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In The Good Half, David Arquette and Nick Jonas are at odds.
The former plays Rick, the stepfather of a grieving Renn (Jonas). Renn's mom and Rick's wife Lily (Elisabeth Shue) passed away, and the funeral starts family drama. Rick and Renn never liked each other, and the funeral brings out the worst in both.
It is a surprising turn for David Arquette, known for playing the noble Dewey Riley in the Scream franchise. Arquette gives a great performance but was blown away by Nick Jonas.
ClutchPoints got to speak to Arquette about The Good Half, the moment he bought into Jonas, and his true feelings on Dewey's death in Scream (2022).
David Arquette The Good Half interview
ClutchPoints: I was reading about the movie and the director, Robert Schwartzman, was talking about some of the early conversations that he might have had with you and other cast members. He said to “stay open and collaborative.” I'm curious if you could talk about some experiences, maybe some specific scenes where that really rang true for you.
David Arquette: Wow. Robert's just such an incredible director. His process is really open and spontaneous and open to improvisation within the structure of the story, and coming from the characters.
But I don't know why it comes up, but there's the one thing I've come up with, and he calls it “smoothie juice.” And he said, ‘Then say “smoose.'” [laughs] And I was like, “What?” And he goes, “Yeah, call it a ‘smoose.'”
It was moments like that where you'd kind of collaborate. Little things like that, which came out of the scene and the character, the dynamic, it was really fun.
Nick Jonas is just such a tremendous actor. He's really impressed me. I mean, he's got a lot of experience, so I shouldn't have been surprised, but he was really ready to improv or go with it or just put my character down, take little jabs at him.
It's a bit of like a tennis rally when that kind of stuff happens. So everyone was really open to it too. They could all think on their toes, they could really have fun, they all knew where their characters were in the story, so it wasn't out of place.
CP: Do you remember the turning point when Nick Jonas really impressed you filming The Good Half?
DA: Really off the bat. When we first started working together from the first scene on. it was just really great. And he just knew exactly where he was, what he was doing, and had a great sense of humor and understood our relationship.
And I loved his relationship with Brittany's [Snow] character as well. They just had a close bond, even though it had its stresses within the story. But you could tell they really understood each other and really felt comfortable with each other and Matt Walsh is just an incredible comedic actor.
So everybody really came to have fun and make a movie that we could all be proud of.
Improv-ing with Nick Jonas
CP: You mentioned improv a couple of times — was there any improv in the funeral confrontation that you have with Nick Jonas' character?
DA: Yeah, little things like he didn't really tell me what joke to tell, and I didn't really have a joke. It was a little riff — I was trying to think of what Rick would have been going through setting this thing up.
I was like, “Oh jazz.” You just pick jazz because this is what jazz is for. Silly stuff like that. You don't even I really hear the joke on camera or anything, but, for me, it just kind of let up.
But what's really funny about that scene, and why my character was so upset at the time, is written in the script, the whole family was supposed to go from the funeral into a limousine and then to this party.
And then Robert made a decision that Rick's not going to be in the funeral. I don't know if it was a camera angle or something, I wasn't gonna be in the limousine.
So I, as an actor, didn't care because I just had some time off. But Rick was really upset about it. Rick was furious because Rick had picked that limousine out and he had paid for the limousine and he was really looking forward to riding in the limousine.
But he's not in the limousine, like, How could they do that to me? It was part of my character's backstory, which made him so upset about this funeral while he kind of unloads on Renn.
So the anger in the back of his head isn't about them losing this incredible woman. It's about that he didn't get to ride in the limousine. And to me, just playing that out in my head made it funny to me as well. I can understand where his anger came from and it wasn't like a sad part, you know what I mean?
It's not like he broke down like, “I'm sorry dude.” He was upset about a limousine.
CP: I'm not used to seeing you in roles like Rick — he's kind of a jerk, you know? But is that for you easy to flip the switch between finding that anger that Rick would feel with the limousine?
