Melissa Barrera is speaking up about one of the darkest times in her life, the immediate aftermath of her firing from the Scream franchise. The actress was fired from Scream 7 for Pro-Palestine comments on social media in November of 2023.
In an interview with THR, Barrera spoke about Ortega, who exited the franchise right after she was fired, saying: “We chatted for a while, and I love her so much. She’s been very supportive of me, and we’re sisters for life.”
Her character, Sam Carpenter, was widely expected to return alongside Jenna Ortega’s Tara Carpenter. The movie is now moving forward with the return of Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott. Campbell had sat out Scream 6 over a salary dispute.
Ortega wasn’t the only one supporting Barrera, who made it clear she had people in her corner. “It’s definitely hard because I was just in such a cloudy state of mind, but I was very fortunate,” the actress is quoted as saying, through tears. “I had a lot of support from the people around me: my team and specifically my publicists — they just carried me.”
As for her high-profile exit from the Scream franchise, Barrera made it clear this isn’t what she would have chosen. “None of this makes me happy. It was just all sad because I really, deeply care about the franchise. It’s just bad that it had to happen like that.”
Barrera recently posted in support of The Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer, who has faced backlash after an Oscar speech where he talked about how his own Jewishness and the memory of the Holocaust were “being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people.”
Melissa Barrera will next be seen in the horror film Abigail, a new take on the Universal monster movie Dracula’s Daughter. The movie is set to be released on April 19th, 2024.