The 'Snowpiercer' actress weighs in on the report that Barrera was dropped from the upcoming sequel and Tom Cruise's agent Maha Dakhil was relieved of her duties at CAA following their pro-Palestine posts.
- Nov 22, 2023
AceShowbiz - Rowan Blanchard has weighed in on Melissa Barrera's firing from "Scream 7", also written as "Scream VII". The "Girl Meets World" alum has blasted Hollywood over its alleged "insidious" move for getting rid of some players in the industry for voicing their support to Palestine in the midst of the Israel-Hamas war.
"This is very real. Every actor/ person in Hollywood I know that has been vocal online about the cleansing of the Palestinian people since 2018 (during the Great March of Return) to now has faced consequences/ or given warnings from their agencies, management, and casting," the 22-year-old wrote on her Instagram Story. She went on stressing, "This s**t is very insidious and it goes on from the top down."
Blanchard, who has been vocal about her support to Palestine herself, was reacting to a Variety article that talked about how Hollywood has been divided over the conflict in Middle East. According to the site, CAA agent Maha Dakhil was relieved of her duties as co-chief of the motion pictures department due to her Instagram posts condemning genocide in Palestine.
Her top client Tom Cruise, however, backed her. It's said that the "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" actor has taken "the rare step of going in person" to show support for the embattled agent. He reportedly met with Dakhil at her CAA office on November 15.
The same article revealed that Barrera was quietly removed from the cast for "Scream 7" after voicing her thoughts on the Israel-Hamas war. Spyglass Media Group, the company behind the "Scream" franchise, later confirmed the news.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, November 21 after the report, the production company said, "Spyglass' stance is unequivocally clear: 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."
"Scream VII" director Christopher Landon has also spoken up on the move, claiming that he had no power to make the decision. "This is my statement: Everything sucks," he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Stop yelling. This was not my decision to make," he added in the same tweet, which has since been removed from his account.
