Melissa Barrera has been dropped from her starring role in the horror franchise film “Scream VII,” after a series of social media posts she made surrounding the Israel-Hamas war.
The L.A. Times has confirmed that her dismissal was due to Barrera sharing pro-Palestinian statements on social media that some believed crossed a line into anti-Semitic territory, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly.
For the entertainment industry, which has already been roiled this year by a bitter, historic double strike of writers and actors, the outbreak of violence has created a new set of fault lines.
Spyglass Media Group, the production company behind the Scream movies, initially declined comment but later confirmed to Variety that Barrera was dismissed due to comments they attributed to being antisemitic.
“Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp,” she wrote in one post on Instagram stories that was cited by the Hollywood Reporter, which earlier reported Barrera’s exit from Scream VII. “Cornering everyone together, with no where 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 & ETHNIC CLEANSING.”
Barrera’s representatives did not immediately return a request for comment on Tuesday.
In the last 20 hours or so, Barrera has shared videos on her Instagram, expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people. Barrera has shared posts urging the public to call their representatives in support of a cease-fire.
Filmmaker Christopher Landon, who will take over for the latest installment of the “Scream” franchise, took to X, formerly know as Twitter, to give his opinion on Barrera’s dismissal. In a now deleted tweet, Landon wrote: “This is my statement. Everything sucks. Stop yelling. This was not my decision to make.”
She shared a video in support of Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the only Palestinian American in Congress, who was censured by the House of Representatives over her rhetoric about the war. Tlaib has said that her criticism of Israel has always been directed toward its government and its leadership under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
One post she shared from another Instagram account declares: “At the end of the day, I’d rather be excluded for who I include, than be included for who I exclude.”
A recent report from the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California, found that Latino representation in Hollywood has not shown improved in the last 16 years.Only 4.4% of actors in lead or co-lead roles were Latino, and less than 1% were Afro Latino, according to the report that examined 1,600 popular movies.Of the top-billed Latino characters that did make it to the screen, they often were depicted as immigrants (24%), low-income (also 24%), violent criminals (46%) and temperamental (40%).
Reporters Wendy Lee and Ryan Faughnder contributed to this story.
The Latinx experience chronicled
Get the Latinx Files newsletter for stories that capture the multitudes within our communities.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
