Melissa Barrera Claims She Was ‘Blacklisted’ for Vocal Pro-Palestine Stance

Scream actress Melissa Barrera opened up about being fired from the franchise after her public support for Palestinians.

“A lot of people got fired from their jobs, not just in the entertainment industry … for basically saying Palestinians deserve human rights and they shouldn’t be getting bombed and attacked in this way,” Barrera, 36, said during the Friday, August 7, episode of the Latino USA podcast, adding that she felt “blacklisted.”

Barrera starred as the lead, Sam Carpenter, in the 2022 film and its follow-up, Scream 6, in 2023. However, the production company announced later that year that Barrera would not be returning for the seventh installment.

“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,” Spyglass Media said in a statement to TheWrap in November 2023.

During her recent appearance, Barrera told host Maria Hinojosa, “It’s sad to me that there are interests that are more important to certain people, of power and money … They will do everything they can to shut people up from saying that people deserve to live, that children deserve to grow up.”

The Copenhagen Test star added, “I try to continue to have hope because I do feel that there’s a lot more people out there that care — that actually do care about each other — and that understand that we’re all connected. We can’t turn a blind eye to something that is happening on the other side of the world just because it’s on the other side of the world, because, before we know it, it’s right here on our doorstep. People, especially in this country, realized that this year.”

Barrera has since moved on from being fired by Spyglass and is starring in Broadway’s Titanique.