Keke Palmer Says Former ‘Scream Queens’ Castmate Made A Racist Remark On Set

The Halloween season may be over, but Keke Palmer has some stories about her experiences in television that may be downright terrifying.
Picture it: Fox Network, 2015. The multihyphenate performer is moving on from her childhood film legacy with the horror comedy “Scream Queens,” created by Ryan Murphy. Palmer would ultimately play Zayday Williams for both of the show’s seasons. Now she’s giving an account of her experiences in her new memoir, “Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling Your Narrative.”
According to excerpts of her memoir obtained by the Los Angeles Times, Palmer had multiple experiences with people behind the scenes that were not so favorable.
She writes that one day on set, a white member of the cast, whom Palmer refers to as “Brenda,” was having a conflict with another actor. Palmer says she suggested that everyone calm down and “have fun and respect each other.” This is where things took a hard left. “Keke, literally, just don’t,” said Brenda, according to Palmer. “Who do you think you are? Martin F— Luther King?”
Palmer wasn’t present at the March on Washington; nor, to public knowledge, has she been to the mountaintop. She writes that Brenda’s comment was a “weighted statement,” but that she refused to let it ruffle her feathers or give the remark too much power over her response.
In another passage from her book, Palmer describes an interaction with Murphy that she compared to being called into “the dean’s office.” She writes that on one of her days off, production reached out and told her she was needed that day after all. Palmer had already scheduled another professional obligation for that day, and she chose to see it through as planned — which is when she received a tense phone call from Murphy.
“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 said Murphy told her.
Palmer said she apologized and moved on — but a white co-star had another take on the incident.
“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 writes. She now says she suspects this incident is the reason she never became a casting regular on Murphy’s various series.
A representative of Murphy’s team did not immediately return HuffPost’s request for comment.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Palmer’s memoir hits shelves Nov. 19 and “talks about everything from her struggles with boundaries to unconditional love, forgiveness and worthiness.”