Melissa Barrera Says Acting Offers “Went Quiet For Like 10 Months” After Being Fired From ‘Scream’ Franchise

It’s been almost exactly a year since the studio behind the “Scream” franchise abruptly fired Melissa Barrera for her support of Palestine on social media. At the time, she was accused of anti-Semitism and was seemingly shunned from Hollywood. But now, she’s back with new projects and is opening up about what it was like to get fired from the popular franchise. 

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Speaking to The Independent, Melissa Barrera was hyping up her new film, “Your Monster,” and talked about her time in the “Scream” franchise. As mentioned above, she is the star of two “Scream” films and was reportedly set up to return for a third. However, after some posts on social media, pledging her support for Palestine and calling what was happening there a genocide, she was unceremoniously fired by Spyglass. For Barrera, that led to a scary time in her career.

“It was quiet for, like, 10 months,” she said. “I was still getting offers for small things here and there – I’m not going to lie and say there was nothing – but [the message] was, like, ‘Oh, she probably doesn’t have work, she’ll say yes to anything.’”

Even still, after the very public firing, Barrera looks back at her time on the “Scream” films and is thankful.

“They gave me a lot in my career,” Barrera said. “I made really good friends. I have such loyal fans from those movies that are now watching the rest of the stuff that I do.”

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As for the future of the “Scream” franchise, the studio brought back Neve Campbell to lead the cast and hired the original writer of the first film, Kevin Williamson, to direct. Clearly, the studio is hoping that will be enough to sway folks to give the new “Scream” a chance, even though Barrera won’t be part of it. 

For Barrera, she’s ok with people continuing to watch the franchise. She doesn’t expect people to boycott.

“There are always going to be people that love you and people that hate you, and people that are open to a story continuing, and people that think that continuing it is ruining it,” said Barrera. “If they want to go watch the next one? Cool. If they don’t? Also cool.”

“Scream VII” is expected to arrive in theaters on February 27, 2026.