Neve Campbell, Scream‘s final girl, has survived a real life bear attack, too
Campbell shared the story of being attacked by a bear while shooting a movie as a teenager
Film Features Neve Campbell
Neve Campbell became one of the ‘90s most famous horror movie final girls after playing Sidney Prescott in Scream. Though her ability to survive the knife-wielding, mask-wearing Ghostface Killer(s) was fictional, it turns out that Campbell may have been channelling her actual ability to defy a murderous beast. During her promo run for the new Scream movie, she explains she came to the role having once lived through a bear attack.
During an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Campbell talked about filming a movie in Canada when she was 17 where her character, who she describes as being “one with the animals” except for those of the ursine variety, had to be chased by a bear.
She was instructed to give the bear a full bottle of Coca Cola to show that she was a nice human and then told to dip her hand in honey “and just run” to get the scene shot. The idea was that the bear would follow her and she would turn around before extending her hand and letting the animal, which we all know cannot resist delicious honey, lick it off.
The bear ended up doing the first part of its job—chasing Campbell—just fine but then decided to method act the role of dangerous predator a little longer by grabbing onto her leg and dragging her through the forest. The crew around her froze in disbelief. Her mom, who was on set that day screamed. And Campbell yelled “he’s biting me!” over and over.
Eventually, she says, the bear handler employed a sophisticated animal handling technique (throwing rocks) to get it to stop and Campbell was released. Because she was 17 and wanted to be a pro, Campbell offered to do the chase scene again soon afterwards to get it right.
This is impressive. Campbell can survive deranged slasher movie villains and bears. As long as she never encounters a furry beast wearing a scary white mask, why, we bet she could escape from just about any form of danger.
[via Variety]
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23 Comments
What the Hell movie was this because I want the names of everyone who thought this would work
“Wait. Are you sure that’s safe?” -Johnny Knoxville (probably)
The credits are just the name Alan Smithee over and over again.
The most insane movie ever filmed has to be Roar.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roar_(film)The fact no-one was killed making this film is a miracle.Not surprisingly, lots of people were injured.
Even then, I bet they never told anybody,“We’re gonna cover your arm with antelope blood, so you can stick it in the lion’s face when you want it to quit chasing you”.
I realized recently that seeing the trailer for this in the theater as a kid gave me serious nightmares.
It’s not even in the top ten
Challenge accepted!Let’s see your list!
You might have to qualify that to American movies. (Go to 1:20)
Life was cheap in the Philippines in the 70s.
You REALLY don’t have to repost clips from the friggin Kelly Clarkson show on here.
The Canadian version of Entertainment Tonight covered this. One of the hosts commented that this was “the most Canadian story” he had ever heard.
her denim jacket saved her
I think the “Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist” still holds that honor.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Canadian_Maple_Syrup_Heist
Probably not a good idea to hire bear handlers whose entire knowledge of bears comes from Winnie the Pooh.
Probably not a good idea to hire bear handlers whose entire knowledge of bears comes from Winnie the Pooh A test to weed out the bad bear handlers – ask them how they spell it. If it’s “hunny”…. don’t hire them.
That animal was probably not Bart the Bear. He was a professional!
lol that’s actually a fucking wild story.
Turns out, it was Harvey Weinstein in a bear suit.
Movie sets should know you need a specialised animal trainer to work with Harvey Weinstein.
Does the interview address at all the fact that Campbell is even more smoking hot now than when she was in the original film?
We have eyes.
Could this have been Bari from Tales Of The Wild? It might been in the can for a few years.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109220/?ref_=tt_eps_top
The lone user review on IMDb mentions “peril from a big bear”, so this could be it. Sitting on a movie that turned out poorly for three or four years, then releasing it to TV when one of its stars hit it big, seems plausible enough.