Hayden Panettiere calls Melissa Barrera's firing 'tragic'

Hayden Panettiere, star of the „Scream” franchise, has spoken out about Melissa Barrera's ouster from the horror franchise, calling her controversial exit „very unfair and upsetting.”

Barrera, who played Sam Carpenter in 2022's „Scream” and 2023's „Scream VI,” was fired from the upcoming „Scream 7” last November after his social media posts about Palestine were deemed anti-Semitic by Spyglass, the production banner behind the hit horror franchise. .

Spyglass said in a statement Variety At the time: „We will not tolerate bigotry or incitement to hatred in any form, including genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust denigration or anything that openly crosses the line into hate speech.”

“After her [spoke out], and then other actors and people in the industry started doing the same, right? Panettiere said A recent interview with The Messenger. „It was more like what she had done before than anyone else.”

Panettiere, who reprized his „Scream IV” role as Kirby Reed in the sixth installment, reached out to his co-star Barrera when he learned the news.

„You know, a lot of people don't ask her how she's feeling,” Panettiere said, as Barrera thanked her for checking in.

But Panettiere „doesn't care” about Barrera, saying, „Melissa is a human being and she's terrible as an actress… so she was hurt, but I think she took it very lightly.”

Following Barrera's firing, Ortega was also confirmed to be exiting the “Scream” franchise, though sources say Ortega's exit is due to a scheduling conflict with production on “Wednesday” Season 2. In December, director Christopher Landon announced his departure from „Scream 7,” writing on X/Twitter that „it was a dream job that turned out to be a nightmare.”