If you’re one of those who has cut ties with Twitter/X (You’re not alone) then count yourself lucky for missing the chaos of last night. Believe it or not, but Scream star Melissa Barrera has been fired from the upcoming sequel, meaning the franchise is missing its leading lady. What could cause Spyglass Media Group to make such a decision? Well, the Israeli/Palestine conflict, that’s what.
The violence in the Middle East, sparked by the terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel on October 7th, has caused a deep political divide in Hollywood. Barrera has been very active on social media with her support for a ceasefire in Gaza, noting the thousands of deaths of Palestinians as Israeli forces retaliate. She also posted an antisemtic trope about Jews controlling all of media, while calling Israel’s attacks a form of genocide.
Spyglass responded to the uproar over Barrera’s firing, which many see as a rash, overblown move, with a statement of their own:
“Spyglass’ stance is unequivocally clear: We have zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech.”
This isn’t an issue that’s going to go away anytime soon, and we could see other firings across multiple productions. The Variety report goes on to mention Sorry to Bother You director Boots Riley, whose call to boycott an industry screening of footage of Hamas atrocities has led La La Land producer Marc Platt to ask for him to be dropped by his agency.
Going back to Scream 7, director Christopher Landon is the only one involved who has dared to say anything, although his tweet was quickly deleted: “This is my statement. Everything sucks. Stop yelling. This was not my decision to make.”
Barrera has yet to make a formal response, only briefly posting then deleting a meme on IG that read: “At the end of the day, I’d rather be excluded for who I include, than be included for who I exclude.”
I would expect that more of Melissa Barrera’s co-stars will chime in, but then again with every statement politicized and scrutinized to death, could they face consequences, too?
