Susan Sarandon dropped. A ‘Scream’ queen let go. Calling Israel’s actions ‘genocide’ is costing people Hollywood jobs
Comments dubbed antisemitic have prompted shake-ups in Hollywood
Melissa Barrera, left, and Susan Sarandon, right, lost work over comments about the war in Israel.
By PJ Grisar November 22, 2023
In the beginning, it wasn’t clear what cost actor Melissa Barrera her job leading the Scream franchise, other than that it involved Israel.
Vague reports from Slashfilm and Variety said Barrera was let go for promoting “an antisemitic trope that Jews control the media.” Many online assumed this was in reference to an Instagram post in which Barrera lamented how she couldn’t find information about the war from the “Palestinian side.”
“[W]estern media only shows the other side,” Barrera posted. “Why they do that, I will let you deduce for yourself.”
But soon it surfaced that the posts in question were something altogether different.
In an article late Tuesday, Variety reported that Barrera was in trouble for resharing a post accusing Israel of “genocide and ethnic cleansing” and for sharing a Jewish Currents article by Israeli historian Raz Segal, which asserted that the Israeli attack on Gaza following Oct. 7 was “a textbook case of genocide unfolding in front of our eyes.”
Spyglass Media Group, the production company behind the revived Scream sequels, said in a statement that it 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.” Spyglass’
Barrera’s firing drew outrage from many across social media. Users claimed pro-Israel celebrities like Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman and Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp (who was trending on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, Wednesday morning as users lambasted him for appearing in a video with “Zionism is sexy” stickers) have yet to suffer career consequences for posts slammed for being callous to the plight of Gazans.
Barrera is not the only person in entertainment to suffer professional setbacks for weighing in on the war between Israel and Hamas.
Also Tuesday, United Talent Agency ended its relationship with Academy Award winner Susan Sarandon following remarks she made at a pro-Palestinian rally.
Unlike Barrera’s comments, the remarks that got Sarandon in trouble seemed to have less to do with the war and more to do with America.
“There are a lot of people that are afraid, afraid of being Jewish at this time,” Sarandon said at a New York City rally last week, adding that Jews “are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country, so often subjected to violence.”
The comments, which appeared to overlook a steady climb in antisemitic hate present in the United States well before the current war between Israel and Hamas, were widely condemned on social media. Some, like former director of speechwriting at the Israeli Mission to the U.N. Aviva Klompas, viewed Sarandon’s remarks as victim blaming. (Asked by The New York Times, a UTA spokesperson declined to elaborate on what led to the agency parting ways with Sarandon.)
Since Oct. 7, right-wing groups have doxxed college students who blamed Israel for the current war in a letter and some law firms and companies have refused to hire the letters’ signatories. Cultural events and an entire series at the 92nd Street Y were canceled over artists’ pro-Palestinian, Israel critical stances. Some observers have likened the fallout from these public positions to blacklisting and McCarthyism, but until Sarandon and Barrera, there haven’t been many high-profile cases affecting the industry that was most impacted by the blacklist of the 1950s: Hollywood. That’s not to say that there hasn’t been tumult in the last few weeks.
Screenwriters slammed the WGA for failing to put out a statement condemning the Hamas attack and, while many notable celebrities signed a letter thanking President Biden for his support of Israel after Oct. 7, a number of Jewish writers, among them Oscar-nominated screenwriter Tony Kushner, signed an open letter in N+1 calling for a cease-fire.
A top agent at Creative Artists Agency, Maha Dakhil, resigned from the company’s board in October following criticism of an Instagram post in which she appeared to call the hostilities in Gaza a “genocide” (she later apologized saying she made a “mistake.”) On Tuesday, Variety revealed her client Tom Cruise met with Dakhil in person earlier this month, in what is being seen as a show of support from the Mission: Impossible star. The Variety article also reported that producer Marc Platt texted leadership at William Morris Endeavor to point out that their client, Jewish filmmaker Boots Riley, had posted to X calling for a boycott of a screening of the film of Hamas atrocities.
CAA cut ties with authors and activists Saira Rao and Regina Jackson over social media posts, including one by Rao that called Zioniss “bloodthirsty genocidal ghouls.”
As in the instance with Barrera and Dakhil, the mention of “genocide,” a provocative and, many experts argue, inaccurate description of Israeli actions, appeared to play a role in the ending of the relationship.
“If you don’t like the use of the word ‘genocide’ to describe what Israel is doing to Palestinians then don’t commit GENOCIDE,” Rao posted to X on Wednesday.
On X, Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali wrote that there was a double standard at work between the pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian sides of Hollywood.
“Amy Schumer and Sarah Silverman post content against Palestinians, & they receive grace,” Ali wrote, referring to posts Silverman and Schumer shared that were, respectively, considered Islamophobic or defended Israel’s choice to cut off water and electricity to Gaza (Silverman said she shared her post in error).
“Melissa Barrera, Susan Sarandon, David Velasco post pro-Palestinian content, and they’re cancelled. You can disagree with their comments and positions, but it’s so asymmetrical & unbalanced,” Ali concluded.
After this article was published Wednesday, news broke that Jenna Ortega, Barrera’s Scream costar, bowed out of Scream VII. Sources told Deadline Ortega’s departure, discussed with Spyglass before the actors strike, was unrelated to Barrera’s firing and had to do with scheduling conflicts for the second season of Netflix’s Wednesday and completing filming for Ortega’s role in Beetlejuice 2.
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