DA: Well, Brett [Ryland], the writer, had written such an incredible script. [It] was based on a experience he had gone through, so a lot of it was there. Part of the balance of it is not to push things — you have to figure out the tone of of the movie you're in and how everyone's playing it and how you're gonna fit in with the larger part of the storytelling.
So being able to just let the words speak, and then when there was time to sort of play around, where your ad-libs would come from, would be from places where the character would feel that way.
It's not easy, but you just have to know what to turn on and what not to allow. Like, you can't giggle in your sort of way that you're more comfortable with, or you put some restraints on your personality. You view everything that's happening through the character's eyes, so that if somebody says something [that] I may think it's really funny and have a laugh about it, he would be taking it personally.
So, it's easy to turn on in that way, you just have to remember, where your point of view is coming from.
What is David Aruqette's “good half”?
CP: I did love the overall theme of The Good Half — Nick Jonas' character to know the good half of his mom, right? I think that that's a really cool thing. So, for people who know you personally, how would you think they would describe your good half?
DA: Oh, that's interesting. I'm not sure. I mean, life's a roller coaster. We all have our ups and downs, especially being a parent, it's hard like be disciplinary sometimes, and raise your voice [if] your kids aren't showing proper manners.
You have to let them know about that kind of stuff. But the really good half of that is all the good times that you have. We typically take pictures.
When we take pictures, it's typically of the great times that we're having — unless you're like a photo journalist or something [laughs] — but most of the pictures that are taken within one's own life [are of] the happy times.
So it's really about those moments and the dynamic that you have with the ones you love.
I lost my mother first when I was 25. So, I could kind of relate to what his [Nick Jonas'] character was going through and understood that in my own life. Obviously, for my character, we had a different take on all of it and a different approach, but I think Robert captured that feeling of loss.
But what's really been always healing for me is finding the gratitude in the time that you did have with these people and how important and how amazing it is to keep their memory alive and meet with their friends or their family and talk about things that you may have forgotten. It might spark a memory inside you and you're like, Oh, yeah, I remember that.
And just go look back on old pictures and go to old places that you'd visited or lived. That kind of stuff is really important.
Not returning in Scream 6
CP: I was reading an old interview about Scream 6 where you said that you were “sad” about not being in it. Was there ever a discussion of Dewey living through it, and is there anything you didn't get to do with your character that you wish you could have?
DA: I mean, it is sad. I really enjoyed playing that role. I've come to the place where I think there was an element of the Dewey character that was very much part of Wes [Craven] and part of Wes' sense of humor, and part of Wes' sweetness.
And I think the fact that we had lost Wes right before that film was also part of the loss of Dewey. He was such an important person in my life and such an amazing man. I just can't speak higher of him. I guess it sort of paralleled with that.
There was no real discussion of keeping him alive. I think part of his loss was also to sort of help relaunch the franchise and have an impact on the fans and have a real moment within this sort of trilogy, or, well, not trilogy [chuckles], but a series of films that [was] painful and really touched people in an emotional way.
I've talked to a lot of the Scream fans and they were like, “I've cried in the theater,” and, “We miss Dewey,” and all that kind of stuff.
But if there's anything else I would have loved for that character … I don't know. I just I would have loved for him to come back and just be a part of it all. I love working on those, I love working with Neve [Campbell] and Courtney [Cox].
It was really an impactful film series for me. And I love that it brings such memories and joy to a lot of people who love those movies. When I meet fans of it and just send them videos or something, it's really humbling that it has touched so many people and they got so much from it.
David Arquette on John Cena's retirement tour
CP: I know you used to be a professional wrestler, and John Cena announced his retirement tour. I know you are retired, but is there any chance we ever get a retirement or one more match?
DA: [laughs] Oh my gosh, I don't know. I mean, I did WCW when it was there but without the full understanding of what goes into wrestling [and] how to wrestle.
There's always something in me that would love to do it on the big level, you know, one of the big companies, and sort of go to the training facility and really work that element.
But I don't know. The clock is ticking. [laughs]
I'm excited for John Cena. I think he's had such an incredible career … I love that guy [and] the work that he's done with Make-A-Wish, especially. He's such a hero in that way.
The Good Half is in theaters.
