Melissa Barrera stars as Samantha Carpenter in the Scream franchise. She returns to the big screen with Scream VI along with Mason Gooding, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Jenna Ortega. While it was previously reported that Gooding just accepted his character’s death in the original script that was eventually changed later on by the producers, Barrera apparently had to insist on changing her character’s backstory for the latest film.

It really feels great when you feel supported by everyone on set. That’s exactly how Melissa Barrera felt when she put her foot down to change something on the first draft of the film. The actress shares that to get the change she wanted, she had a few meetings with directors and screenwriters. She told Collider, “So the script changed a lot from the first script that I got to the movie that we made. It was, I want to say, completely different. And we had a few sit downs, [directors] Matt [Bettinelli-Olpin] and Tyler [Gillett] and I, and then with [screenwriters] Jamie [Vanderbilt] and Guy [Busick]”

She explained, “I really, really wanted to make sure that we explored Sam's psyche more and we got to know her deeply because that was a reason that I wanted to play Sam in the first place. The reason that I was attracted to her in Scream 5 was like, ‘Oh my god, there's so much potential here. Where is she going to go?’ And I wanted to make sure that in the sixth movie, we saw more layers to her. It wasn't just the tough girl, the protective older sister that has all these walls up.”

She continued, “I was like, ‘What happens when those walls break down?’ And we didn't get a chance to see that in the fifth one, so I was like, ‘I want to make sure that she feels like a more real, well-rounded human. All these things, all these relationships and everything that happened to her in the fifth one, how are we going to explore that?’ And I think the thing about Matt and Tyler being so great is that when I first spoke to them after reading the first draft, I was like, ‘These are my concerns and I really want the audiences to get to know Sam more,’ you know?”

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Melissa Barrera Did Not Work In Between The Two Scream Films

Melissa Barrera Scream
Paramount Pictures

Thankfully, all’s well that ends well as the actress got the changes she wanted for her character. The actress might have been thinking about wanting to explore more of her character’s backstory as she actually did not film any project after Scream was released in 2022. The actress revealed that she did not work in between the release of Scream and the start of shooting for Scream VI. She said, “From when Scream came out, Scream 2022 in January, then I didn't work until we started shooting Scream in June.”

She continued, “I was busy. I was doing stuff and I was traveling back and forth, and I was doing promo, and I went to Europe and visited my sister. So I was moving, but I wasn't working and there's a part of me that gets really sad when I'm not working. So it was a hard half of the year for me, and I was so desperate to work.”

Scream VI is out now in movie theaters.