Melissa Barrera, recently dismissed from the Scream series for her outspoken comments on Israel’s conflict with Gaza, appears to have taken a veiled swipe at Neve Campbell during a recent interview.
The actress, originally from Mexico and aged 35, was the leading face of both the 2022 Scream reboot and its 2023 follow-up, Scream VI. However, she was removed from the upcoming Scream 7 by Spyglass Media after she openly criticized the actions of the Israeli government regarding the casualties among Palestinian civilians following the October 7 Hamas attacks.
Spyglass justified Barrera’s removal by accusing her of antisemitism, promoting hate, and making “false references to genocide.”
In the aftermath, Barrera’s role was filled by Neve Campbell, the original star of the Scream franchise, who had previously exited Scream VI due to a salary disagreement.
The new sequel, featuring Campbell alongside Courteney Cox, although critically panned, achieved substantial commercial success, raking in over $213 million and becoming the highest-earning installment of the Scream series.
Recently, Barrera has not held back from expressing her disapproval of both Spyglass and the Scream 7 ensemble during an intense interview with Variety.
Melissa Barrera, who was fired from the Scream franchise for speaking out against Israel’s assault on Gaza, has slammed the Scream 7 cast in a fiery new interview
Barrera headlined 2022’s Scream and 2023’s Scream VI, but was dropped from Scream 7 after criticizing the Israeli government on social media
Barrera agreed with journalist Marlow Stern that the critically-panned sequel ‘sucked’, before claiming that its high box office gross may have been faked.
‘I think they lied about the numbers. I don’t think it made that much money,’ she said.
She also agreed with Stern that some of the returning Scream cast members, who she did not name, were ‘scabby’ and ‘crossing the picket line’ for doing the seventh film.
‘I think they all are. And they have to live with that. The only way they were able to make that movie after what happened was to nostalgia-bait as much as possible,’ she said.
Along with Campbell and Cox, original Scream star Matthew Lillard also returned for the seventh instalment.
She also defended herself against Spyglass’ allegations of antisemitism.
‘Those people still deny that what’s going on is a genocide. So, we’re never going to see eye to eye on that,’ she said.
‘I mean the people that accused me of being antisemitic, and the people that run Spyglass. And they’re wrong. Just factually wrong.’
Barrera was replaced by original Scream star Campbell after being sacked from the sequel
Barrera agreed that some of the returning Scream cast members, who she did not name, were ‘scabby’ and ‘crossing the picket line’ for doing the seventh film
And despite more Hollywood stars speaking out against Israel, Barrera said that ‘there are still a lot of people in the industry who have a personal grudge against me’ due to her comments.
Daily Mail has contacted Spyglass and Campbell for comment.
In the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, which saw Hamas terrorists kill approximately 1,200 people partying at an Israeli music festival, Barrera used her Instagram account to speak out against the Israeli government’s assault on Gaza.
In November 2023, she re-shared a post accusing Israel of ‘genocide and ethnic cleansing’, followed by another post from progressive Jewish magazine Jewish Currents that accused Israel of ‘a textbook case of genocide’.
Other posts she shared included phrases like ‘Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp’ and ‘Western media only shows the [Israeli] side’.
Spyglass swiftly dropped her from Scream 7 following her posts.
In a statement to Variety at the time, Spyglass said: ‘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.’
Despite being panned by critics, Scream 7 was the highest-grossing film in the franchise’s history
Responding to their words, Barrera issued a statement of her own.
‘First and foremost I condemn Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. I condemn hate and prejudice of any kind against any group of people,’ she said.
‘As a Latina, a proud Mexicana, I feel the responsibility of having a platform that allows me the privilege of being heard, and therefore I have tried to use it to raise awareness about issues I care about and to lend my voice to those in need,’ she continued.
‘I will continue to speak out for those that need it most and continue to advocate for peace and safety, for human rights and freedom. Silence is not an option for me.’
While Barrera’s career slowed down after her Scream sacking, the star seems to be bouncing back now.
Last year she starred alongside Simu Liu in Peacock’s action-thriller The Copenhagen Test and she recently made her Broadway debut in Titanique.
She also has several films in the works, including the Spanish thriller Black Tides with John Travolta.
‘Those people still deny that what’s going on is a genocide. So, we’re never going to see eye to eye on that,’ Barrera said
In the two-and-a-half years since Barrera’s firing, several major organizations and scholars have ruled Israel’s attacks on Gaza to be a genocide.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both accused Israel of genocide, along with genocide scholars including Omer Bartov, professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University, and Shmuel Lederman from the Open University of Israel.
South Africa has also accused Israel of genocide, along with a number of government officials from Bolivia, Colombia, Turkey, and more.
A small but growing number of US politicians have also accused Israel of genocide, including Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Becca Balint, and former US representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Israel has rejected all accusations of genocide, most notably at the International Court of Justice, where they claimed that they were targeting Hamas and not civilians.
According to a study published in the Lancet Global Health medical journal, more than 75,000 people were killed in the first 16 months of the Gaza war.
According to the study, which was cited in The Guardian, the majority of the deaths are of women, children, and the elderly.
The exact death toll has been disputed, but in January Israel accepted the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza’s figure of 70,000 deaths.
