
The actress, Liberato, had one big part of the story figured out but was still missing something–what motivated her character to do what they did. She eventually found out while on set for filming.
When I first arrived on set I asked Matt and Tyler to explain what was happening. They told me why my character was trying to kill everybody, how I die in the story and the story behind the scene with Jenna Ortega where I talk about when my brother died. It gave me an idea of what would happen minutes away from filming. We tried different versions of the lines in that scene and it was fun to see which one got chosen.
Liberato went back and looked through the casting process and he gave me a sneak peek of what life was like in the Bailey family before the huge massacre in Scream 2022.
“We all talked about it and then with the help of Dermot’s creative ideas, we were able to build up a world. I was thinking that my character Quinn likely had me as the middle child in between Richie (the oldest) and Ethan (the youngest). I wanted to make sure Quinn wasn’t too crazy and her anger came from a very deep place of love for her brother. She wanted to protect her family just like Richie did for her when he was alive. I tried to give human-like features to the Ghostface killer, something you don’t usually see.”
Liberato remembered something that Mulroney said while they were filming, which she loves. The line was: “There’s nothing like a father’s love for his first son” and it made Ethan laugh, but it showed how their family interacts together.
Wayne has two kids, Quinn and Ethan. But what happened to their mother, Mrs. Bailey? Did she not exist at all or did something happen that we don’t know about? Well, according to Liberato there’s a “twisted Mrs. Bailey concept” which was cut from the movie!
In the movie, there were some parts that talked about my mom but it never made it in. Ethan and I said a few lines about our mother’s death because she didn’t agree with us on something. It always made me laugh when we were filming it since it was insane to think we killed our mom! Dermot always joked saying Nicole Kidman must’ve been our mother since she had red hair like mine. But, originally, our mom wasn’t supposed to be in the film at all so she didn’t “make it to the party”!
Mom couldn’t go to the party and Wayne, Ethan, and Quinn didn’t make it out of the party. But what if Quinn had? Liberato wonders if she would have just returned to her normal life after that.
Quinn wants to take revenge for her brother’s death and she might try to start a new life, without being connected to it. But she also has some crazy thoughts, so maybe she will spend the rest of her life looking for ways to get even with her family. So we don’t know what she’ll decide in the end.
Are you interested in knowing more about Liberato’s Scream VI experience and her journey in Hollywood? Make sure to watch our full interview with her at the top of this article or listen to it on a podcast.
