“Definitely did.”

So said Anna Camp when asked if she rewatched the Scream franchise after being cast in the upcoming and anticipated seventh installment. The film already has a release date on the calendar, set for Feb. 27, 2026, and Camp said it’s going to be “really thrilling” for audiences, much like the experience she had making it.

“I hadn’t seen the newest ones, but I remember the first one, which I’ve seen four times already,” Camp told The Hollywood Reporter while standing on the blue carpet at the Mediterrane Film Festival’s Golden Bee Awards in Malta on Sunday. “The other ones I had to really sit down and watch. It’s just fun. This one is going to be really great because it’s Sidney Prescott, an iconic character, and Neve Campbell, an iconic actress. It’s a coming home story for her. It’s returning to the original cast and the original format.”

Asked what she learned by watching Campbell work on the new installment, Camp said she noticed her instincts and natural communication with Kevin Williamson, who came back to write and direct Scream 7 after launching the successful franchise back in the day. “This character is so close to home [for her],” Camp explained. “Obviously, she’s grown up playing this role that she knows when the script is not right or if something doesn’t feel like what Sidney would say.”

Camp continued: “Kevin Williamson directed this one, and he’s the mastermind behind the entire story. To watch their dialogue together and their shorthand, I was like, ‘I want that. I want a relationship like that with the director.’”

Speaking of relationships, Camp came to Malta with her new girlfriend, Jade Whipkey, after debuting their relationship on the red carpet at the recent Bride Hard premiere.

“It’s been a little overwhelming, obviously,” Camp said in response to the swirl surrounding the relationship and their age gap. (Camp is 42 and Whipkey is 24.) “Coming out later in life with how old I am is one thing, and then coming out publicly and being kind of in the spotlight is a whole other thing. People are having [lots of chatter] about our age gap, so it’s been a lot to deal with and hold my own with, but it’s taught me that I should live authentically as myself. I’ve actually never been happier and there’s more overwhelming support than there is negative. It’s overwhelming but I just feel free and incredibly happy.”

Camp noted that she and Whipkey have been dating for nearly seven months, and their trip to Malta marked their first major vacation together. “We’ve been having the best time,” she said. Asked if she received any messages of support from surprising places, she revealed that an Olympic medalist reached out to say, “Don’t listen to any of the haters.”

“She said that she was in an age gap relationship, and she was on the younger side of it but that it was the most fulfilling relationship of her entire life. She said, ‘Don’t listen to any of that stuff.’ I was, like, ‘Thank you, I’ll take that.’”

On the work front, Camp said she’s eager to get back on stage and find a play or musical to star in, while she’s also getting ready for a number of films on her own. “I opted to book a while ago, and that’s in the middle of being written,” she said. “I have Scream 7 out in February, and I have a couple of little indie movies coming out, but I’m just kind of waiting for the right job while I’m producing about three scripts right now on my own. I’m not sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. I’m working and doing it on my own, which is really exciting.”