Part of Scream featuring Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard, and Drew Barrymore.
Rise to Fame
Scream (1996) rebooted a dead genre and remade her career. After two seasons on Party of Five, Campbell was familiar enough for mainstream casting but unknown enough for horror to feel fresh. What she brought to Sidney Prescott was new: Sidney fought back, got angry, didn't wait around to get killed. The film revived the slasher genre commercially and spawned five sequels with her at the center. The franchise tried to move on without her once. It didn't take.
In the Spotlight
She walked from Scream VI (2023) when the studio's offer didn't reflect what she'd built over 27 years. The studio proceeded without her, then Melissa Barrera got fired and Jenna Ortega exited, leaving the franchise dependent on its original lead. She came back for Scream 7 (2026) reportedly for $7 million, the highest payout on the film. Meanwhile, The Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix is in its fourth season. Walking out was, it turns out, the right play.
Side Notes
She won a full scholarship to the National Ballet School of Canada at nine, trained there alongside a pre-famous Rachel McAdams, and left at 15 after injuries and the competitive pressure nearly broke her. The discipline stuck. Fifteen years later, she co-wrote, produced, and starred in The Company (2003), a Robert Altman film about the Joffrey Ballet, spending two years in training for the role. For the record: she doesn't watch horror films. Finds them too frightening, which is a strange thing to carry around when your career is basically Scream.