‘Scream’ – Ghostface Voice Actor Roger L. Jackson Is the Unsung Horror Icon of the Slasher Franchise

Tyler Eschberger

You’re home alone.

You’re making a snack before you sit down to watch a spooky movie.

The phone rings. Odd, who could it be at this hour?

You answer. On the other end of the line a friendly, yet provocative voice answers back.

He sounds fun – a little sexy even. He asks you: “What’s your favorite scary movie?”

Horror icons are often associated with not just with the visual, but also with the auditory. There is no Michael Myers without John Carpenter’s legendary score. There is no Jason Voorhees without Harry Manfredini’s iconic “ki ki ki ma ma ma.” Entire generations can’t even look at the ocean without hearing the all-time classic Jaws theme conducted by John Williams.

Who is Freddy Krueger without Robert Englund’s distinctive cadence? Is there a Chucky if Brad Dourif hasn’t been knocking it out of the park as the stabby little bastard for over 30 years?

There is one slasher character as equally recognizable for how they look as well as how they sound: Ghostface.

Prolific voice actor Roger L. Jackson has been blessing us with his vocal performance as Ghostface since the very beginning, cementing the character as a new horror icon right out of the gate. Like all of the aforementioned characters, there simply is no Ghostface without Jackson’s captivating performance.

As we all know, Ghostface isn’t the same person who keeps coming back to kill more young and hip people every sequel. They are new killers (or killer) with each new installment – yet, the voice remains the same due to the genius plot device of the voice changer Ghostface uses to mask their true identity.

What’s genius about the voice changer element is that it allows the Ghostface character to have a singular identity outside of the Father Death costume. Even though we know the killer is always going to be somebody new, Jackson’s instantly recognizable voice lets the audience immediately immerse themselves back into the world of Scream. We’re not thinking “oh, somebody bad is calling.”

We’re thinking “Ghostface is calling.”

When the phone rings and we hear those familiar dulcet tones, we know EXACTLY who is on the other end of the line. We instantly know danger is right around the corner and ready to pounce. Every trill of a phone in the Scream franchise is fraught with tension. What Psycho did for showers, Jaws did to the beach, and Friday the 13th did for camp, Scream did for answering the phone.

Jackson has noted in various interviews that one of the key aspects to his work as the character is that the different casts of each of the films never meet him on set. He is always off in the shadows, hidden from view while the phone conversations are being filmed. This allows for far more intimate and organic performances because a real conversation is happening instead of the filmmakers dubbing a voice in during post production.

Jackson gets every mile he can out of his voicework as Ghostface. He runs the gamut from friendly, flirty, sexy, to violent raving maniac. There is no denying the sexual tinge the Ghostface voice carries, and that is entirely by design as Jackson stated in a Vice interview published in 2019:

“I knew it had to be a sexy voice and something interesting enough to keep the girl on the phone, even though she clearly wants to hang up. He sounds interesting. There’s this texture and erotic colour to his voice. It’s like a cat that seems sweet and playful, but then all of a sudden the paw comes down onto the mouse’s tail.”

Like Freddy Krueger before him, Ghostface is a slasher that has fun with their victims. It’s not just about getting down to business. It’s all about the game, the theatricality, the performance. Every Ghostface killer is obsessed with movies or fame to a warped degree. Performance is intrinsic to the character. Jackson understands this and speaks every word with precision and clarity.

Just as Ghostface is in control of the conversations in the films, Jackson is control of Ghostface. With his performance across five films and one season of television now, Roger L. Jackson is as important to the identity and success of the Scream series as the principle trio of Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette.

With no disrespect to those three wonderful performers, it’s not unreasonable to suggest Jackson is ever more important to the identity of the franchise, because without his voice, is it really even Scream?