Less than 24 hours after Melissa Barrera was fired from Scream 7 after making controversial posts about the Israel-Palestine conflict, an online rumor started spreading that Jenna Ortega had left the film in protest. Deadline would confirm that Ortega had, indeed, exited the film, but not because of the Barrera situation. Ortega’s increasingly busy schedule completing Beetlejuice and filming Wednesday Season 2 were cited as the reason.
However, it appears that’s not the whole story.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ortega was never locked into Scream 7. When it came time for salary negotiations with the notoriously stingy Spyglass studio, the actress was in a much better position to walk. And she did.
Sources say Ortega — who has skyrocketed from child star to supporting player in last year’s Scream to the A-list thanks to her turn in the Netflix series Wednesday — asked for a bigger payday for the seventh installment, commensurate with her status. Unlike Barrera, sources say Ortega had no deal in place.
Ortega had been paid in the six figures for her previous installments, but her team now wants projects with significant paydays, something that the Scream franchise is not known for. Sources say she was seeking high seven figures and anticipated that Spyglass would balk.
A similar situation played out with Neve Campbell in the lead-up to Scream VI. The actress practically is the Scream franchise, and yet, Spyglass refused to pay her a salary that “did not equate to the value” she brings to the films. Like Ortega, Campbell also walked, making Scream VI the first film in the series to not feature Sidney Prescott.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)
