Melissa Barrera Says Her Scream Firing ‘Was Shocking’ at the Time: ‘I’m Very at Peace’ Now

Melissa Barrera reflects on her shooting from Scream franchise.

As Barrera, 33, caught up Rolling stone at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where she premiered her new film Your Monstershe turned Scream Spyglass Studio’s decision to remove her from the cast of the upcoming film Scream VII back in November in response to her social media posts about the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

“I’m not the first person this has happened to, but it was shocking. I don’t even know what to say,” Barrera told the newspaper when asked about Spyglass’ statement regarding her termination. In November, the studio said it had “zero tolerance for anti-Semitism or hate speech in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, distortions of the Holocaust or anything that flagrantly crosses the line of hate speech.”

“I think that everything that happened was very transparent, from both sides, and I know who I am, and I know that what I said always came from a place of love and from a place of humanity and from a place of human rights and from a place of freedom for people, which would not should be moot,” she said. “It shouldn’t be moot.”

“So I’m very calm. The people who know me in my family know the truth about me and where I am, and I think most people in the world do too,” Barrera added.

Melissa Barrera on why she feels ‘grateful’ months on Scream Letting Go: ‘I’m Becoming What I Should Be’

Brownie Harris / Paramount Pictures / Courtesy of the Everett Collection

Elsewhere in the piece, In the Heights star — who collaborated with the former Scream directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett about the upcoming horror film Abigail – she shared a little hesitation about further discussing her dismissal. “I feel that whatever I say will only make the situation worse,” she said Rolling stone.

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Barrera’s sudden exit from Scream VII followed by the news that her co-star in the last two films of the franchise, Jenna Ortega, also dropped out of the project. A month later, the director of the film Christopher Landon announced that he was no longer involved with the film, sharing on X at the time that the film “was a dream job that turned into a nightmare.”

Melissa Barrera and Angus Cloud, in one of his last roles, fighting a vampire child Abigail Trailer

Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega in Scream VI from 2023.

Philippe Boss/PARAMOUNT

With the future Scream in the air, Barrera, Ortega and many of their colleagues in 2022 Scream and in 2023 Scream VI held an impromptu gathering at the Evening Before Motion Picture & Television Fund Gala on January 14. Barrera said Rolling stone many actors happened to be at the event.

“Look, Jenna’s a good egg. She’s a good person and we love each other,” Barrera said of Ortega, 21, when asked about the younger actor’s reasons for leaving Scream movies. “She would show up for me and I would show up for her no matter what.”

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