The Big Picture
- Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with
Abigail
star Melissa Barrera - During her third Ladies Night conversation with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Barrera looks back on how the past year has reshaped her perspective and career goals.
- She also discusses her experience reuniting with Radio Silence for
Abigail
, which hits theaters nationwide on April 19th.
Welcome to a very special edition of Collider Ladies Night. Not only does this episode feature a personal favorite, but that favorite just became the first Ladies Night third-timer — Melissa Barrera. It was immediately evident that Barrera is an ideal Ladies Night guest during our first chat in January 2022 for Scream, one brimming with enthusiasm and passion for her craft, and for the art of filmmaking in general. That became even more undeniable after connecting at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival for Carmen’s world premiere, and then again in March 2023 for a second Ladies Night in celebration of the release of Scream VI.
One of the greatest joys of having two Ladies Night conversations a mere year apart with Barrera? Seeing how much she manages to accomplish in that short span, and hearing about how deeply she considers those experiences and how that impacts her goals and perspective on the industry going forward. At that point, making the independent feature, Your Monster, which just premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, heavily influenced her priorities for herself in filmmaking. In March 2023 she explained, “I had a mentality of like, I need to do something big to make a splash and to make a name for myself so that I can green light projects.” However, after working on Your Monster and also The Collaboration, that switched to, “I just want to do projects that speak to my soul and that stretch me.”
Perspective shifts happen often, and should. What good are our experiences if we don’t grow and learn from them? Barrera, however, powered through a rather seismic one since our last Collider Ladies Night interview after she was shockingly fired from Scream 7 due to social media posts regarding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. During this new Ladies Night interview, Barrera detailed how that and other recent experiences in Hollywood have heavily impacted her understanding of what she’s here to do. From there we lean into yet another new release that solidifies Barrera as a horror genre powerhouse, and bonafide movie star, her latest collaboration with Radio Silence, Abigail. Read on to get Barrera’s take on all of that and more, and watch our exclusive featurette on Barrera’s Abigail character, Joey, below.
In March 2023, Barrera noted that the work she had done between Scream 2022 and Scream VI inspired her to seek out more independent projects, versus striving to become a big enough star to have green light power. Given another year has passed, I opted to ask Barrera the same question to kick off this new addition of Ladies Night. What’s a new career goal that’s emerged based on everything she’s experience in the last year? Here’s what she said.
“I think my perspective on what I’m here to do, and what I’m here to do on Earth, has changed.
Spiritually I’ve had an awakening in the last year. Obviously I love acting and I want to continue to act, but the purpose of my art is now more intentional because I want to help make the world better in any way that I can.
And so, I’ve found that that goes with trying to make the
industry
better and safer and gentler and nicer for people. There will be ripples of that. And I think I’m just a lot more aware of the kind of people that I want to work with, the kind of people that I don’t, the kinds of stories that I want to tell that will mean something to people, that are maybe trying to showcase the world that we
can
have as a society. More aspirational stuff. It’s always been important to me to work with good people, but I think now more than ever, I’m like, ‘I just want to work with like-minded and like-hearted people that share values, and that want to make movies and tell stories that are actually contributing something meaningful.’”
Melissa Barrera Wants to Start a New Movie Studio
Barrera is already actively making moves to achieve those goals, but having spent a good deal of time at film festivals recently and getting a better understanding of what is distributed theatrically and why, a rather large ambition has been on her mind. Barrera dreams of creating a new movie studio.
When I asked for lessons learned about what it takes to sell a film at a festival, Barrera smiled and said, “I don’t know that I want to answer that.” She added, “I just hate the politics of it all,” and, “Sometimes I wish I didn’t know what I know, you know?”
The benefit of someone like Barrera knowing the less ideal inner workings of Hollywood? She can use that knowledge and contribute to changing the system for the better. When I said as much, she replied:
“Hopefully, yeah. I mean, yeah, that would be the goal, I think.
I think the only way to really change it is to create another studio
that is a little bit more supportive of minority stories, that would be open to supporting a movie that doesn’t necessarily have any big names in it, that actually believes in new filmmakers like that.”
Barrera doesn’t just want to see the creation of an indie-forward film studio and watch it evolve from a distance. She’s eager to get involved as an executive, and has confidence she could be effective in such a position after how she influenced the results of a recent pitch contest focused on emerging female filmmakers. She recalled:
“I was a judge on this short filmmaking pitch contest. It was part of Tribeca, I believe, and it was Chanel-led, and so I got invited to be a judge. It was Gayle King, me, and [Paula Weinstein]. She was a retired studio exec, but she had been a studio exec for years and years and years. So we listened to a bunch of pitches from incredible female filmmakers and we had to decide who gets the grant to actually shoot the short film. They were all incredible. It was super hard, but I had my heart set on one story, and they wanted another one, but I fought so hard for it that it ended up winning.
She came up to me, and she was like, ‘You should be a studio exec. You’d be a good studio exec because you fight for your projects.’
Since then, I’m like, ‘I want to be a studio exec. I want a studio.’”
