Melissa Barrera Dropped From Spyglass Media’s ‘Scream 7’ Due To Social Media Posts On Israel-Hamas Conflict
UPDATED with Spyglass Media & Scream 7 filmmaker quotes: Deadline has confirmed that actress Melissa Barrera has been dropped from Spyglass Media’s Scream VII.
Sources say that this is due to the reposts in her Instagram stories that have been perceived as antisemitic.
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“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,” reads a statement from a rep.
Scream VII director Christopher Landon weighed in with the following on Barrera’s firing by the studio: “This is my statement: Everything sucks. Stop yelling. This was not my decision to make.”
Landon’s originally posted on X, but his tweet has been removed. Here’s a screenshot:
There have been screen captures of her IG stories online. See below.
A month ago, Barrera posted on her IG story a placard that read “I too come from a colonized country” with a Mexican flag logo. “Palestine WILL be free” it continued to read with an italicized quote: “they tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds.”
She also posted the following to her IG stories:
Spyglass Media did not return request for comment on the firing of Barrera.
While there have been no hard castings announced about the film post-actors strike, and Christopher Landon reportedly is directing the next installment, we hear that Barrera was set to reprise her role as Sam Carpenter, sister of Jenna Ortega’s Tara Carpenter.
Paramount has been the theatrical distributor of the two most recent Scream movies, the last one being the highest-grossing of all stateside with over $108M, and an overall global take of $169M.
Barrera rose to fame on Starz’s series Vida before winning a lead role in Warner Bros. feature musical In the Heights and continuing on to the Scream franchise for two movies.
Earlier today, Oscar winner Susan Sarandon was dropped by her agency UTA after she made controversial comments at a pro-Palestine rally in New York on November 17.
Sarandon reportedly said at the rally, “There are a lot of people that are afraid, that are afraid of being Jewish at this time, and are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country, so often subjected to violence.”
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