Melissa Barrera Says Hollywood Blacklisting Was ‘Hard To Comprehend’ But She Has No Regrets

Melissa Barrera said she doesn’t regret her social media posts about the war in Gaza, which cost her the role in “Scream 7.” According to her, the consequences were isolating but represent only one episode of a trend that, she said, happened to many others in the entertainment industry.

Melissa Barrera, who starred in the 2022 and 2023 movies of the “Scream” series as well as in “In the Heights,” was fired from her role in the upcoming sequel of the movie by Spyglass Media Group in November 2023. The decision was made because of Instagram posts in which Melissa condemned the actions of Israel in Gaza, calling them genocide and ethnic cleansing and demanding peace. At the same time, Melissa left her talent agency.

During the recent interview on the public radio show “Latino USA,” Melissa Barrera said that the decision to fire her from the role was part of a larger plan to silence the criticism of the war.

“It’s hard to comprehend, but it’s also not the first time that that has happened to someone, and it won’t be the last. There are a lot of people that got fired for basically saying Palestinians deserve human rights, and they shouldn’t be getting bombed and attacked in this way. And it’s sad to me that there are interests that are more important to certain people of power and money, and that they don’t care about people’s lives and that they will do everything they can to shut people up from saying that people deserve to live, that children deserve to grow up,” she said.

Spyglass Media Group said at the moment that they have zero tolerance for antisemitism or hate speech. Melissa Barrera claimed that her comments were about the actions of the war, not antisemitic.

During the podcast interview, Melissa Barrera said that the aftermath was very isolating and included far fewer job opportunities. Melissa feels like she was punished for speaking about human rights and now focuses more on theater performances.

Despite the consequences of her statements, Barrera remains optimistic, saying that people’s opinions have changed over the years.

It’s hard to comprehend, but I also feel like the tide has turned so much and like everybody kind of is just seeing things for what they are, even if they were resisting at the beginning,” Barrera said. “And so I try to continue to have hope because I do feel that there’s a lot more people out there that care, that actually do care about each other and that understand that we’re all connected, that we can’t turn a blind eye to something that is happening on the other side of the world just because it’s on the other side of the world.”