Melissa Barrera directly addresses her Scream firing: "None of this makes me happy"

Although she’d made a few comments about it in the immediate aftermath—putting almost all of the focus on the ongoing violence in Gaza, rather than trying to litigate the details of her very public horror film firing—Scream and Scream VI star Melissa Barrera has only spoken on rare occasions about her recent high-profile removal from the franchise. She opened up this week, though, saying in a conversation with THR that “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 also pushed back on the idea that she’d been warned by producers Spyglass to tone down her social media posting about the conflict before being fired for alleged antisemitism and “incitement of hate” in November of 2023.

Barrera is currently promoting her new horror film Abigail, which she’s making with Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett—a.k.a. Radio Silence, the directing team who brought her to the Scream franchise—and who now say Spyglass also “exited” them at around the same time it was firing Barrera (and losing co-star Jenna Ortega to an alleged salary dispute). Bettinelli-Olpin didn’t address Spyglass’ specific accusations against his star in his part of the THR interview, but did issue a blanket note of support for Barrera: “Melissa is incredibly strong. You see it in her performances. When you’re friends with her, you feel it in just being with her.” (Bettinelli-Olpin also loosely addressed the departure of Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon from the Scream VII director’s chair, saying that, while, “I actually don’t know what happened,” “[Landon] was very excited about it, and he had great ideas for it, so it makes me sad.”)

Although she declined to get into topics like her feelings about series star Neve Campbell returning to the franchise in the wake of Barrera’s firing, Barrera did take the time to reiterate positive comments she’s made in the past about Ortega, saying that, “We chatted for a while, and I love her so much. She’s been very supportive of me, and we’re sisters for life.”