Anna Faris nearly slipped a jab at First Lady Melania Trump into “Scary Movie 6,” but the punchline ended up on the cutting room floor. In an interview published June 8, 2026, the actress revealed she filmed a scene riffing on the first lady’s “Be Best” campaign — only to watch it vanish before the parody sequel hit theaters on June 5.
Faris, 49, is reprising her signature role as Cindy Campbell, the franchise’s beleaguered final girl, after sitting out the 2013 entry. This time, she said, she wanted Cindy to feel of the moment — and that meant pushing the character firmly into MAGA territory.
“I was always pushing for Cindy to be classic MAGA rabbit hole,” Faris told The Daily Beast. “The kind of person that you saw outside of the Walmart during quarantine, that was raising some kind of crazy a– fuss.”
The Joke That Didn’t Make It
The deleted moment, according to Faris, found Cindy blackout drunk behind the wheel of her truck, catching her own bleary reflection in the rearview mirror. The character then delivered a deadpan nod to Melania Trump’s signature initiative.
“I look into the rearview mirror and I say, ‘Be best, Cindy Campbell. Be best,'” Faris said, riffing on the name of Melania’s campaign. “That didn’t make it, but I liked my little winking there.”
The actress shrugged off any potential backlash over the MAGA framing. “You know, what are you gonna do? You gonna be mad at Cindy?” she said. “I’m in a movie that is truly the most offensive movie ever made, and I’m the lead of it. And I participate in offensive ideas. I think I can kind of do anything. It liberated me.”
A Campaign Long Mocked
Melania Trump launched “Be Best” in 2018 as an anti-cyberbullying initiative during her husband’s first term in the White House. The campaign drew immediate mockery from critics, who pointed to President Donald Trump’s well-documented history of online attacks as undercutting the program’s central message.
The first lady has kept the initiative alive in unconventional fashion. In March, she opened the second day of her Fostering the Future Together Global Coalition Summit by strolling down a White House hallway alongside a humanoid robot named Figure 3. The machine greeted attendees in 12 languages and told the room it was “an honor” to be present.
“It’s fair to state you are my first American-made humanoid guest in the White House,” Melania Trump told the robot, as guests applauded awkwardly. The first lady exited the event after seven minutes, skipping the networking portion she had urged attendees — including French first lady Brigitte Macron — to take part in, according to CNN.
A Rocky Return for the Franchise
Faris attended the world premiere of “Scary Movie 6,” marking nearly 25 years since she first played Cindy Campbell in the Wayans Brothers’ original “Scary Movie” in 2000. She returned for the 2001 and 2003 sequels, appeared again in 2006, then sat out 2013’s “Scary Movie 5,” which starred Ashley Tisdale.
The sixth installment, arriving after a 13-year hiatus, reunites Faris with Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans and Regina Hall. The film parodies recent horror hits including “Ma” (2019), “M3GAN” (2022) and the 2025 releases “Weapons” and “Sinners.”
Critics, however, have not been kind. The movie debuted with a 32 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, a punishing reception for a comeback that producers hoped would relaunch the long-dormant franchise. Online reactions to news of the cut Melania Trump gag have split predictably, with some viewers arguing Paramount played it safe and others suggesting the joke would have landed as a dated reference for most audiences.
Faris Embraces the Edge
For Faris, the cut scene appears to be less a regret than a footnote. The actress has described the experience of returning to the franchise as freeing, and she’s been candid that the script demanded a willingness to court controversy. Playing Cindy as a “classic MAGA” type was, in her telling, a deliberate effort to update a character first introduced during the George W. Bush administration for an era when the parody source material — the people most likely to find themselves screaming at imaginary horrors — looks markedly different.
Whether the choice resonates with audiences who showed up for “Scary Movie 6” remains an open question. The franchise made its name skewering whatever was loudest in the culture, and Faris seems to argue that in 2026, that’s exactly where Cindy Campbell belongs — even if one of her sharpest lines never made it past the editing bay.