David Arquette Revealed How He Manages Working With Ex-Wife Courteney Cox

How do you work with an ex? David Arquette talks about working with his ex-wife on the latest addition to the Scream franchise

By Erika Hanson | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

david arquette

There’s a long list of divorced celebrities in Hollywood. Many of them turn ugly, such as the recent divorce between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. But there are also quite a few examples of amicable Hollywood divorcees, such as Demi Moore and Bruce Willis. However, no divorced Hollywood pair is as unique and uplifting as that of David Arquette and Courteney Cox. As the exes are throttled together once more with the upcoming return of Scream, David Arquette talks about working with his ex-wife, and how they make it work.

Over two decades after David Arquette and Cox debuted on-screen together in the original Scream, the pair will be seen back together reprising their roles as the married couple, Dewey Riley and Gale Weathers. When Arquette sat down recently for an interview in the newest issue of Total Film magazine, he discussed how much he loved getting to work with his ex again. Arquette said, “I always love working with Courteney. There’s an intangible quality of having a relationship with somebody, and then being able to act with them, that you kind of can’t act. It’s like the Everly Brothers singing harmonies – there’s a real beauty to the relationship that you can’t really fake.”

The offbeat actor first met Courteney on the set of the first Scream in 1996. After dating for two years, David Arquette proposed and the pair walked down the aisle during a lavish ceremony graced with plenty of Hollywood’s elite. They welcomed their only daughter, Coco, in 2004.  Things went awry for the couple starting in 2011. After reports surfaced of the couple suffering from marital issues, Cox announced the pair were splitting due to different lifestyles. A year later, Arquette filed for divorce, ending the couple’s 13-year marriage, but insisting they still remained friends.

Considering the downward spiral that followed their divorce, it’s even more remarkable that the pair were able to stay as close as they are. David Arquette came clean about suffering from alcoholism, and also opened up about his turbulent upbringing as the youngest of his large celebrity family. Yet through it all, Arquette and Cox remained close.

David Arquette Courteney Cox Scream

Given the raw look into the life of David Arquette filmed for the wrestling documentary You Cannot Kill David Arquette, it’s understandable that the two would get along so well. Courteney is shown interacting with David throughout the documentary and charts the pair’s relationship by playfully recounting, “We met on Scream 1, we hated each other on Scream 2, we got married Scream 3, we got divorced Scream 4.”

The upcoming follow-up in the famous Scream franchise was first announced in 2020. For this film, Paramount Pictures have taken over the series from Dimension films. Likewise, James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick take over as writers in wake of the late Wes Craven. Few details have been released on the meta slasher, but the official synopsis states that a new killer has donned the infamous Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect Woodsboro’s deadly past. The franchise’s star, Neve Campbell, will join David Arquette and Courteney Cox in reprising her role as Sidney Prescott, along with newcomers Jack Quaid, Melissa Barrera, and Jenna Ortega. Scream will hit the theatres on January 14th, 2022.