Keke Palmer reflects on her turbulent experience working on ‘Scream Queens’

From racist encounters to angry phone calls from Ryan Murphy, Keke Palmer ultimately learned a lot from working on “Scream Queens.”

In her upcoming memoir, “Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling Your Narrative,” Keke Palmer reflects on her journey to understanding her value in both her personal and professional lives. During an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Palmer shared how the book covers an array of topics, including her experience on the set of Fox’s “Scream Queens.” 

In the horror comedy series, Palmer played Zayday Williams for two seasons. During her stint on the show, the actress recalls a racist encounter on set with an unnamed white co-star who she refers to as “Brenda” in the book. While trying to calm down Brenda after a clash with a colleague, Palmer reportedly suggested everyone “have fun and respect each other,” to which Brenda allegedly responded: “Keke, literally, just don’t. Who do you think you are? Martin F— Luther King?”

“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,” Palmer told the publication as she reflected on the incident. “I’m not no victim. That’s not my storyline, sweetie. I don’t care what her ass said. If I allow what she said to cripple me, then she would.”

Unfortunately, this was not the only negative encounter Palmer faced while working on “Scream Queens.” In her memoir, she also shares an instance where she had to miss shooting due to a scheduling mistake, which resulted in a very angry phone call with the show’s co-creator and director, Ryan Murphy. 

“It was kind of like I was in the dean’s office,” she said, adding that Murphy allegedly “ripped” into her on the call for her absence. “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.’”

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At the time, the multihyphenate star remembers receiving her shooting schedule and having arranged to do another business engagement during a day off. But when the day came, production notified her that she was actually needed on set, and the star chose to honor her prior commitment. After apologizing for her absence, Palmer thought she and Murphy had moved on until having a conversation with another unnamed co-star. 

“I said, ‘Ryan talked to me and I guess he’s cool, it’s fine,’ and she was like, ‘It’s bad,’ trying to make me scared or something, which was a little irritating,” she explained.

Though the star had hoped to develop a longstanding relationship with Murphy, which might have led to appearances in future projects like other industry stars, Palmer found it more important to stand up for herself. 

“I’m still not sure Ryan cared or got it, and that’s OK because he was just centering his business, which isn’t a problem to me,” she wrote in the 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.”

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