Angelica Ross is recounting some of the unsettling experiences she allegedly endured on the set of American Horror Story: 1984.
During an Instagram Live Tuesday night, as AHS: Delicate premiered on FX, the trans actress claimed that her AHS co-star Emma Roberts intentionally misgendered her during a conversation, and later mocked her voice.
Re-enacting one specific incident, Ross recalled a moment that started as playful where Roberts accused Ross of “being mean” to her. (Ross says the actress wasn’t being “for real, for real.”) A third person, named John stepped in, and said, “OK, ladies that’s enough. Let’s get back to work.”
Then, Roberts allegedly responded with a transphobic joke.
“She looks at me and goes, ‘Don’t you mean lady,’ and she turns around… She covers her mouth and goes back here, but she can’t see I’m looking at her deadass like, ‘What the fuck did you say?’” Ross said on the Live. “I was trying to process the fuck she just said. I’m standing there and she walked away. My blood is boiling… If I say something it’s going to be me that’s the problem.”
Ross continued by explaining that she didn’t speak up about the alleged incident because another person on set allegedly reported Roberts’ behavior onset and they faced “repercussions from it.”
“I didn’t speak to that bitch for the entire time after that,” Ross said, later claiming Roberts could “feel the energy coming off of me.” She added, “Don’t blame me. You’ve been playing mind games with everybody on this set and everybody has been waiting for the moment you would get me.”
A representative for Roberts and a manager for Ross did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s requests for comment.
On Wednesday morning, Ross followed up on her Instagram Live with a tweet about another alleged incident from the set, where Roberts joked about her voice. “The funniest part? We’re all sitting around & I’m copying Cody’s accent. Didn’t know he had one,” Ross tweeted. “Emma then copies my voice & laugh and drops it several octaves. I was SHOOK. She read me for blood with my own words.”
“Of course I was self-conscious about my voice on set after that,” she added.
Ross later asked fans to “joke about [Roberts] being held accountable” instead of directing violence toward her. She also claimed in a separate tweet that a “racist indecent happened” on the AHS set as well.
Ross’ transphobia allegation against Roberts comes several days after she claimed that AHS‘ director Ryan Murphy had left her “on read” after he reached out about a potential all-Black cast.
“Remember your idea about a HORROR seasons starring Black women? Well I’m doing it,” Murphy wrote in an email to Ross in 2020. “Not sure of the story yet, but we will start a writers room in the fall. Along with you, who are the four women I should get? I think you, Keke Palmer, Gabby … Not sure of the fourth?”
Ross spoke about the performative nature of presenting diversity on screen, later sharing a screenshot of another email she sent to Murphy in Feburary 2022. “After not hearing back. After sending flowers and no response I sent one last email in Feb 2022 (it took about a year to film season 10 due to COVID) while still contractually in first position with the show. Mind you, marvel had called twice now. I haven’t heard from him since,” Ross wrote.