Ghostface speaks! Scream VI star says it was 'glorious' to play masked killer

Warning: This article contains major spoilers about Scream VI.

With 20 minutes to go before the end of Scream VI, it is easy to feel at least some sympathy for Dermot Mulroney's New York cop Detective Bailey, who is seeking vengeance against Ghostface after the franchise's killer has murdered several people, including Bailey's own daughter Quinn (Liana Liberato). Until, that is, the detective that reveals that he is Ghostface, or at least one of the film's three Ghostfaces, the other killers being the still-alive Quinn and Jack Champion's Landry, who turns out to be Bailey's youngest child. This trio is out to murder Jenna Ortega's Tara and Melissa Barrera's Sam in a museum of Ghostface-related artifacts because, in the previous film, the sisters were responsible for the death of Jack Quaid's Ghostface-loving Richie Kirsch, who was the third child of Mulroney's character. Good gravy!

"It's really kind of a complex plan," says Mulroney, who has agreed to speak with EW about becoming the latest, or one of the latest, actors to don the Ghostface mask. "[My character has] collected all of those artifacts, and called all those people in, and rented out that theater. Ridiculously complex but successful until our heroes take him out, right?"

Philippe Bossé/Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group Ghostface in 'Scream VI'

So, how did the My Best Friend's Wedding and Zodiac actor learn that he would be playing Ghostface?

"I was told by my agent, 'Good news, we have a call from Scream VI, they want you, they can't tell you anything else, but they need to let you know that you are the bad guy,'" says Mulroney. "It wasn't called 'Ghostface' there; it was just 'the bad guy.' I wasn't even up on how intense people are following Ghostface. So then I get pieces of the script, but they neglected to tell me what part I'm playing. So I'm looking for two things when I'm reading the script, which part it is that I am and who it is in the script that's going to wind up being Ghostface. So, for a while, I suspected that I was going to play the psychologist because Bailey is written so mildly I thought that's probably not my part; it's just a passing detective. It shows you that the script itself was quite ingenious in how they buried Bailey or made him incidental to scenes. Then I get to the end, and it is Bailey! It was me all along!"

Mulroney recalls that he had a blast shooting the climactic sequence in which the characters played by himself, Liberato, and Champion reveal themselves as the Ghostface killers and set about attempting to complete their murderous plan.

"It was glorious," he says with a laugh. "It was glorious, and all of us were in a great mood because it's that moment in the movies. Of course, what's wonderful about that reveal scene in Scream VI is that it's amidst this incredible action sequence, whereas in some of the earlier movies, it's kind of a standalone scene in the house. This has nine other things going on at the same time. It was all of us together in that final conflict, and they were really exciting days to shoot."

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