Matthew Lillard Is “Embarrassed” About Returning To ‘Scream 7’ After Melissa Barrera Firing: “I Feel Shame About That”

As the Scream franchise continues to serve as a cultural lightning rod in the Israel-Hamas conflict, Matthew Lillard is making his voice heard.

The Scream 7 star recently admitted that he’s “embarrassed” to have reprised his role as Stu Macher in this year’s seventh installment in the slasher franchise, explaining that Melissa Barrera was “on the right side of history” when she was fired for speaking up in support of Palestinians in 2023.

“It’s just human, it’s who we are… I don’t know what else to do,” he explained in a video from a recent Q&A. “For me, I have queer kids, if I’m not standing up for queer kids or kids in the trans community, what the fuck am I doing?”

Lillard continued, “But if I’m not standing up about the silencing of Melissa Barrera—listen, I don’t think it’s easy all the time. Melissa Barrera, who’s a beautiful actor, was fired for what she said. It’s really fucking bullshit and really hard, and she’s on the right side of history.”

“And when they start coming after your job, sometimes things are worth it. But I’m just gonna say, what happened to Melissa, the whole world didn’t pipe up. She was like a year early on what the fuck’s going on, but the whole world should have piped up and said, ‘she’s right,’ and they didn’t. And that’s brutal,” he said.

In January 2025, Deadline exclusively revealed that Lillard would reprise his role in Scream 7 as killer Stu Macher, who was believed to have been killed at the end of the first movie.

“And then I went back to do Scream, and I got called out,” said Lillard. “And I was like, ‘Oh fuck, that’s brutal.’ I feel bad about that, I feel shame about that. Because in that moment, I was so excited to got back, I didn’t really think about Melissa and the journey, and I didn’t say ‘no.’ I’m embarrassed, and that’s the truth.”

As the seventh installment of the slasher franchise premiered at Paramount Studios in February, “Free Palestine” protesters lined up outside the entrance to the lot. Back when the first trailer for Scream 7 was released last October, fans quickly began slamming the movie on social media, calling for a boycott.

Spyglass fired Barrera in November 2023 over her social media posts on the Israel-Hamas conflict and the “atrocities being committed against Palestinians,” explaining the company has “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.”

Following her ousting, Jenna Ortega also exited the franchise, later noting that the sequel “was all kind of falling apart” without Barrera to play its new “final girl” Sam Carpenter. Director Christopher Landon dropped out of the project as well, citing “highly aggressive and really scary” death threats targeting his children.

Neve Campbell was then brought back to reprise her role as OG “final girl” Sidney Campbell for Scream 7 in March 2024, with original Scream (1996) writer Williamson on board to direct. She previously sat out Scream VI (2023) over the low pay offer.