Angelica Ross Says Ryan Murphy Scolded Her for Tweeting ‘American Horror Story’ Set Complaints
Angelica Ross said she had a contentious phone call with Ryan Murphy as she filmed American Horror Story: 1984 — one in which the TV producer cussed her out, according to her recollection of events.
Ross described the situation as she remembered it said in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “There was a crewmember who was operating my vehicle that I had to drive on camera, so he’s right outside my windshield and every day he was wearing a racist T-shirt,” she said. “One day it was, ‘BUILD THAT WALL.’ The next day it was white praying hands in front of an American flag, and it said, ‘I DON’T KNEEL.’ Those are the ones I remember. This guy had a collection. I started speaking up about it.”
Ross said that she ultimately retreated to the production van and vowed to stay there until the situation was handled — and that after hours without a resolution, she took the issue to Twitter.
“So I then tweet. ‘It’s a shame that I do all this work out in the world on anti-Blackness and racism and have to come to a set and do the same work,’” she said. “No less than maybe 10 seconds, my phone rings. It’s Tanase Popa, one of the producers, and he’s telling me, ‘Ryan Murphy thinks you should take that tweet down. Things are being handled, and he considers us a family, and we don’t share things outside the family.’”
Ross eventually relented. “I said, ‘OK, fine, I’ll take down the tweet. But just so you know, I’m being told that this man wearing these T-shirts has freedom of speech, but I’m the one being told to take down a tweet. I feel like I’m being silenced,’” she said.
Kurt Iswarienko/FX
And that’s when Ross heard from Murphy. “Two seconds later, Ryan Murphy calls me directly. So he was probably there for the whole conversation,” she said. “He starts off not, ‘Are you OK?’ Not, ‘What’s going on?’ He starts off: ‘What’s your f—king problem?! Are you serious?!’ He goes, ‘You think that I would f—king silence you after all I’ve done and I’ve been an advocate and done nothing but uplift trans Black women?’”
Ross continued: “I’ve dealt with this before. This is not my first time at the rodeo of dealing with that energy of white people who think that they are doing good but won’t check their own selves when someone Black or of the people they’re trying to help is telling them, ‘You have a blind spot.’ And so he is cussing me out.”
Murphy later backtracked, though, according to Ross. “I said, ‘I feel unsafe on your set. I feel like I’m just here trying to do a job, and now I got to do a second job of being the adult in the room and handling the situation that you should be handling,’” the former Pose star told THR. “And he said, ‘You know what? You are right. I’m sorry. I want to be your biggest champion. I understand the work you’re doing, and I want to be your biggest champion.’ I believed him.”
In a statement to THR about Ross’s allegations, Popa shared his recollection of that day, saying that he was with Murphy as the AHS co-creator was directing another project. “My conversation with her was, ‘Hey, I just wanted to check in. Ryan heard that you posted on Twitter. I spoke with [director] John Gray. He’s in the process of dealing with it with HR and labor relations. But if something happens, please come to us. I’m right by Ryan when he’s directing. I can get him easily, but it’s better to come to us. We can actually implement a solution [rather] than going to Twitter and just broadcasting this,’” Popa said.
Popa also said that Ross accused him of silencing her — but explained that he said he was trying to have the AHS team follow a “proper protocol” instead of taking issues to Twitter. “She said, ‘OK, fine, I’m going to take down the post, but I feel like I’m being silenced. This is my role as an activist and I’m going to take the post down,’” Popa recalled. “And I said, ‘OK, I’m going to go back to set and get Ryan to call you back.’ … Ryan was in the middle of several takes, and it took about 10 minutes. He then called her, he stepped outside. I was next to him. His assistant Sara Stelwagen was next to him and we did not hear him cuss at her or say, ‘After all I’ve done for you, why would you do this?’ He basically said, ‘I don’t understand why you would go to Twitter instead of coming to us.’”
Earlier this week, Ross said on Instagram that AHS costar Emma Roberts had displayed transphobic behavior on set. Ross later tweeted that Roberts called her to apologize.
