Melissa Barrera has been fired from ‘Scream VII’ for her comments regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The 33-year-old actress had been set to reprise her role as Sam Carpenter – the daughter of the original movie’s villain Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) – in the seventh instalment of the slasher franchise, but her posts supporting Palestine have been deemed anti-Semitic by Spyglass Media Group.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the studio said: “Spyglass’ stance is unequivocally clear: We have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism 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.”
Barrera – whose departure comes after she reshared a post accusing Israel of “genocide and ethnic cleansing” – has made a lot of posts about the conflict since Hamas invaded Israel early in October.
Filming had not yet begun on the movie, as development had been slow due to the actors and writers strikes.
It’s thought the studio will now figure out new plans for the film following Barrera’s exit.
In response to the news, director Christopher Landon shared a heartbroken emoji and noted her firing wasn’t his call.
He wrote: “This is my statement: [heartbroken] Everything sucks. Stop yelling. This was not my decision to make.”
Barrera had been looking forward to exploring her character’s dark side in the next film.
She previously told Digital Spy: “There are so many places that Sam could go. That’s one of the reasons that, when I read the script for ‘Scream 5’, I was so interested in the character.
“There’s so much potential here of where she could go with her mental health – she’s just unpredictable.
“I find that the darkness in her makes her that much more interesting to play and to watch. She’s the hero but she’s also kind of the villain.”
