Melissa Barrera hasn’t spoken to Neve Campbell since leaving Scream: ‘Everyone makes their own choice’

Melissa Barrera hasn’t spoken to Neve Campbell since Scream the actress announced she was returning to the franchise shortly after Barrera’s dismissal. But as Barrera said told Decider in a recent interview: she “completely respects” Campbell’s decision.

“We haven’t really talked yet,” Barrera said when asked if she had spoken with Campbell. “I think everyone makes their own choice and what they think is best for themselves. I completely respect what people think they need to do to continue living in this life.”

Barrera, starring in 2022 Scream and its continuation in 2023, Scream 6was fired from the franchise in November 2023, after the Mexican actress criticized Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip following the October 7 Hamas attack.

“Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp,” she wrote on her Instagram story. “Everyone has been driven into a corner, with nowhere to go, no electricity and no water. (…) Our history has taught people nothing. And, as in our history, people are still silently observing everything that happens. THIS IS GENOCIDE AND ETHNIC CLEARING.”

She was one of the few celebrities to speak out in support of Palestine at the time, and she was quickly punished for it. Spyglass Media, the production company behind the franchise, has dropped Barrera from starring in the upcoming film. Scream 7 film and issued a statement accusing her of “anti-Semitism or inciting hatred in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion, or anything else that grossly crosses the line into inciting hatred.”

Jenna Ortega, who played Barrera’s on-screen sister, has also left the horror franchise. A few months later, Campbell, who did not appear in Scream 6, following a pay dispute with Paramount—announced that she will return for a franchise in Scream 7along with the original Scream directed by Kevin Williamson. No doubt Paramount is hoping that Sidney Prescott’s return will be enough to distract fans from the controversial decision to fire Barrera.

Barrera told Decider that in the year since the incident, during which many politicians and celebrities repeated similar criticism and calls for a ceasefire as the civilian death toll in the Gaza Strip continues to rise – she has heard “nothing” from the people who made the decision to sack her. In the meantime, Barrera has been busy with other roles, including Abigailvampire comedy released by Universal earlier this year, and Your monsteris a critically acclaimed indie horror-comedy, now in theaters, in which Barrera falls in love with the monster in her closet.

In April, Barrera said Los Angeles Times that she doesn’t regret speaking out.

“It wasn’t easy to call me something as terrible (as anti-Semitism) when I knew it wasn’t,” she said. “But I was always calm because I knew I didn’t do anything wrong. I have been involved with human rights organizations around the world, with many experts, scientists, historians and most importantly with indigenous peoples around the world. I believe that indigenous communities around the world are always on the right side of history, point blank, period.”