Matthew Lillard feels “ashamed” for starring in this year’s “Scream 7” after Melissa Barrera was fired from the franchise due to social media posts criticizing Israel amid the war in Gaza. Lillard starred in Wes Craven’s original “Scream” in 1996 as Stu Macher. He reprised the role in “Scream 7,” which opened in theatres in February and became the highest-grossing entry in the series with $214 million.
Attending a recent 30th anniversary screening of the original “Scream,” Lillard was asked by a fan about the difficulty of speaking out on politics as an actor. Lillard made headlines last year for saying “fuck ICE” at a “Scream” screening.
“I don’t know how else to do it,” Lillard told the fan (via Entertainment Weekly). “For me, I have queer kids. If I’m not standing up for queer kids or kids in the trans community, then what the fuck am I doing? If I’m not standing up against ICE, then what the fuck am I doing?”
Lillard noted that “I don’t think it’s easy all the time” to speak out, noting what happened to Barrera as an example. “Scream” franchise producer Spyglass fired her after she starred in two franchise instalments and was gearing up to return for “Scream 7.” The company said it had “zero tolerance for antisemitism 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.”
“Melissa Barrera, who’s a beautiful actor, was fired for what she said after the whole Palestinian — what started happening in Israel,” Lillard said. “It’s really fucking bullshit and really hard, and she’s on the right side of history. When they start coming after your job, sometimes things are worth it… When that happened to Melissa, the whole world didn’t pipe up. But she was a year early on what the fuck’s going on. But the whole world should have popped up and said, ‘She’s right.’ And they didn’t. And that’s brutal.”
“I went back to do ‘Scream,’ and I got called out. And I’m like, ‘Oh, fuck. That’s brutal,’” he continued. “I feel bad about that. I feel ashamed about that. Because in that moment I was so excited to go back, I didn’t really think about Melissa and that journey. I didn’t say no. I’m embarrassed; that’s the truth… I blew that. I’m on the wrong side of history for that. I still like being in the movie [but] it may not have been the best idea.”
After war broke out in Gaza in 2023, Barrera took to Instagram to share her views on the conflict. She was critical of Israel and accused the nation of “genocide and ethnic cleansing.” The post led to her firing, which in turn sparked backlash from her supporters against the release of “Scream 7”. Protesters gathered outside of the “Scream 7” premiere in Los Angeles, for instance, and called for a boycott of the horror film in a show of support for Palestine.
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From Variety US