Campbell's acting career was almost cut short by a very hungry bear.
Sidney Prescott is one of the greatest survivors in all of the horror canon, as time after time she manages to outsmart the newest Ghostface and somehow make it to the end credits of every Scream movie alive. (Will she survive the most recent Scream? She just has to.)
And it turns out Neve Campbell, the actress who plays Prescott, is equally impressive at surviving terrifying situations, as she revealed a story about surviving a bear attack when she first started her acting career.
During an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Campbell talked about when she was cast in a movie when she was 17 as was a girl who was “one with the animals.” This involved her filming a scene with a real bear and she was told by the crew to give the bear a soda, dip her hand in honey, and then run like hell. Campbell said because she was young and “really dumb” she agreed to do the scene.
Everything went according to plan but the obvious flaw in this insane plan came to fruition when Campbell had no way of getting the bear to stop chasing her.
“I turn around and put my hand out and the bear is not slowing down, and he grabs me by the leg and pulls me through the forest,” Campbell said. “My mother happens to be visiting set, and so she’s screaming, and everyone on set froze because no one knows what’s happening. All I can think to say is ‘He’s biting me,’ as if it wasn’t obvious.”
The bear wrangler finally was able to get the bear off of her and that was the end of that, right?
Nope, while the director told Campbell that she wouldn’t have to do it again but it turns out that was just the rehearsal of the actual scene, so the actress insisted on doing it again. Somehow, Campbell made it out alive and lived to tell the tale. She must know what the rest of us Scream super-fans know: Neve never dies.
