Melissa Barrera will no longer be part of Scream VII.
The 33-year-old actress, who starred as Samantha Carpenter in the franchise, was dropped from the movie following a series of social media posts about the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Outlets report that her firing was “due to her social media posts that referred to Israel and ‘colonized’ land and floated an antisemitic trope that Jews control the media.”
In one post, Melissa wrote:
“Western media only shows the [Israeli] side. Why do they do that, I will let you deduce for yourself.”
Reports went on to say that her being dropped from the film was “not due to the actress’ vocal online support for Palestine or for calling for a ceasefire (a position supported by 68% of Americans) amid the ongoing Gaza conflict but due to Barrera posting social media content that allegedly crossed the line into antisemitism.”
Spyglass Media Group, the studio behind the Scream movies, shared a statement regarding Melissa’s firing. A spokesperson declared:
“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.”
The director of the upcoming Scream Vii, Christopher Landon, took to social media to share his own statement, revealing that Melissa’s firing came from way above him. He wrote:
“This is my statement: 💔 Everything sucks. Stop yelling. This was not my decision to make.”
