Angelica Ross Says Ryan Murphy Cussed Her Out For Speaking Out

Angelica Ross will not be silenced.

Last week the American Horror Story actress shared that her costar Emma Roberts had engaged in anti-trans bullying while the two were filming the series. She has since shared that the actress reached out to her and apologized.

Now, during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter Ross says there was another tweet she sent on social media during the filming that led to a contentious phone call with the show’s creator Ryan Murphy.

“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 began. “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 who had had enough retreated to her trailer and said she would stay there until the situation had been dealt with but when hours passed with no change she took her issue to social media.

“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 finally agreed to take down the Tweet. “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.

It was then that Ross said she heard directly from Murphy. “Two seconds later, Ryan Murphy calls me directly. So he was probably there for the whole conversation,” she said. “He starts not, ‘Are you OK?’ Not, ‘What’s going on?’ He starts: ‘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?’”

This was not the first time that Ross has faced this kind of situation, she explained. “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.”

Ross said that Murphy did pull back and acknowledge her feelings. “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,’” recalled Ross. “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.”

Popa has since refuted some of Ross’ account of the incident. “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,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “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.’”

Rather than silencing Ross, Popa says he was just following “proper protocol.” Then when Ross said she felt he was preventing her from speaking as an activist he said he would connect her with Murphy. 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.’”

What a mess. We just hope that Ross has the support around her now as this conflict doesn't seem to be dying down any time soon.