Keke Palmer Says Ryan Murphy Blew up at Her While Making ‘Scream Queens’

Keke Palmer is opening up about her time on the Fox comedy Scream Queens, including when creator Ryan Murphy blew up on her. The actress starred on the slasher comedy as Zayday Williams for both seasons before the series was surprisingly canceled. In an interview with The LA Times for her upcoming memoir Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling Your Narrative, Palmer recalled working on the show, which ran from 2015 to 2016.

She wrote in her book that she was had arranged to attend to another business obligation on a day off from filming. But when the day came, she was told by production she was needed on set. Since it was supposed to be her day off, she kept her prior obligation, but Murphy called her and “ripped” into her, telling her what she did was unprofessional. She told the publication, “It was kind of like I was in the dean’s office. He was like, ‘I’ve never seen you behave like this. I can’t believe that you, out of all people, would do something like this.’”

While the former Nickelodeon star did apologize to Murphy and thought everything was fine between them, an unnamed co-star told her a few days later, “It’s bad,” in regards to the relationship. She also believes that standing up for herself made her lose out on other opportunities to be in Murphy’s other projects. “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,” Palmer 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.”

Also created by Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, Scream Queens initially centered on a college sorority targeted by a serial killer using the university’s mascot as a disguise. The second season had a similar premise, only it followed a different serial killer targeting the main sorority members at the hospital where they worked. Along with Palmer and Roberts, the series starred an ensemble cast that also included Skyler Samuels, Lea Michele, Glen Powell, Diego Boneta, Abigail Breslin, Billie Lourd, and Jamie Lee Curtis. Special guests throughout the two seasons included the late Kirstie Alley, Taylor Lautner, Nick Jonas, and John Stamos. Both seasons are streaming on Hulu.