Looking for more reasons to back a Melissa Barrera-led studio? She continued:
“I feel like the green-lighting of projects has been watered down in studios. It’s not the same as it used to be. Instead of giving opportunities to great original stories and new filmmakers that are super talented, and giving them, I don’t know, $5 to $10 million to make a movie, they just want reboots and the same recycled story with big filmmakers and with hundreds of millions of dollars, but they don’t allow for the filmmakers to really realize their vision because there’s so many cooks in the kitchen. So,
if I had a studio, I would just be giving opportunities to up-and-coming filmmakers and supporting indie cinema
, which I think is having a comeback. I think because audiences are a little bit sick of the same thing over and over, I think it’s opening the channel for mainstream audiences to look around and be like, ‘Oh, but what’s that movie? What’s that little movie?’ And so I’m hopeful for that, because I think indie cinema is always where it’s at. It’s always where everybody begins, and where the coolest and most original stories are found.”
While it’d likely take quite some time to get a new movie studio going, Barrera already sees a bright future for indie cinema, one, because there’s quality work in the sector and, two, because of social media — specifically TikTok. She explained:
“You need a few people on TikTok to notice a great movie and then it can go viral and it can become huge. That’s why I love social media.
I have a newfound love for social media, because I used to have a love/hate relationship with it, 80% hate
, because I just thought that it was like the typical, everybody’s just putting the best of their lives and everything is fake, and it just breeds so much insecurity in a lot of people, and everybody’s just obsessed with the physical and the front of, ‘Look at how great my life is,’ and all of that. I was like, ‘I hate it. It’s so fake.’
But, in the last year, I’ve noticed the power of it, actually — the power of that communication, the power that it can give creators, how it can actually elevate and give beautiful opportunities to deserving people
. And then also, the younger generation is so smart. So creative and so smart. I’m a Millennial, but Gen Z, I have a lot of respect for Gen Z. I do. They’ve become the butt of the joke, and they’ve gotten the worst end of the stick just in general, in life and the world, but they’re very smart and nothing gets past them. I just have a lot of newfound love and hope for that because of social media.”
How Melissa Barrera Found the Perfect Publicists
Barrera’s personal social media activity has been in the spotlight quite a bit over the last six months due Spyglass Media Group’s decision to fire her from Scream 7 over her pro-Palestinian posts. In recent months, she’s discussed her experience going through such a situation, putting a heavy emphasis on how invaluable her publicity team was during that time.
Given hiring a publicist — or rather, the right publicist — often goes undiscussed in actor interviews, I opted to ask Barrera about navigating that particular sector of the industry. She began:
“In Mexico, I never worked with a publicist. I would use the publicist of the project that I was doing. I never worked with my own. But, when I got to LA and there was
Vida
and it was coming out, I was like, ‘Okay, how do I capitalize on this momentum? It’s a big deal. I have my first job in the States. How am I going to get the word out?’ Because, in the end, there is a lot of value in people knowing what you’re doing. How are you going to make sure that people know about this? It’s selling it and selling yourself so that you get more opportunities because, I don’t know, it’s just the nature of the industry. I think you understand, and I guess it’s the same in every industry; if you have a product, if you want people to buy it, people need to know about it.”
It’s important to find a publicist who’s good at their job and can secure those promotional opportunities, but those opportunities only have maximum value if they’re presenting an artist in a way that feels right and meaningful to them. In Barrera’s case, it took time to find the right people, but eventually, she landed an ideal team.
“I started working with a publicist, and I tried it and we weren’t really vibing. I didn’t like certain things about how they worked, and so finally I ended up switching and I found my current publicists, and I adore them, Imprint. We just understand each other. That’s important to me [with] the people that I work with because, in the nature of this industry, I’m kind of hidden.
Actors are not the person you talk to ever. You always talk to their representatives, and that includes publicists, and so they are my face, basically.
They are an extension of me.
So it’s really important, to me, that they are nice people, that they are respectful and polite, and that people like them, and that they have a good experience with them because that means that’s an extension of me. You hear horror stories of, ‘Oh, this actor’s team is horrible to deal with,’ and that’s true. Then it becomes, if no one wants to take their calls because they’re rude or whatever, then they think that you’re like that. So I just have always been very careful of having people on my team that are good human beings that everybody likes, that are good people, and they’re also really good at their jobs, and that we are on the same page in a lot of things.”
As far as recent events go, Barrera emphasized, “My publicists have been incredible in the last six months of my life. It’s just been amazing to have that support because it’s important.” She added, “It can be make-or-break for your mental health, really.”
Melissa Barrera on Parting Ways with ‘Scream’: “That Was Just a Little Hiccup. I’m Good.”
Melissa Barrera Says She’s Happy With How ‘Scream VI’ Left Sam’s Arc [Exclusive]
“I don’t feel like ‘Ugh, I got left in the middle.'”
With her top tier publicity team at her back, Barrera powered through a hugely challenging period with professionalism and poise, and has come out the other side unstoppable. She’s got big dreams for herself in Hollywood, and nothing will stop her.
