There was no strike. No one officially crossed a picket line. And yet, everything about Scream 7 took on a new meaning after star Melissa Barrera was fired. Barrera was set to star in the horror sequel but was fired for social media comments about the war in Gaza. Comments that the film’s production company, Spyglass, deemed anti-Semitic. Massive changes then ensued, including a new director, a new star, and a new focus for the film. And, in a new interview, Barrera speaks very bluntly about her feelings regarding all of it.
Speaking to Variety on the occasion of her Tony-nominated Broadway musical, Titaníque, Barrera was asked if she felt it was “scabby” for previous cast members from the franchise to come back after her being fired. “Oh, one hundred percent,” she said. “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.”
The road to Scream 7 was bumpy to say the least. After Barrera was fired, the film’s director left, a new director was brought on, and Spyglass was forced to pay a reported $7 million to Neve Campbell to return to the franchise. The gamble paid off, with Scream 7 becoming the franchise’s highest-grossing installment yet (not adjusted for inflation), but fans were decidedly mixed on it. Barrera was not. “And I think they lied about the numbers. I don’t think it made that much money,” she said.
There’s no evidence to back up that Paramount and Spyglass juiced the numbers for Scream 7, but you completely understand Barrera’s anger towards the project. She was the star of the franchise. Things were in place that would have seen her character, the daughter of original character Billy Loomis, become even more important. But then, the new film basically just ignores everything that happened beforehand.
“The reality is that Scream is always going to be a big part of me because it was two years of my life,” Barrera added. “It gave me a lot, and I’m grateful specifically to [Scream 5 and 6 directors] Matt [Bettinelli-Olpin] and Tyler [Gillett] who gave me that shot. That hasn’t been soured for me. They don’t have that power.”
Barrera’s Scream comments might be the highlight of the Variety article, but we suggest you head there and give the full thing a read. As blunt as she is about the horror franchise, she’s even more so about what happened to her career in the aftermath of comments she still feels were nowhere near as incendiary as they were made out to be. Read it here.
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