Melissa Barrera calls out ‘Scream 7’ cast for “scabby” behaviour amid exit for pro-Palestine views
After being pushed out of her talent agency and fired from the cast of Scream 7 for her vocal support for Palestine, Melissa Barrera has dissed the entire cast who failed to support her.
Barrera has opened up about the tumultuous events of 2024, which saw Jenna Ortega leaving the movie in solidarity, as well as the director dropping out. Scream 7 then restructured the film by bringing back the franchise’s original stars, such as Neve Campbell and Matthew Lillard, and introducing AI into the plot.
When asked in a new interview with Variety if she considers the people who remained on the movie to be “scabby” and “crossed the picket line”, Barrera agreed: “Oh, one hundred per cent. I think they all are. And they have to live with that.”
She added, “The only way they were able to make that movie after what happened was to nostalgia-bait as much as possible.”
From there, the seventh installment in the franchise reportedly became the highest-grossing film in Scream history, pulling $97.2 million in global ticket sales across the opening weekend. However, Barrera threw doubt over these claims.
After the Variety interview suggested that the movie “sucked”, Barrera agreed and added, “I know. And I think they lied about the numbers. I don’t think it made that much money.”
She continued, “But at the stage door, I sign Scream things every night. People who love me from those movies are coming to see the show, and they can’t ever take that away from me.”
Elsewhere, she talked about the wider ramifications of her ostracisation from Hollywood: “When, all of a sudden, I found myself in a position where potentially everything could be taken from me, and I would never work again, I had an identity crisis.”
Additionally, Barrera says she became an industry “scapegoat” and experienced no support from fellow actors: “I got some messages of support from people in the industry, but what I found is that private messages with no action mean nothing.”
Barrera is currently starring in the Broadway show Titaníque, alongside Jim Parsons, Frankie Grande, Deborah Cox, and Celine Dion.
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