• Melissa Barrera opened up about her struggles.
• She described the past year as “the darkest and hardest.”
• Barrera made headlines for her strong support of Palestine.

Melissa Barrera, known for her role in the Scream franchise, opened up about her struggles following her firing over her stance on Gaza.

In an interview with The Independent, she described the past year as “the darkest and hardest” of her life, saying, “There were times when I felt like my life was over.”

In 2023, Barrera made headlines for her strong support of Palestine, sharing posts on social media that called out the Israeli government. “Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp,” she wrote in one Instagram story, labeling the situation as “genocide and ethnic cleansing.” Spyglass, the studio behind the Scream series, dropped her shortly after, citing a “zero tolerance” policy for hate speech, including “false references to genocide.”

Barrera defended her position, stating, “I condemn antisemitism and Islamophobia, and hate and prejudice of any kind. I believe a group of people are NOT their leadership, and that no governing body should be above criticism.”

The firing left Barrera in a professional break, forcing her to reassess her identity beyond acting. “For the longest time, I gave myself value as a human because of my work. So when I saw it potentially ending, I was like, who even am I?”

Now, with a new espionage series alongside Simu Liu, Barrera feels reinvigorated. “I was stuck in the dunes for a while, and now I feel like my feet are moving.”

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