AHS: Angelica Ross Shares Details on Emma Roberts Apology Call

American Horror Story star Angelica Ross discussed her phone call with AHS: 1984
co-star Emma Roberts over Roberts' transphobic comment.
Published Fri, 22 Sep 2023 15:46:07 -0500 by Ray Flook |
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Earlier this week, actress/singer/social activist Angelica Ross (American Horror

Story: 1984; American Horror Story: Double Feature) opened up about an incident
involving her "AHS: 1984" co-star Emma Roberts (co-starring with Kim Kardashian &
Cara Delevingne in American Horror Story: Delicate, debuting tonight) on the set of
the 2019 season. Taking to Instagram Live, Ross alleged that Roberts aimed a
transphobic comment at her during filming by purposefully misgendering her. Not
long after the story began gaining mainstream media attention, Ross took to
Twitter/X to confirm that she and Roberts had spoken on the matter. "Thank you
[Emma Roberts] for calling and apologizing, recognizing your behavior was not that
of an ally," Ross posted. "I will leave the line open to follow up on your desire
to do better and support social justice causes with your platform." Now, Ross is
sharing her detailed perspective on how the phone call went down in an interview
with The Hollywood Reporter.
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AHS: 1984 (Image: FX Networks Screencap)

"It was a bumpy conversation. She apologized, and she said, 'I hate that you walked
away from our experience together feeling like that. I see in hindsight what I did
and how stupid that was. I'm an ally.' I was like, 'No, you're not. You can't call
yourself an ally. [Allyship] is an action. You need to be real with me in this
conversation. I'm being real with you. You were being messy.' She said, 'I hope
that we can go move forward and fix this. I see you out there doing such great work
out there,'" Ross shared while recounting the exchange she had with Roberts on the
matter."

Ross continued, "And I said, 'Oh, so you see me? You see me talking about the anti-
Blackness? Are you using your platform to amplify the work that I'm doing? No, you
haven't. So what kind of ally are you?' She was like, 'Well, OK. There's more to be
said there. I would love to support causes that you support.'" But Ross wasn't
surprised that Roberts called her to talk. "The truth of the matter is I know
Emma's got big balls," Ross shared. "I've seen them on the set, so I'm not
surprised that she called me. This girl is no damsel in distress, ever."

AHS: 1984: Ross Accuses Roberts of Transphobic Remark

In Ross' recounting, what seemed to be nothing more than a little back-and-forth

between the two took a turn when Roberts reportedly brought director John J. Gray
into the exchange. When Roberts reportedly said to Gray, "John, Angelica's being
mean," Ross didn't make anything of it ("I know she's not being for real� She's
just being whatever"), and Gray responded to both of them by suggesting they all
get back to work. In his response, Gray referred to Ross & Roberts as ladies � to
which Ross claims Roberts replied, "Don't you mean lady?" before turning around and
covering her mouth with her shirt (attempting to differentiate herself from Ross,
who is transgender). From there, Ross shares what her initial reaction was as well
as how it reportedly soured their relationship moving forward. "So when I saw that
happening, I was just like, 'I'm done,'" Ross shares. "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.'"