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Emma Roberts has been accused of making a transphobic comment by her American Horror Story co-star, Angelica Ross.
On Tuesday, the day before the anthology series' new Delicate season debuted, footage shared on social media showed Ross, who is transgender, speaking out in an undated Instagram Live about her experiences with Roberts on the show's set.
Ross co-starred with franchise regular Roberts in the 2019 season, called American Horror Story: 1984. Ross, who is not credited as a cast member in the latest season of the FX show, said in the clip that her relationship with Roberts soured when an otherwise playful moment led to an alleged transphobic remark.
Newsweek reached out to representatives of Roberts and FX via email for comment.
"I'm standing in front of Emma, talking to her like this, and she's in front of me, her back against the mirror," the Pose star said in the clip as she recounted her time on the AHS set. "She goes, 'John, Angelica's being mean.'"
The "John" in question was not specified, though two episodes of the season they both starred in were directed by John J. Gray.
"I know she's not being for real," Ross said. "She's just being whatever. And John is like, 'OK, ladies, that's enough. Let's get back to work.' And she then looks at me and she goes, 'Don't you mean lady?' And she turns around like this and covers her mouth [with her shirt]."
Once Roberts turned away, she apparently couldn't "see I'm looking at her dead a** in the camera, like, 'What the f*** did you just say?' Ross said. "And I'm standing there looking her dead a** in the damn thing, and I'm like, trying to process [what] the f*** she just said."
"I'm standing there, she walked away. My blood is boiling. Because I'm like, if I say something, it's gonna be me that's the problem. And I know this because there was someone who spoke up about what she was doing and they got repercussions from it. Not her—they did," Ross alleged.
"So when I saw that happening, I was just like, 'I'm done,'" Ross continued. "I didn't speak to that b**** the entire time after that. So we had scenes together and I never spoke to her. She said to me she could feel the energy coming off of me. She was like, 'Are you OK? You haven't been talking.' I'm like, 'Mmmhmm.'
"'Cause b**** don't play me. You've been playing mind games with everybody on the set and everybody's been waiting for the moment that you would get me."
While Roberts and Ross appeared alongside one another in 1984, only Ross was among the cast for Double Feature, the season that immediately followed in 2021. Neither appeared in last year's NYC. In joining the cast of Delicate, Roberts appears in her sixth season of American Horror Story.
Created by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, American Horror Story has been a fan favorite since first hitting screens with Murder House back in 2011. Over the years, the ensemble cast has featured a host of household names, including Evan Peters, Dylan McDermott, Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Lady Gaga, Connie Britton, Macaulay Culkin, and Frances Conroy.
Kim Kardashian and model Cara Delevingne are among those making franchise debuts in Delicate, which is based on the book Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine. This is the first time that Murphy has based a season on a novel, although past series have used plenty of real-world inspiration—from The Black Dahlia murder to serial killer John Wayne Gacy and the "Vampire Countess of Hungary" Elizabeth Bathory.
Update 09/20/23, 11:25 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional details and background information.
About the writer
Ryan Smith is a Newsweek Senior Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more