One of the new cast members of the revived Scream franchise, Melissa Barrera, is said to have been fired from the show due to comments she made on social media on the situation in Israel and Palestine. The Hollywood Reporter claims that she said on her Instagram stories—which the platform eventually deleted—that “Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp.” “Cornering everyone together, with nowhere to go, no electricity, no water,” the message allegedly claimed, according to THR. Nothing has been learned by people from our past. And, like in the past, people are still observing everything in silence. THIS IS ETHNIC CLEANSING AND GENOCIDE.
Following the publication of this story, Spyglass, the production company behind Scream, released a statement to Variety in which it implied that Barrera had used “hate speech.” The company statement is as follows:
The position of Spyglass is very clear: anything that blatantly crosses the line into hate speech, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust denial, or antisemitism in its various forms, will not be tolerated.
Barrera is no longer working with a publicist at all, according to the Variety report, even though “it is unclear who dropped whom or when the relationship ended.” The A.V. Club contacted Barrera’s PR, who declined to comment. The aforementioned comment appears to have been removed from Barrera’s Instagram page, but there are still several posts there calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
With the unexpected success of the 2022 remake of Scream, Barrera joined the cast as Sam Carpenter, taking on the role of co-lead with Jenna Ortega (who plays Tera, her sister). With its $43 million opening in March, Scream VI, which was released earlier this year, broke records for the franchise at the box office. With Barrera stepping down, Happy Death Day’s Christopher Landon will take over for Scream VII, and according to THR, Spyglass is “expected to recalibrate plans” for the franchise moving forward.
