Melissa Barrera fired from 'Scream 7', agency drops Susan Sarandon over pro-Palestine stance

Both actors had been vocal about Israel's ongoing atrocities in Gaza since last month

Scream VI star, Melissa Barrera was fired from the seventh installment of the horror franchise for her vocal stance in the Palestinian favour, reported Variety. 

The Mexican star was let go from the project because her social media comments, as per the film's production company, Spyglass, were read as antisemitic. “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,” the statement read.

Christopher Landon, who was set to helm the seventh Scream film, also shared on X Tuesday night following the news of Barrera’s ousting from the movie. “This is my statement: 💔 Everything sucks. Stop yelling. This was not my decision to make," he wrote in a now-deleted post. 

Barrera plays the lead character Sam Carpenter, who struggles with her legacy of being related to the original Ghostface killer, Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich). Sam tries to protect her half-sister (Jenna Ortega) and fellow classmates (Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding Jr) from new murderers.

The actor, 33, had been sharing about the ongoing atrocities in Palestine. She previously posted on her Instagram Stories, “I too come from a colonized country. Palestine will be free. They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds.”

Another post read, “Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp. Cornering everyone together, with nowhere to go, no electricity no water. People have learnt nothing from our histories. And just like our histories, people are still silently watching it all happen. This is genocide and ethnic cleansing.” Barrera also claimed there was “censorship” in “Western media” that did not accurately capture the atrocities in the Gaza Strip.

Similarly, a Hollywood talent agency has dropped A-lister Susan Sarandon as a client after she spoke at a pro-Palestine rally over the weekend, a spokesperson for the agency confirmed to Deadline. The Oscar-winning actor attended several rallies in support of Palestine and drew criticism for saying, “There are a lot of people afraid of being Jewish at this time, and are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country.”

Further, Sarandon had been encouraging others to keep speaking up in support of Palestinians as Israel continues atrocities in the region. “People are questioning, people are standing up, people are educating themselves, people are stepping away from the brainwashing that started when they were kids,” she said at the rally. She 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”.

Sarandon went on to repost a pro-Palestinian message from Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters on X, formerly known as Twitter. Waters has been criticized over the years for alleged antisemitic remarks, although he has always rejected those claims, previously saying, “I have spent my entire life speaking out against authoritarianism and oppression wherever I see it."

The rockstar then added, "When I was a child after the war, the name of Anne Frank was often spoken in our house, she became a permanent reminder of what happens when fascism is left unchecked. My parents fought the Nazis in World War II, with my father paying the ultimate price.”

Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below.