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Keke Palmer is naming names in her upcoming memoir, Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling Your Narrative.
The 31-year-old Password host opened up about an incident from her book with showrunner Ryan Murphy in an interview with the Los Angeles Times published on Sunday, November 10. While filming the 2015 Fox series Scream Queens, Palmer had a day off on the shooting schedule, and decided to use it to fulfill another business obligation of hers.
However, when that day came, Murphy was apparently not happy that Palmer wasn't on set. Production called, requesting that Palmer come to set, but she declined, due to her previous obligation. The True Jackson, VP alum recalled Murphy responded with an angry phone call during which he "ripped" into her and called her unprofessional.
"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,'" Palmer recalled. The Nope star apologized to Murphy, and thought everything had blown over -- that is, until another co-worker suggested it had not.
"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," Palmer shared. She wrote that while she had initially thought she might end up like one of Murphy's crew -- like Sarah Paulson, Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, and other stars who appear in many of his series -- she realized that likely would not be the case after their tiff.
"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. 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," Palmer wrote in her book.
That wasn't the only negative experience Palmer detailed from working on Scream Queens. In her memoir, she also documents a moment where a white co-star made a racially insensitive comment to her. Palmer starred on the series with actresses like Roberts, Lourd, Ariana Grande, Abigail Breslin, Skyler Samuels, and Lea Michele -- though she did not name the one who made the offensive remark, instead calling them "Brenda."
Brenda was upset with another actor on the show, and Palmer tried to diffuse the tension by telling everyone to "have fun and respect each other." However, this only made Brenda more upset, with the actress firing back, "Keke, literally, just don't. Who do you think you are? Martin F***ing Luther King?" Though Palmer considered it a "weighted thing," she didn't name the offender, because she didn't want to give her words power.
"I'm not no victim. That's not my storyline, sweetie. I don't care what her a** said. If I allow what she said to cripple me, then she would," Palmer quipped.