Pop CultureMatthew Lillard admitted to being “embarrassed” by his decision to return to the Scream franchise after the producers fired Melissa Barrera for her vocal support of Palestine in 2023. Lillard reprised his role as Stu Macher in this year’s Scream 7 despite the controversy.
During a recent audience Q&A at a 30th anniversary screening of the original Scream, Lillard was asked about the difficulty of speaking up about politics as an actor. “I don’t know how else to do it,” Lillard responded. “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?”
He added “I don’t think it’s easy all the time,” citing the example of Barrera’s firing. “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… 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.”
“I went back to do Scream, and I got called out,” Lillard acknowledged. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, fuck. That’s brutal.’ 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… I blew that. I’m on the wrong side of history for that. I still like being in the movie [but] it may not have been the best idea.”
In 2022, Spyglass rebooted the Scream franchise with Barrera as its new lead. She starred as Sam Carpenter, the secret love child of deceased Ghostface killer Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), for two films. However, in late 2023 Spyglass announced they were dropping the actress from subsequent sequels for making pro-Palestine statements on social media. Spyglass said at the time it has “zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form.”
Barrera responded by saying “Silence is not an option for me.” She wrote, “I condemn Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. I condemn hate and prejudice of any kind against any group of people. As a Latina, a proud Mexicana, I feel the responsibility of having a platform that allows me the privilege of being heard, and therefore I have tried to use it to raise awareness about issues I care about, and to lend my voice to those in need.”
This is good actually. Not the apology itself, which is obviously shit. But the fact that he feels like he has to make it. A weathervane is after all kind of useful if you want to confirm which way the wind is blowing.
I'm sorry but known as shaggy from ScoobyDoo is fucking hilarious on the franchise that he was part of the start and was originally a pivotal moment in horror and broader cinima. (Sincerely just think it's funny.)
Even William Afton is anti israel.
known for Shaggy? that's not Casey Kasem
He has voiced Shaggy long enough that an entire generation of kids know him as it. Some of the posters here likely grew up w ML as the voice actor.
he's been shaggy for 24 years
Lillard played Shaggy in the live action movies and voiced the cartoon starting in 2009, after Casey Kasem retired.
I, too, have zero tolerance for antisemitism. If anyone says the word, I ignore the rest of anything they have to say.
You mean to tell me that Mathew Lillard of all people is a piece of shit?! I am now hearing this for the first time
he didn't sell out, he bought in
I don't know what other instances you are referring to. His apology does seem like a non-apology pr stunt. He doesn't say that Israel is doing a genocide and instead says "the whole Palestinian — what started happening in Israel". Far too vague to seem like he actually cares about people in Gaza.
I made a post last year about Matthew Lillard being opposed to ICE but silent on Gaza. https://hexbear.net/post/6609346
It sucks because I liked his characters in 'SLC Punk' and 'Hackers'.
I figured many people have a positive view of Matthew Lillard because he plays Shaggy in Scooby Doo, both the animated series and the live action. People view him as a children show actor.
I assume anyone in Hollywood long term is fucked in the head until proven other wise. It's just a matter how bad is it.
Like, they just live in a different world over there with how much begging they have to do for their masters not to toss them for the next thing. I think you could easily make a cause that Hollywood as a whole is set up as some sort of cult or something. I mean they were easy picking for Scientology for a reason.
Matt (From the Ghost Stories For The End of the World Podcast) has been doing this extremely good and unnerving deep dive into Hollywood and specifically Jared Leto, and his intro is one where he talks about the psychic resonance of a place like LA. Having lived by LA for a long time when I was younger, it has been a while since a piece of writing has struck that correct of a chord.
In summary, his says that for over a hundred thousand years it has been host to the La Brea Tar Pits, which lured animals in looking like a drink of water, only to suck them in, creating cries which lured predators in only to suck them in as well, thus preserving entire ecosystems of paleontology, that in theory, houses is the souls of millions of animals fueling a massive psychic black hole, a pit of exploitation, despair, and insatiable, inhuman, hunger.
Hollywood is just the latest human manifestation of this psychic phenomena, a place where only the surface is shiny, designed specifically to lure in young dreamers with stars in their eyes, so they can use them, destroy them, and throw them away, bringing in the next batch for the predators to gorge themselves on until it inevitably sucks them in as well, just to start the cycle anew again, the faces changing, but the business is still the same.
Hollywood is both a cult and a complete government psy-op. It is the world's largest purveyor of lies, Satan wishes his PR team was as good. It is so good at what it does that the majority of the population can only think about politics through the lens of the fiction they sell.
Scientology bought a bunch of real estate in Hollywood, but actors in Scientology were always viewed as weirdos by other actors and crew members.
