Olivia Rose Keegan on Playing Sara in Scary Movie, Anna Faris, Horror Comedy & the Franchise's Return

[00:00:08] Great, thank you. Congratulations on Scary Movie 6. Thank you. Thank you so much. How's your life been the last week or so? Great question. It's been really great. It's been wonderful. I think, you know, during these times, everything moves so fast and you're just hopping from one thing to another. But I think it's so important to like, just sit and remind yourself how your 13 year old self would feel, you know, and I'd be pretty frickin stoked.

[00:00:38] I mean, it's great. I mean, I went and watched over the weekend, you know, the reviews have been great. So maybe we'll see one down the road to another one. I know I'd be stoked. I'd love that. So I want to jump right away, you know, like, one of the biggest things is, you know, like, we see you as Sara, you related to Cindy Campbell, too, you know, like, when you first learned about who Sara was, you know, in this story, like, and when you're reading the script, like, what was your reaction?

[00:01:03] Um, so it's funny, at first, when I first auditioned for this, I didn't know it would be to play on his daughter, I knew on it was returning, but I didn't say that my character, Sarah would be her daughter. So I assumed that they wouldn't want to, you know, on a Ferris types in the movie, you know, not that anyone could ever emulate her if they try. Like, you know, she's so incredible and original. But so I actually leaned against.

[00:01:32] Any Ferris isms that I naturally had, because she's always sort of been, like my comedic North Star. So I think I always had a tendency to be inspired by her, you know, through my comedic performances that you know, or comedic auditions that I'd done in the past, because this is my first comedy.

[00:01:49] Um, but then during one of our producers sessions, um, which was actually over zoom, funnily enough, uh, one of our producers let me in on the fact that I would be playing on it. So then I got to let it rip and let all my love for her sort of, uh, line through. Did you go back to watch like, uh, some of the older scary movies just to watch the way she performed in it?

[00:02:14] A hundred percent, a million percent. And it's, it's, that was another conversation during the audition process. Um, you know, because she's so brilliant because she is sincere in what she does.

[00:02:29] You know, you can't be in on the joke. You can't try to be funny. Um, you know, Anna's so, so brilliant because she is genuinely going through all of these things. And so when you, you know, you're laughing your butt off when watching these movies, but when you go back and really study the performances, it's actually really interesting because everyone, Anna and everyone in these movies is actually, you know, has to, it has to come from a real place or else it's not funny, you know? So yeah. Learned a lot.

[00:02:59] Uh, throughout the movie, you know, we see Sarah, she spends a much of the movie trying to survive the latest killer while also dealing with this whole insanity going around in her. Like for you, like, what did you enjoy most about balancing the horror elements with the comedy though? That's a great question. Um, I think it's connected to what we were just talking about where it comes from a real place as big.

[00:03:21] And satirical as it is, um, if it's not grounded somewhere, um, it's, it's not going to work. So you do sort of have to go to these, you know, these real fearful places. It just might be, you know, more expressive than an indie drama film. So it's just allowing yourself to take that sincerity to the next level. If that makes sense.

[00:03:48] Yeah, definitely. You know, the film plays, uh, you know, with the legacy sequel formula, you know, for you, any pressure stepping into a movie like this?

[00:03:56] I mean, that's one way to look at it, but I think I was just so excited and so grateful coming into this, that the Wayans and some of the most renowned, respected, brilliant comedians in the world, uh, like trusted me to, um, to, to step into this world that I had never stepped foot in before.

[00:04:18] You know, I've never done a comedy and, you know, it's one thing to do your first comedy, but it's another thing to do your first comedy with these legends. So I just was trying to, of course I was super nervous, um, but I just tried to soak it all in. Any advice from them when you first joined the, the movie?

[00:04:39] Yes. I, I learned so much from each of them specifically. And they're all such, as far as the cast, they're all such different performers, but it all coalesces perfectly on set. I learned so much from each of them and the creative team, you know, one of our producers, Rick Alvarez was the one who, you know, told me in the audition process, it just reminded me that the reason Ana's so brilliant is because she is sincere and genuine.

[00:05:08] And I think that really helped my comedic instincts, you know, shaped my comedic instincts throughout this whole process. Um, Marlon is so, has such a fearless energy about him when he's working and, you know, just has a million different ideas and, and punchlines up his sleeve.

[00:05:31] And I think that was such a new way of working for me to see. So when I saw him doing that, it really inspired me to listen to, to my own creative voice like that.

[00:05:41] And then Ana, I learned so much from her. Like she just really wants to make the best movie possible. And she's not only so talented, but she works so hard. Like she's the kind of actor that, you know, stays after everyone else, you know, after some people go home, like to read one line of off camera dialogue, because she just wants to make it good and, and understand how she can, you know, put the puzzle pieces together in the best way. Yeah.

[00:06:11] I don't want to talk spoilers. I want people to go see this too. Um, like, but how would you describe Sarah's journey throughout this movie? Oh boy. Um, it's so, the movie feels like one big long dance party. That's like the best way I can describe how it feels to watch it. And so it's so hard trying to make sense of, of that.

[00:06:32] But if I could describe Sarah's journey throughout this film, I would say, you know, she has a lot of good intention and a lot of heart and she feels a lot. She just doesn't know quite how to direct it. Um, you know, uh, avoiding spoilers.

[00:06:52] I'll say that, um, you know, she's had a rough relationship with her mom and has maybe, um, gone into substance abuse to cope. And so that's a part of the story. Um, I'll leave it at that. Last question with all these parodies that were in the movie, which one was your favorite to tackle?

[00:07:12] Oh boy. Sometimes it's really fun to just, you know, there were so many days on set that, you know, a lot of us weren't working, but we still just went to go visit set. Um, I'm such a fan of Chris Elliott and, and taking a strong hand from, from the second movie. I visited the whole, I visited the set when they were doing the long legs spoof. Okay.

[00:07:38] That was so fun to watch. I'm a big fan of the substance. So I got to see some of that. And Sherry Oteri is just wildly funny and talented. So those were some of my favorites. Amazing. Olivia, I want to thank you for giving us today. Hopefully we see a scary movie seven down the road. We continue on for a couple more movies. Yeah, I would love that. Thank you so much.