Skyler Samuels is grateful for Keke Palmer’s support while filming the “challenging” show Scream Queens.
“I am incredibly proud of Keke for speaking out about her experiences on Scream Queens. That’s what Keke does, she speaks up and stands up, for herself and others,” Samuels, 30, wrote via Instagram on Thursday, November 14. “Scream Queens was a very challenging show for me. Keke was one of the only people who stood up for me.”
Palmer, 31, wrote about her experience on the set of Ryan Murphy’s Fox series in her forthcoming memoir, Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling Your Narrative. She further detailed her tenure during a Sunday, November 10, profile with the Los Angeles Times, noting being called to meet with Murphy, 59, after an alleged altercation felt like she 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 to the newspaper. “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 did not detail what led to the disciplinary meeting but also claimed one of her white costars made a racist comment in her presence. Samuels, meanwhile, praised how Palmer conducted herself on the set.
“[Keke] was brave enough to have my back even though she knew it might make her a target of bullies on set,” Samuels, who played Grace Gardner on Scream Queens, continued on Thursday. “I have unending gratitude for the professionalism and kindness Keke showed me. She is a leading lady in this industry, who is well aware of her influence, and she uses it for the better.”
Samuels also captioned her upload, “She’s a true queen @keke 👑💗.”
Samuels previously told Us Weekly that she doesn’t always keep in touch with her Scream Queens costars — which also included Lea Michele, Abigail Breslin, Glen Powell and Billie Lourd — due to their respective busy schedules.
“I haven’t seen or spoken to Billie in years, and I texted her and I was like, ‘Hey, I’m looking at a picture of you in a business office in Ottawa. Are you here?’” Samuels exclusively told Us in August, referring to her production dates for Hallmark’s My Dreams of You. “And she’s like, ‘Oh my God, this is so crazy. I’m literally gonna be there in a couple of days.’”
Samuels added, “She’s there with her two kids and her husband and I’m there with my husband and my baby and she’s like, ‘Dude look at us.’ … [I was] like, ‘We’re just like moms now who are, you know, on location and working in Ottawa.’ But when we met you know in our early 20s [on] Scream Queens [and there was], like, chaos, [it’s] just so different.”
Lourd, 32, shares two children with husband Austen Rydell, while Samuels and her spouse, Lucas Till, welcomed their first baby earlier this year.
Palmer’s Master Of Me: The Secret To Controlling Your Narrative hits shelves on Tuesday, November 19.