Hayden Panettiere Defends ‘Scream VII’ Co-Star Melissa Barrera, Calls Her Firing “Very Upsetting”

deadline.com:

In a recent interview, Scream series actress Hayden Panettiere called the firing of the films’ franchise star Melissa Barrera last month “very unfair and upsetting.” Barrera was dropped from Scream VII following social media posts commenting on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

At the time, Spyglass Media cut Barrera, saying in a statement, “We have 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.” Panettiere said she thought her co-star was singled out. “After she [spoke out], then a whole bunch of other actors and people in the industry started to do the same thing, right?

It was almost like she just did it earlier than everyone else.” Barrera later called dismissal was “shocking,” since she’d been playing the lead role of Sam Carpenter since 2022’s Scream V. “It was shocking,” Barrera told Rolling Stone. “I don’t even know what to say.

I think everything that happened was very transparent, on both sides, and I know who I am, and I know that what I said always came from a place of love and a place of humanity and a place of human rights and a place of freedom for people, which shouldn’t be controversial.