Angelica Ross is ‘leaving Hollywood’ after American Horror Story transphobia row
Pose star Angelica Ross says she is leaving Hollywood. (Getty)
Pose actor Angelica Ross made headlines this week after slamming American Horror Story star Emma Roberts for alleged transphobia and the show’s creator Ryan Murphy for U-turning on an all-Black AHS season.
Emmy-nominated trans actor Angelica Ross – best known for her bold Pose character Candy Ferocity and stint on AHS seasons nine and 10 – took to social media on Tuesday (19 September) with email receipts accusing Ryan Murphy of leaving her on read after he agreed to an all-Black season of FX’s hit horror anthology series.
The next day, the 42-year-old actor alleged that co-star Emma Roberts – who worked with Ross on American Horror Story: 1984 (season nine) – misgendered her on set and mocked her voice by dropping it several octaves. Ross says that Roberts has since called her to apologise for her behaviour.
After causing a huge social media stir with these revelations, Ross has now tweeted that she is officially “leaving Hollywood”. In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Thursday (21 September), Ross wrote: “For the folks who haven’t put it together yet, I’m ‘leaving Hollywood’.
“There are multiple articles that will be coming out detailing this. So I suggest you and your faves play nice, cuz I’m a Black trans woman with nothing to lose. Candy was born from my body.”
She went onto hit back at critics by adding: “Love the folks talking about me looking for 15min of fame. GURL! My first Emmy nomination was in 2016!
“I’m a globally recognised human rights advocate. I don’t need fame honey. Y’all can keep that.”
Ross detailed the alleged transphobic incidents concerning Roberts on Instagram Live and on X. Ross claims that Roberts jokingly complained to the director John J. Gray that Ross was being mean to her, to which he responded: “OK ladies, that’s enough. Get back to work.”
“She then looks at me, she goes ‘don’t you mean lady?’,” Ross said.
Elsewhere, Ross alleged that Roberts purposefully dropped her voice several octaves while mimicking her. “She read me for blood with my own words. Of course I was self conscious about my voice on set after that,” the actor wrote.
Roberts has not, at the time of writing, responded to a previous PinkNews request for comment on this issue.
Despite the announcement that she is leaving Hollywood, Ross has no plans of slowing down. Her latest single, “Grand Theft Lover ‘Cheat Code'” ft Mondaii, drops on 29 September.
And, as founder of the annual TransTech Summit, she is already making preparations for the 2024 summit in Atlanta.
Last week Ross attended GLAAD’s Black Queer Creative Summit where she spoke about the importance of Black queer media.
“I would be so uptight about some of the messy representations of Blackness if we had a balance,” she said.
“If we also uplifted the nerds and the folks who aren’t conventionally beauty in the beauty box. It’s important because it’s not just the rest of the world – non-Black people – who don’t truly know the fullness of Blackness. Unfortunately, it’s us too.
“It’s important for women, Black queer people, Black trans people to get into the seat and tell the stories.”
