For Daytime Emmy winner Olivia Rose Keegan, summer 2026 isn’t just busy — it’s monumental. Fresh off her high-stakes role in Taylor Sheridan’s highly anticipated Yellowstone spin-off, Dutton Ranch (which launched on streaming on May 15), the starlet has officially made her big-screen comedy debut with Scary Movie 6 earlier this month.
The 26-year-old, who audiences know from Daisy Jones & The Six, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Gotham Knights, and Days of Our Lives, is stepping into the legendary spoof franchise as Sarah, the daughter of Anna Faris‘ beloved franchise heroine Cindy Campbell. And while Keegan has tackled everything from musicals to superheroes to soap operas, being part of this wildly successful comedy franchise marked a major first.
“I’ve been an avid fan of Anna for as long as I can remember,” Keegan tells Celeb Secrets with a smile. “I think her performances are literally etched into my creative mind.”
What Keegan didn’t know during much of the audition process, however, was just how closely connected her character would be to Faris’ iconic final girl.
“I actually didn’t know I would be playing her daughter early on in the audition process. They were pretty secretive. I knew that Anna was returning, but I didn’t know I was playing her daughter,” she reveals.
“I actually leaned against coming across like her at all because I was like, ‘They don’t want two of those types in the movie,'” she continues. “But no one can ever emulate Anna if they tried because she is so iconic, brilliant, and wonderful on her own.”
When she finally learned the truth, everything clicked.
“I was so relieved and excited when I found out because then I could just let it all rip.”
For fans of the franchise, Scary Movie 6 serves as a massive homecoming. Previously dubbed a perfect “rebootiquel” by Keegan herself, the film marks the triumphant return of Marlon, Shawn, Craig, and Keenen Ivory Wayans behind the camera, alongside OG favorites like Faris, Regina Hall, Cheri Oteri, and Carmen Electra.
For Keegan, sharing a call sheet with these legends felt so surreal she had to implement a unique coping mechanism on set.
“Because I’m such a fan of the franchise and because it was such a monumental, surreal experience, I think I intentionally sort of dissociated in a way,” she says. “I think if I went to set every day actually realizing the monumentality of what was happening, I would’ve been too freaked out to function properly.”
Now that the film has been released, she’s finally allowing herself to fully process it all.
“I’m really just letting it all sink in and be like, ‘Wait, wait, wait. That wasn’t a dream? That’s crazy.'”
Of course, sharing scenes with comedy royalty came with its own masterclass. While audiences are seeing Keegan hold her own alongside Faris and the rest of the legendary cast, the actress says she spent much of her time absorbing every lesson she could from the people around her.
“Anna is so brilliant because she’s so sincere,” Keegan notes, echoing a piece of advice given to her during production. “You can’t really be in on the joke. You can’t try to be funny or emulate her because nobody can.”
“These people are comedic geniuses because they’re genuinely going through something. Even though it is big and outrageous and satirical, it has to be connected,” she continues. “I think that was really informative of how I tried to shape my performance going forward.”
Having spent much of her career on tightly scripted sets like Gotham Knights and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, the loose, highly collaborative nature of a Wayans production forced Keegan out of her comfort zone.
“From Marlon, I learned how to trust my own creative voice,” she shares. “He’s so just oozing with creative ideas. You can just turn the camera on and let him go for an hour and a half, and he can pull out 17 different versions of the scene.”
On a franchise that parodies massive recent hits like Sinners and Weapons, sticking strictly to the page wasn’t just optional — it was discouraged.
“On most sets, you don’t wanna stray too far from the writer’s words,” Keegan explains. “But [here] it was almost looked down upon to not show up with your own creative ideas and inputs and punchlines. I learned so much about trusting my own creative voice in that way, ’cause that was all new to me.”
With Dutton Ranch dominating television screens and Scary Movie 6 currently wrecking theater box offices, Keegan is successfully world-hopping across Hollywood’s biggest genres. And though she can’t officially say it, industry rumblings suggest her character is perfectly positioned to anchor the next three films of the revived horror-comedy franchise.
As for what she wants to conquer next? She already has her sights set on new horizons.
“I haven’t conquered the rom-com world. I would love to do something in there — like an 1800s romance novel adaptation or something modern-day,” she reveals, before adding a nod to heavy sci-fi. “I was watching Project Hail Mary, and I was just like, what an epic story to be a part of. Give them all to me!”
For more on Olivia Rose Keegan and her role as Sarah in Scary Movie 6, make sure to watch our full interview below. Scary Movie 6 is now playing in theaters nationwide.
Interview quotes have been condensed and edited for clarity.
