Keke Palmer's Scream Queens co-star said she protected her from "bullies" on set
Palmer recently spoke out about altercations with Ryan Murphy and an unnamed co-star while filming the show.
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It sounds like Angelica Ross was right when she said “on a Ryan Murphy set, there is sure to be chaos.” Earlier this week, Keke Palmer spoke to the Los Angeles Times about some negative experiences she had while filming 2015’s Scream Queens, both with an unnamed co-star and the show’s infamous creator. Unfortunately, it sounds like she wasn’t the only one who struggled while filming the show.
In a new Instagram post, Palmer’s co-star, Skyler Samuels, lauded the Nope actor for sharing some of the more unsavory parts of her experience. “I am incredibly proud of Keke for speaking out,” she wrote. “That’s what Keke does, she speaks up and stands up, for herself and others.”
“Scream Queens was a very challenging show to make,” Samuels continued. “Keke was one of the only people who stood up for me. She was brave enough to have my back even though she knew it might make her a target of bullies on set. I have unending gratitude for the professionalism and kindness Keke showed me.”
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In her new book Master Of Me: The Secret To Controlling Your Narrative, Palmer writes about one of those bullies, a white actor she calls “Brenda.” One day, she wrote, Brenda and another colleague had gotten into some sort of altercation, and Palmer tried to calm the situation by suggesting that everyone “have fun and respect each other.” Brenda responded, “Keke, literally, just don’t. Who do you think you are? Martin F— Luther King?” Reflecting on the situation, Palmer told the LA Times, “It was such a weighted thing that she said, but I didn’t allow that weight to be projected on me, because I know who I am… I’m not no victim.”
Palmer also spoke about a time Murphy “ripped” into her over the phone in regard to a scheduling conflict, which left her feeling “kind of like I was in the dean’s office.” While she initially thought the two had resolved the issue, she now believes that fight led to the deterioration of their professional relationship. (Palmer has not starred in a Murphy show since.) “I’m still not sure Ryan cared, or got it, and that’s okay because he was just centering his business, which isn’t a problem to me,” she wrote in her book. “But what I do know is even if he didn’t care, and even if I never work with him again, he knows that I, too, see myself as a business.”