Horror movies such as Scream are generally associated with jump scares; however, for David Arquette, a clown symbolizes comfort. He associates them with joy and childhood magic. During a recent podcast, he opened up about his lifelong love for Bozo the Clown. This love for the character has inspired Arquette to bring the clown back to television once again.
David Arquette talks about how Bozo the Clown influenced his life
David Arquette was asked about the one thing that he is secretly obsessed with. His answer resembled no one’s because the one thing that the actor is obsessed with is Bozo. “Bozo is that childlike spirit in your heart,” he explained. “You know, that sparkle in your eyes when you’re a kid. The laughing that you do with your friends… that’s who Bozo is.” (via David Greene Is Obsessed podcast)
The feeling that he described had stayed with the actor long after the original Bozo TV shows stopped airing. He also noted how the character was built to help kids read.
“Bozo was created by Alan Livingston, who worked at Capitol Records, and at first [he was part of] a read-along record that would teach kids to read, and it had Bozo the Clown and all his friends,” Arquette said. Children would follow along in a book and, “Every time they blew the whistle, you’d turn the page,” he recalled. Those records eventually led to pilots and then to The Bozo Show, which ran in different local versions for decades.
David Arquette then credits the Scream movies, where he played Bozo, and how they helped him. They assisted with his past habits and addictions. “It’s like being super wasted, but you’re totally straight,” he said of performing as Bozo.
“You can just be as silly as you want. You do the kind of things that you typically would, like you’d never jump up on a table and be like ‘Argh!!,’ if you weren’t wasted or a clown. So you can do those kinds of things… silly… carefree… let the steam out without the repercussions of, ‘Why did I say that?’ Or, you know, ‘I don’t feel good in the morning,’ kind of thing.”
