Scream VI stars Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding on ‘beautiful’ queerness and becoming chosen family

Mar 08 2023
Written by Christobel Hastings

Scream 6: Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding (Getty/Paramount Pictures)

In a PinkNews exclusive, rising stars Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding talk queerness, sibling energy, and their New York City nightmare in Scream VI.

Please note that minor spoilers follow for Scream VI.

Word to the wise: don’t get on public transport after watching Scream VI. The latest instalment in the beloved slasher franchise is bloodier, gorier and more brutal than any of its predecessors – not that you’d know it from the beaming smiles of Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding, who are living out their dreams while giving viewers complete nightmares.

The follow-up to last year’s Scream legacy sequel, the sixth chapter in the franchise sees the pair return as charming twin siblings Mindy and Chad Meeks-Martin alongside fellow Woodsboro survivors and spiky sisters Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega), who are attempting to move on from the horrors of their last encounter with Ghostface in the Big Apple. In other words, a double dose of sibling energy – and judging by the way the Brown and Gooding hold hands and finish each other’s sentences, it’s a bond that’s just as strong offscreen.

Scream 6: Melissa Barrera as Sam Carpenter, Jenna Ortega as Tara Carpenter, Jasmin Savoy Brown as Mindy Meeks-Martin and Mason Gooding as Chad Meeks-Martin (Paramount Pictures/Spyglass)

“If you can’t tell, I’m incredibly uncomfortable with Jasmin,” Gooding jokes when the pair chat to PinkNews ahead of the film’s release. “When it comes to scene work, [she] allows it to take on a new form of comfortability and playfulness that allows something like sibling dynamics to come so naturally”. Although both he and Brown arrived as newcomers in Scream V, the sibling quirks, he explains, are now fully “ingrained in who we are as people”, which adds a heartwarming dimension considering all the disembowelings going on around them.

While Scream fans will undoubtedly be excited by the return of legacy characters such as Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and SCRE4M fan favourite Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere), the latest entry in the genre-defining franchise firmly passes the torch to the next generation, giving equal investment in its new protagonists. While Chad gets a second chance in love after his ill-fated girlfriend Liv McKenzie (Sonia Ammar) was brutally despatched by Ghostface in Scream V, Mindy attempts to solve the latest string of murders on the streets of Manhattan with her encyclopaedic knowledge of horror films.

Ghostface in Scream 6 (Paramount Pictures/Spyglass)

It was a big moment last year when Brown, who also stars in the buzzy Showtime series Yellowjackets, became the first openly queer character played by a queer person in the Scream universe (worth noting, too, that Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega also became the first Latinas). Although Scream has been imbued with queerness from day one, representation was sorely lacking until Scream V, which began to properly dedicate care and attention to centring queer people and people of colour. Even as the franchise evolves to reflect the world around us, however, its representation hasn’t become a stand-in for tokenism; and Brown, for her part, is heartened by Mindy’s casual, unapologetic queerness.

“Mindy is not defined by her queerness; she’s just a queer character in this world”

“I think it’s approached beautifully,” she says thoughtfully. “Because it’s approached in a way that Mindy is not defined by her queerness; she’s just a queer character in this world. And the trauma that she experiences has nothing to do with her queerness. It’s just the trauma of being attacked, and attempted to be murdered just like everyone else.”

Sharp-eyed LGBTQ+ Scream fans will also notice that Mindy proudly wears her queerness on her sleeve. Quite literally, in fact, through the colourful addition of a rainbow pin. “I love the way that we were able to represent Mandy’s queerness through her wardrobe,” says Brown. “That was something that the wardrobe team brought to me and said, ‘here’s what we think: we think she’s in college, and so she’s learning about Stonewall, and she’s learning about all of this different stuff, and she’s gonna buy a bunch of pins, and she’s gonna be at clubs”.

The next generation of Scream queens: Jasmin Savoy Brown, Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera (Getty)

As the comeback cast grows progressively more diverse, Scream hasn’t lost any of its masterful ability to balance terrifying moments of horror, hilarious subversions and genuinely moving camaraderie. While the film doesn’t discredit any of the characters’ trauma, it does show that the way past events have shaped the identity of the “core four” has actually brought them closer together.

“I do consider them family members. And hopefully they remain in my life for the rest of my life“

According to Gooding, the concept of chosen family isn’t purely something that binds the survivors in the film. “There’s no better indication of the support system in the film than there was in making it,” he explains. “I would probably not have been as positive about my outlook on life if I had this Scream VI experience without the cast as it was. I do consider them family members. And hopefully they remain in my life for the rest of my life. And we have made that blood pact, so it’s kind of up to God now.” The feelings are obviously mutual for Brown. “I love these people more than I can say, and I would do anything for all of them,” she agrees.

@pinknews
It was a big moment last year when Brown, who also stars in the buzzy Showtime series Yellowjackets, became the first openly queer character played by a queer person in the Scream universe (worth noting, too, that Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega also became the first Latinas). Although Scream has been imbued with queerness from day one, representation was sorely lacking until Scream V, which began to properly dedicate care and attention to centring queer people and people of colour. Even as the franchise evolves to reflect the world around us, however, its representation hasn’t become a stand-in for tokenism; and Brown, for her part, is heartened by Mindy’s casual, unapologetic queerness. “Mindy is not defined by her queerness; she’s just a queer character in this world” “I think it’s approached beautifully,” she says thoughtfully. “Because it’s approached in a way that Mindy is not defined by her queerness; she’s just a queer character in this world. And the trauma that she experiences has nothing to do with her queerness. It’s just the trauma of being attacked, and attempted to be murdered just like everyone else.” Sharp-eyed LGBTQ+ Scream fans will also notice that Mindy proudly wears her queerness on her sleeve. Quite literally, in fact, through the colourful addition of a rainbow pin. “I love the way that we were able to represent Mandy’s queerness through her wardrobe,” says Brown. “That was something that the wardrobe team brought to me and said, ‘here’s what we think: we think she’s in college, and so she’s learning about Stonewall, and she’s learning about all of this different stuff, and she’s gonna buy a bunch of pins, and she’s gonna be at clubs”. #jasminsavoybrown #screamvi #yellowjackets #scream #horror #slashertok #queertok #queernews #queertiktok #lgbtq #queercelebrities #horrortok
♬ Spooky, quiet, scary atmosphere piano songs – Skittlegirl Sound

It’s a fitting note to finish on, especially given that everyone in Scream VI – both in and out of character – is learning that you can’t fight all your battles alone, least of all those that involve a knife-wielding masked serial killer. “I think the importance of support, I discovered in filming the movie, really speaks to just allowing the people you love and trust to be there for you in the way that you find most comfortable,” Gooding adds. “And I’m still learning that to this day.”

Scream VI is in UK cinemas now