Virginia Weaver, Senior Staff Writer 

Microwaved Beef is a column by Virginia Weaver that reflects on flashpoints from the last few years in the culture wars. The rapid pace of contemporary discourse makes it easy to forget critical moments and trends that have defined our social and academic lives. Microwaved Beef brings those moments back into the spotlight.   

After ascending to prominence among English-speaking audiences with her role in the musical film In the Heights (2021), Mexican actress Melissa Barrera established herself as a scream queen, taking on roles in numerous horror films in rapid succession: Scream (2022) Bed Rest (2022), Scream VI (2023), Abigail (2024), and Your Monster (2024). Yet when Scream VII hits the screen next year, the franchise’s devoted fans will not see the complex character arc of Barrera’s recurring role, Sam Carpenter, reach its resolution. Spyglass Media Group fired her in November 2023 over controversial social media posts regarding the then–increasingly heated conflict between Israel and Hamas. 

Following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, tensions ran high far from the Levant. The Israel-Palestine conflict quickly became a foremost front in the Western, especially American, culture wars. The Western culture war over the Middle East became most visible in educational institutions, from kindergarten classrooms to college campuses, all the way up to the notorious federal hearings with prominent university presidents.  

However, the culture war over Israel-Palestine raged across all culture-making industries, not just classrooms. That November, shortly after Barrera’s firing from Scream VII, Tatiana Siegel reported for Vanity Fair on a growing schism within Hollywood over how to respond to the brutal Israel-Palestine conflict. Siegel wrote: 

From power brokers to the rank and file, a growing number are incensed by the hostile rhetoric surrounding Israel and the lack of solidarity, even as some 240 hostages continue to be held by Hamas. Others feel a kinship with the Palestinian cause and believe Israel is the aggressor. The polarization is notable because the industry has largely presented a united front when it comes to politics…

Plenty of major celebrities in Hollywood expressed support for Israel in the wake of October 7, while many expressed criticism of Israel or focused their remarks on concerns for Palestinian well-being. It was into this furnace that Barrera launched her posts about Gaza, starting in October 2023. Her posts’ contents ranged from the undeniably moderate – “Just like all Palestinians are NOT Hamas … All Jewish people are NOT the Israeli govt.” – to the undeniably controversial: sharing a post that reads, in part, “If you’re wondering how the world watched when genocides and ethnic cleansing were happening.. this is how.”  

Barrera also compared Gaza to a concentration camp—a contentious parallel to draw, in the eyes of many readers and media critics. Shortly after Barrera began her volley of posts concerning Israel and Gaza, Spyglass Media Group fired her from Scream VII. 

At first, when Barrera’s firing hit the news, many fans blamed director Christopher Landon for the decision. Landon clarified in a tweet that he had not fired Barrera, posting on X: “This is my statement: [add emoji] Everything sucks. Stop yelling. This was not my decision to make.” 

Landon quit the film about a week after Barrera’s firing. As he later explained, Landon had taken on the project to make a movie about Barrera’s character, Sam Carpenter, not just any Scream film. “There was no movie anymore. The whole script was about her. I didn’t sign on to make ‘a “Scream” movie.’ I signed on to make that movie.” 

Spyglass Media Group initially kept its precise reason for firing Barrera private. However, late in November 2023, a spokesman for the group released a statement to Vanity Fair:  

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.

Barrera responded to her firing with a statement of her own on Instagram, in which she condemned “antisemitism and Islamophobia,” as well as “hate and prejudice of any kind against any group of people.” She concluded her statement by expressing her belief that, due to her outsized public platform, “Silence is not an option for me.” 

After Barrera’s firing, as she later recounted in a November 2024 interview for The Independent, her career suffered a temporary setback. By the time of the interview, however, Barrera felt that she had begun receiving more of the opportunities to which she had previously been accustomed. Whether this indicates a broader relaxation in Hollywood toward speech about the Israel-Palestine conflict, perhaps as part of a cultural “vibe shift,” is difficult to determine.  

Describing her reaction to fans who plan to boycott Scream VII due to her firing, Barrera remarked in the same interview: “You just gotta act according to how you preach. And that depends on what you value, what your morals are, and whether you can separate that from art or not.” Can viewers and readers separate controversial artists from their art? Answers to this question have defined many of the myriad, recent dustups in the film and publishing worlds’ culture wars.  

Note: this article draws from and expands upon an essay previously published at Virginia Weaver’s personal newsletter.