NEED TO KNOW
Melissa Barrera spoke to Variety recently about work and life now, including starring in Broadway’s Titanique
The actress was fired in 2023 from Scream 7 after starring in the previous two installments, reportedly over comments she made about the Israel-Hamas war
The cast members who returned to the movie after her firing, she opined, “have to live with” crossing picket lines
Melissa Barrera has thoughts on Scream 7 after being fired from the hit franchise.
Asked in a new Variety interview if the cast of Ghostface’s newest sequel (which hit theaters on Feb. 27) “were people basically crossing the picket line,” the actress, 35, agreed.
“Oh, one hundred percent,” Barrera said candidly. “I think they all are. And they have to live with that.”
Melissa Barrera
Credit: Arturo Holmes/Getty
Reps for Scream 7 stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
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“The only way they were able to make that movie after what happened was to nostalgia-bait as much as possible,” opined the Scream V and Scream VI star, currently making her Broadway debut at New York’s St. James Theatre in the Celine Dion-inspired musical comedy Titanique.
It was reported in 2023 that Barrera was fired from Scream 7’s production due to comments she shared about the Israel-Hamas war. Jenna Ortega, who played her sister in the previous two installments, then dropped out. The latter explained in 2025 that “it had nothing to do with pay or scheduling” and “was all kind of falling apart.”
Scream 7
Credit: Paramount Pictures
Director Christopher Landon, who was also originally set to join the Scream 7 team, exited in December 2023, calling it a “dream job that turned into a nightmare.” The installment, led by Campbell, 52, was directed by franchise writer Kevin Williamson.
“I think they lied about the numbers,” Barrera told Variety of the movie’s box office performance. “I don’t think it made that much money.”
At the stage door at Titanique, she added, she signs Scream-related merchandise “every night.”
“People who love me from those movies are coming to see the show, and they can’t ever take that away from me.”
Barrera told Collider in 2024 that she feels she’s “gotten closure” on her character Sam’s time in the slasher franchise. “My head is clear,” said the In the Heights star. “It was always meant to be two movies for me, ’cause that was my contract, and so everything is perfect.”
After starring onscreen in last December’s miniseries The Copenhagen Test, Barrera includes the films The Collaboration and Black Tides among her upcoming projects.
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