Matthew Lillard admitted to being “embarrassed” by his decision to return to the Scream franchise after the producers fired Melissa Barrera for her vocal support of Palestine in 2023. Lillard reprised his role as Stu Macher in this year’s Scream 7 despite the controversy.
During a recent audience Q&A at a 30th anniversary screening of the original Scream, Lillard was asked about the difficulty of speaking up about politics as an actor. “I don’t know how else to do it,” Lillard responded. “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?”
He added “I don’t think it’s easy all the time,” citing the example of Barrera’s firing. “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,” Lillard acknowledged. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, fuck. That’s brutal.’ 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.”
In 2022, Spyglass rebooted the Scream franchise with Barrera as its new lead. She starred as Sam Carpenter, the secret love child of deceased Ghostface killer Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), for two films. However, in late 2023 Spyglass announced they were dropping the actress from subsequent sequels for making pro-Palestine statements on social media. Spyglass said at the time it has “zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form.”
Barrera responded by saying “Silence is not an option for me.” She wrote, “I condemn Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. I condemn hate and prejudice of any kind against any group of people. As a Latina, a proud Mexicana, I feel the responsibility of having a platform that allows me the privilege of being heard, and therefore I have tried to use it to raise awareness about issues I care about, and to lend my voice to those in need.”