Here’s what she said about her plans going forward:
“
Just continuing to put myself out there, unafraid, because I’m here to stay.
[Laughs] So just continuing to audition. I have a lot of things that I still want to do. I have a lot of dreams that I want to accomplish, a lot of different kinds of movies that I want to do. I want to produce, I want to direct. There’s so much that I can busy myself with. Focusing on something that happened, and already happened, it’s nothing. Like you said, there are more important things that are happening in the world, and that was just a little hiccup. I’m good.”
Melissa Barrera Didn’t Want ‘Abigail’s Joey to Feel like ‘Scream’s Sam
Barrera is especially good this weekend because she’s got yet another stellar horror movie hitting theaters, Abigail.
Barrera stars as Joey, a member of a team of criminals hired to kidnap a 12-year-old girl and watch her for 24 hours in exchange for $50 million dollars. Once they acquire their target, they’re convinced the hard part’s over. However, little do they know at the start, this girl is actually a wildly violent and ruthless vampire thrilled to torment them for the night.
While Joey’s fortitude is comparable to Sam’s fight and determination in the Scream movies, it was a top priority for Barrera to ensure the two felt like wholly different fully realized characters. She explained:
“
When I read the script, the first challenge that I was excited to take on was, on paper, the role felt very straightforward and potentially very similar to Sam in
Scream
.
So I was like, ‘Okay, cool. How can I make her different? How can I make her distinct?’ Especially since I just did
Scream 6
, and so I don’t want people to think, ‘Oh, she’s doing the same thing,’ you know? That’s never what you want. So I was like, ‘Okay, this is a challenge. This is cool.’ I was excited about this strong, observant, kind of cold criminal woman that is the character. All of these characters are badass in a different way. They’re all cool, and they’re living a life that’s like, ‘Whoa, what brought you to being a kidnapper, dude? There’s a way that these characters are always portrayed in being super tough, but I wanted to show the vulnerable side of her, and the nurturing, and the protector in her. That was interesting to me, those two sides of someone that’s meant to be a tough girl that’s supposed to just survive the night, survive those 24 hours in this.”
Yet another challenge that came with this particular role? Abigail is often a wild, very funny and highly entertaining bonkers ride, but Joey must remain the emotional core of the movie — the anchor of the movie. Barrera noted, “Because Joey is the emotional core of the movie, I think it allows for all the other characters to be kind of crazy, you know?”
While that assessment of Joey’s role in the group, and the movie overall, is spot on, it wasn’t the easiest thing to collaborate on set. Barrera recalled:
“There was a moment where I remember we were shooting, I think it was the scene where we all find out that she’s a vampire, and then afterwards we’re brainstorming, ‘What are we going to do?’ It got so wild.
Everything was so wild in that scene that I remember going to Matt and being like, ‘Matt, I feel like I’m in a different movie than everybody else. Because it’s just so funny. Everything is so funny, and to me, everything is so serious.
I’m just genuinely trying to survive and get out of here.’ He’s like, ‘Exactly. That’s exactly it. Yes, you are in a different movie. You have to be in a different movie because otherwise this movie just becomes wacky and crazy. You are going to be, like we say in Spanish,
el cable a tierra
, the pillar or the base, the anchor.’ So that was interesting for me to find out. It’s amazing because you learn something new. In every movie I learn something new about filmmaking and about how directors direct and how they find the tone of a movie, and it’s just fascinating. Even as an actor in it, I was like, ‘Am I crazy?’ And then I found out that Kathryn [Newton] also went to Matt and Tyler, and was like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing. I feel like I’m in a different movie.’ So we were all kind of saying that, but Matt and Tyler, knowing what they were gonna do, kind of just let us all do our thing because they knew that it was gonna work.”
Melissa Barrera Is Proud of Finishing ‘Abigail’ While Powering Through ‘Scream’ Firing
In addition to dealing with the direct demands of the role and project overall on the Abigail set, Barrera also found herself battling outside challenges when she returned to set to finish the film after the conclusion of the SAG-AFTRA strike. While completing her work on Abigail, she was powering through her Scream firing.
Barrera addressed that while answering the final question of Collider Ladies Night; what’s something she accomplished while making Abigail that she knows she’ll be able to look back on and say, ‘I’m so proud of what I did there?”
“
I think I’m proud of myself because I was dealing with a lot, personally, while shooting the last bit of the movie, and so the fact that I wasn’t freaking out and I was actually just going to work and doing that, it was a new kind of experience for me
, but it just showed me that I’m like, ‘I got it.’ I really love what I do, and so I know that I’m a professional and that I can do it no matter what, that I can compartmentalize, and that I’m not the kind of actor that will take all my stuff to set and then make everyone’s life miserable. I’m very good about keeping it professional and keeping it light and fun, because everyone wants to have fun on set. But the fact that I was able to do that, I’m proud of myself for that.”
Eager to hear even more from Barrera on the making of Abigail and her journey in Hollywood over the last year? You can catch our full hour-long conversation in the video at the top of this article, or you can listen to the interview in podcast form below:
Abigail hits theaters nationwide on April 19th. Click below for showtimes.
