Matthew Lillard says he feels embarrassed and ashamed for going back to Scream 7 after Melissa Barrera was fired, turning a long-awaited return into a public apology of sorts. In a recent Q&A video, he said he went back to do Scream and got called out, and that he now feels bad about the decision.
The comments land now because Lillard is not speaking in hindsight about a distant franchise memory. He is reacting to criticism that has followed his return as fans and protesters kept the film's cast changes tied to the firing of Barrera and the wider fight over what happened inside the franchise.
Lillard said he was excited to come back and did not really think about Barrera and the journey at the time, but that his enthusiasm did not erase the optics. He said, in plain terms, that he did not say no. He also said he has queer kids and asked what he was doing if he was not standing up for queer kids or kids in the trans community, casting his reaction as a moral line rather than a career move.
That is what makes the remark more complicated than a simple defense or attack. Lillard called Barrera on the right side of history and said she was fired for what she said, even while acknowledging that he still returned to the film. He said the choice left him embarrassed, and that he felt shame about it, because the excitement of going back came before a full reckoning with what had happened to Barrera.
The backdrop is a franchise that has become a flashpoint in the Israel-Hamas conflict. Spyglass fired Barrera in November 2023 over her social media posts, saying 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. Jenna Ortega later exited the franchise, Christopher Landon dropped out after receiving death threats targeting his children, Neve Campbell was brought back in March 2024, and Williamson was on board to direct Scream 7.
Lillard's own return was not quiet. When the first trailer for Scream 7 arrived last October, fans began slamming the movie online and calling for a boycott, and in February protesters lined up outside Paramount Studios during the premiere. His latest comments do not settle that fight. They make clear that he knows exactly why his return has been read as a choice, and that he is still living with it.
