'Embarrassed': 'Scream' Star Matthew Lillard Regrets His Return

He says costar Melissa Barrera was fired over her 2023 posts about Palestinians, and that the industry stayed quiet.

Matthew Lillard, who plays Stu Macher in the ‘Scream’ films, said he's embarrassed that he returned for ‘Scream 7’ after Melissa Barrera's firing. He made the remarks at a recent Q&A, in a video posted to TikTok, The Hollywood Reporter reported on September 16, 2026.

Barrera was dropped from the film in November 2023. Lillard shot it anyway, and it opened in February 2026.

He said people called him out for going back, and that he hadn't weighed what the firing meant for Barrera before he said yes.

“Because in that moment, I was so excited to go back, I didn't really think about Melissa and the journey, and I didn't say ‘no.’ And I'm embarrassed, and that's the truth.”

Lillard said Barrera was fired for what she said, called the firing wrong, and said she'd been proved right roughly a year before the rest of the business caught up — and that the rest of the business, which could have said so out loud at the time, didn't. He also said he has queer kids, and that standing up for them and for trans kids is the whole point.

Spyglass Media Group, which is behind the franchise, dropped Barrera in November 2023 after she posted in support of Palestinians following Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel, per the outlet's account. The company's statement at the time said it had “zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion.”

The rest of the picture came apart behind her. Jenna Ortega exited the sequel, and so did the director, Christopher Landon. Neve Campbell was later signed to play Sidney Campbell again.

Lillard's own credits in the series go back three decades: the first ‘Scream’ in 1996, ‘Scream 2’ in 1997, then the seventh one. He's also the star of the ‘Five Nights at Freddy's’ movies.

The search traffic is the tell. On Google Trends, the query ‘matthew lillard scream’ was the top California spike as of 13:19 UTC on September 17, 2026, with more than 2,000 searches.

Our read: the firing isn't the news here, since that got chewed over in November 2023 by everybody with a keyboard. The news is a cast member who cashed the check saying, on camera, that he feels shame about it.

The sequence, dated: Spyglass dropped Barrera in November 2023. ‘Scream 7’ opened in February 2026 with Lillard in it. His remarks about that went public on September 16, 2026.

Source: hollywoodreporter.com, retrieved September 17, 2026.