Scream 7 actor Matthew Lillard says he is “embarrassed” about his decision to star in the latest sequel in the horror flick franchise, following the 2023 firing of star Melissa Barrera for her comments about Palestine and Israel. "I blew that," he said, and revealed he and his wife are raising "queer kids."
His remarks came in response to a question asked by a fan before a screening of the 1996 film Tuesday in Austin, Texas, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of that first movie's release.
In the original slasher flick, Lillard starred as one half of what he has jokingly called "the first husbands of horror," the original Ghostface Stu Macher, and returned for the seventh entry. It was originally to be directed by out gay filmmaker Christopher Landon, who quit the week after Barrera was fired.
As Entertainment Weekly reported, the fan at Tuesday's screening in Texas wanted to know what Lillard felt about the difficulty of public figures like himself expressing opinions on hot button topics, like the war in Gaza, ICE crackdowns on immigrants and LGBTQ+ rights.
“I don’t know how else to do it,” Lillard replied in a fan-recorded video on TikTok. “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?”
That said, he added, “I don’t think it’s easy all the time.”
Lillard turned his attention to Barrera, who was fired after posting her support for the Palestinian cause and criticizing Israeli actions on social media. She accused the Jewish state of “genocide and ethnic cleansing."
The film’s production company called her Instagram posts “hate speech.”
As Variety reported, Spyglass Entertainment said it fired Barrera, despite her starring in two franchise installments and had a big role in Scream 7, because it had “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.”
Lillard was clear about his support for the actress.
“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."
Lillard expressed regret over not joining her in not speaking out about the deadly conflict in the Middle East, and his decision to rejoin the franchise.
"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.”
Barrera has said that job offers dried up after she was dropped from the franchise, according to Entertainment Weekly. Lillard said he realized too late he was "on the wrong side of history."
“I went back to do Scream, and I got called out. And I’m like, ‘Oh, fuck. That’s brutal,’” he continued. “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," he said. "I blew that. I’m on the wrong side of history for that. I still like being in the movie, it may not have been the best idea.”
As Out reported, supporters of Barrera called for a boycott of Scream 7, protesting outside the film's February premiere in Los Angeles. Queer star Anna Camp offered an apology in March after she came under fire for resharing a social media post, which mocked a fan-led boycott in support of Barrera.
The 43-year-old Pitch Perfect actress shared a social media post promoting Scream 7 originally created by Scream With Ryan C. Showers podcast’s official account, which said: “The boycott didn’t work, the critics didn’t work, the pathetic leaks didn’t work. What worked was audiences coming out and making the film a success. #Scream7." The soundtrack for the post was the Taylor Swift song "Karma."
After the backlash, Camp deleted her original reposting and issued an apology March 1 on X: “It has come to my attention that I reposted someone else’s story that does not reflect my personal beliefs,” the statement read. “I have since deleted the repost because I absolutely meant no harm. I’m sorry to anyone who was affected.”
Lillard, who is straight, has long been a heart-throb for gays, dating back to Out's 2006 Guys we have crushes on report. In 2022, he made the list of Out's 20 Hellishly Hot Horror Movie Hunks. The next year Lillard also served as a judge in season five of The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula.
Watch his comments about Scream 7 here.
