Melissa Barrera: Actress fired from Scream 7 over Israel-Gaza posts

KATHMANDU: Mexican actress Melissa Barrera has been fired from the forthcoming Scream film sequel after the production company said her recent pro-Palestinian social media posts were antisemitic.

The star has posted regularly about the Israel-Gaza conflict, including resharing one post that accused Israel of “genocide and ethnic cleansing”.

Production company Spyglass said it had “zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form”.

Barrera has not yet commented.

However, before her departure was announced, she reshared a quote from another account on her Instagram story which read: “At the end of the day, I’d rather be excluded for who I include, than be included for who I exclude.”

That post has been interpreted by some of her followers as a reference to her being sacked from the film.

Barrera has led the previous two Scream movies and has also starred in the recent screen version of Carmen and the 2021 adaptation of stage musical In The Heights.

Other posts shared by Barrera in recent weeks have included one about distorting the Holocaust “to boost the Israeli arms industry” and another saying Gaza was “currently being treated like a concentration camp”.

In a statement released to Variety, a spokesman for Scream 7 production company Spyglass said its stance was “unequivocally clear”.

It 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.”

Christopher Landon, who is expected to direct Scream 7, appeared to reference the situation on social media.

In a since-deleted post on X, he said: “Everything sucks. Stop yelling. This was not my decision to make.”

The Scream franchise was rebooted in 2022, with the fifth film taking $137m (£109m) at the box office and the sixth earning $169m (£135m).

Barrera played Sam Carpenter in the films, the older sister of Tara, played by Jenna Ortega.

The rebooted films also starred Courteney Cox, David Arquette and Neve Campbell, reprising their original roles.

Barrera’s firing followed news that actress Susan Sarandon has been dropped by Hollywood talent agency UTA after she spoke at a pro-Palestinian rally.

Footage from the event shows Sarandon encouraging people to speak up in support of Palestinians.

“People are questioning, people are standing up, people are educating themselves, people are stepping away from brainwashing that started when they were kids,” she said.

Sarandon encouraged attendees to “be strong, be patient, be clear and stand with anybody who has the courage to speak out”, and thanked “the Jewish community who’s come out to have our backs”.

The conflict began when Gaza-based gunmen from Hamas attacked southern Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 240 others hostage.

Israel launched a military operation to destroy Hamas in response. More than 14,000 people in Gaza have been killed, according to the Hamas-run government.

Israel and Hamas have now agreed a deal to release 50 hostages being held in Gaza during a four-day pause in fighting.

-BBC