Mason Gooding on slasher “Heart Eyes ”and Matthew Lillard's “Scream 7” return: No one 'will be able to anticipate'

Between Scream and this month’s slasher romantic-comedy Heart Eyes, Mason Gooding has been stabbed on screen quite a bit. His favorite of those bloody good times, however, is what he calls “a Chad Meeks-Martin Special.” It’s the moment towards the end of Scream VI (2023) where two Ghostface killers get the jump on him. They stab him a bunch of times and then turn towards the camera as he falls, wiping the blood from their knives in unison.

“The dual Ghostface ribcage stab was really rad to film,” he tells Entertainment Weekly, “but nothing could be defined as a career highlight as to see that kill done in Mortal Kombat 1.”

Gooding, 28, is a massive gamer and anime fan. He played the latest Mortal Kombat entry as Ghostface, which became a playable character last year. The actor, who’s often chased by this masked killer in movies — and will be again in Scream 7 (now filming in Atlanta) — acknowledges his choice of play “is very meta and funny.” It wasn’t until Tyler Gillett, Gooding’s director on 2020’s Scream (which he loves to call “Five Cream”) and its sequel, texted him about a particular “brutality” move that recreates his favorite stabbing scene.

Related: Matthew Lillard is back for Scream 7 — here's how Stu might return

"I'm an incredibly competitive fighting game player, so I like to really assert my dominance by doing what was done to me [in movies] and not leaving my opponent any space to survive thereafter," he says. "I always love when there is that meta-narrative of movies citing video games and vice versa, but to see them married in that way, and by a means that tangentially relates to me, is so meaningful."

Gooding rather enjoys his time in the horror spotlight. He speaks with EW over Zoom as he finishes packing up his current apartment. He's prepping to move out of Los Angeles to another city, which happens to gel with his current schedule. After promoting Heart Eyes (in theaters this weekend), he will return to Atlanta to continue shooting Scream 7, plus he has another project coming shortly after. "The plan is to just take it as we go, live out of a suitcase for a bit, and make the most of it," he says. "The nice thing is I always seem to work with the best people, so hopefully, they create space for me to take my time as need be."

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One of those people he enjoys working with is Olivia Holt (Cruel Summer), his co-lead in Heart Eyes. Holt stars as Ally, who's recently single and not in the Valentine's Day mood. She lands in hot water at her ad agency when a campaign goes viral for all the wrong reasons. Ally's then forced to work with an ace freelancer, Jay (Gooding), to rectify the situation. However, they have much worse problems on their hands. While out to dinner, the pair are mistaken for a couple by the Heart Eyes Killer, a mass murderer who targets those in love. Their unconventional meet-cute quickly becomes a survive-the-night story.

Related: Mason Gooding is back for Scream 7, first new-era franchise star to return since Melissa Barrera's firing

It took a beat for Gooding to wrap his head around the exact vibe of the film, which he describes as "a rom-com that gets hijacked by a horror." He credits his director, Josh Ruben (Werewolves Within), for contextualizing the tone, which "felt less slapstick than a Scary Movie and more grounded in timing and delivery through severity." To his point, some of the kills in Heart Eyes are comparable to the Chad Meeks-Martin Special. "For a while, I felt insecure about the idea that my rom-com tendencies — what tries to make a character likable or affable — would make the horror bits not land as well," he explains. "But at the end of the day, you have to trust your director. I have to trust the fact that Olivia's a seasoned vet and incredible in her own right."

Heart Eyes could easily become its own new slasher franchise, depending on reception and box-office numbers. It's also produced by Spyglass, the company behind Scream, so the two could live side by side as companion pieces. Gooding can imagine a reality where a new Heart Eyes installment is released every year on Valentine's Day. "I hope so. That's the goal," he comments. "That'd be fun. [Would] love to do it again. Any opportunity to work with Olivia is one I'm going to take 10 times out of 10; Josh, as well."

Scream is now back on his docket, but he can't say too much about the seventh film in the franchise beyond what we know. Kevin Williamson, a writer who helped launch the franchise by working on the first three movies, is now directing Scream 7. Neve Campbell is also returning after sitting out the last one. And now we're getting not one, but two past Ghostfaces; Matthew Lillard (1996's Scream) and Scott Foley (2000's Scream 3) are both confirmed for the cast. In what capacity, we don't know, especially because both of their characters died in their respective films. But Gooding teases, no one will be able to anticipate it.

Related: Scream VI star Mason Gooding was told his character would die in the last movie

"Matthew Lillard's been a huge part of my understanding and love for the medium for a very long time," Gooding says, pointing to his love of the live-action Scooby-Doo and horror flick Thirteen Ghosts. "When you consider his work in the context of [the first] Scream, you realize that was actually him kind of reigning it in and being more grounded given the circumstances. To see where they're taking that understanding and dynamic in 7 is far different than I imagine anyone will be able to anticipate, and they will absolutely deliver."

He also praises Foley as "incredible" and calls Scream 3 "a secret pleasure" of his. "I cannot wait for people to see what they're cooking, so to speak, with Matthew and Scott," he adds, "because it's something special."

Gooding was surprised to get the call to return for Scream 7 alongside Jasmin Savoy Brown as siblings Chad and Mindy Meeks-Martin, respectively, the nephew and niece of the late Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) and children of Martha Meeks (Heather Matarazzo). He acknowledges the obvious: "I wasn't sure where the story was going to go." Gooding and Brown are the only two members of "the Core Four" actors from the latest iterations appearing in Scream 7. (Barrera was fired for expressing her pro-Palestinian views amid the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Ortega departed due to scheduling conflicts with the Netflix series Wednesday.)

"The only fun thing about a movie that's so under lock and key is that they are very precious about information as if that's a currency in a lot of ways," Gooding says. "Before I read a script, they asked for my involvement, and that can be difficult as an actor. You don't necessarily know what your character's going to be doing or the sentiment in which it's being called upon if it actually is meant to carry forth the narrative of the character or not. Once I finally did read the script, selfishly seeing Chad's dynamic with Mindy and thinking about the opportunity to work with Jasmine in a way that I have been lucky to, it again touched on that feeling of family and coming home that I attribute to the most transformative time of my career, which was filming Five Cream in Wilmington in 2020." (There's that nickname for the film again.) "The way I would say and ascertain that Jasmine saved my life emotionally, and probably literally, in a lot of cases meant wherever she goes, I will."

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