Glee star claims Ryan Murphy didn’t remember her while working on Grotesquerie series

A former Glee star revealed that Ryan Murphy had ‘forgotten’ her when she reunited with the producer when she was cast in his latest FX series, Grotesquerie.

Raven Goodwin, 32, notably portrayed the role of Sheila for three episodes during the third season of Glee – a show Murphy created which aired from 2009 through 2015.

During an interview with People on Tuesday, Goodwin discussed having the chance to work with Ryan once again on the thriller series, which also starred Taylor Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce.

When asked by the outlet if the television writer had remembered her, Raven admitted, ‘Ryan had forgotten!’

‘It’s been so long since Ryan did Glee – he had no idea I was on the show. He was like, “Nice to meet you.” I was like, “All right, bet.”‘

However, she gushed about the show – which aired the final episode of the first season late last month on October 30.

‘Seriously, I was so excited to be a part of the Ryan Murphy universe simply because I am [an] actual fan. Like I really do watch his work. Every time he puts something out, I’m watching it.’ 

Aside from Glee and Grotesquerie, the director is known for creating and producing a number of other projects including Scream Queens, American Horror Story, Nip/Tuck, Doctor Odyssey and Monster. 

Raven added, ‘And for me to love the [Grotesquerie] script as much as I did, like, they did their thing – like the writers are incredible.’ 

‘They have incredible minds and so to kind of execute whatever they had in mind and to do it and make everybody happy and to get the job done the way I was supposed to get it done…’

‘It meant a lot…So I’m excited. You know, I hope we can do more,’ the Good Luck Charlie actress continued. 

Travis Kelce – who is also a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs – took on the role of Ed Laclan in the show. 

In regards to working with the NFL star, Goodwin explained to the outlet, ‘It’s always funny to see people who haven’t really been in the world come on set.’

‘And they’re like, “Oh, it’s another angle. Oh, we got to wait 10 more hours for this one thing. Oh, okay.”‘ 

‘It’s just so funny seeing how they kind of conceptualize what’s going on around them because we get paid to wait – we don’t get paid to act. So I think they forget about that part.’

Raven added that Travis was ‘super cool. You know, everything moved kind of fast and, you know, we got him out as soon as we could, but our days are long.’ 

Other stars that appeared in the first season of Grotesquerie included Niecy Nash-Betts, Courtney B. Vance, Lesley Manville and Nicholas Alexander Chavez. 

Goodwin played the character of Merritt Tryon – the onscreen daughter of Nash-Betts, who portrayed Lois Tryon. 

The premise followed, ‘A detective and a nun investigate a series of heinous crimes that seem personal, while grappling with personal issues and uncovering a sinister web that raises more questions than answers,’ per IMDB.   

While talking to People, Raven recalled the surreal experience of filming a scene with both Travis and Niecy. 

‘All of our experiences and career choices and paths just kind of meeting up. And it was just kind of like, “Okay, we’re doing this.” But it was refreshing. It was fun. They both were absolutely breathtakingly good.’ 

The star added, ‘It was such a cool day. It was just like a cool day. It just felt like I was in a twilight zone. Like, what is really happening with my career right now? This is so cool.’ 

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last month in October, Raven further reflected on working on the series.

While filming the project, Raven – who recently starred in the BET+ holiday film Style Me For Christmas – was pregnant with her second child with Wiley Battle.

When asked if there were any difficulties to shoot the series while pregnant, Goodwin revealed, ‘No, whether you’re sitting at the house or at work, you’re going to be pregnant.’

‘So, I might as well push myself. I felt healthy. My doctors were telling me that I’m healthy and that I’m good.’

Raven continued, ‘So I made sure that I prayed every day and asked that we were covered and protected, but doing the job was no different.’ 

It comes shortly after fellow actress, Keke Palmer, recounted an incident in which Ryan Murphy, who co-created and produced Scream Queens, ‘ripped’ into her on set.

She detailed the experience in her upcoming memoir, Master Of Me: The Secret To Controlling Your Narrative, where she also shared a shocking racist incident that took place with an unnamed white co-star.

Palmer, who starred as Zayday Williams on the series for two seasons in 2015 and 2016, alleged Murphy, 59, called her out after she missed a day of shooting. 

‘It was kind of like I was in the dean’s office,’ she said while speaking to the Los Angeles Times. ‘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 she apologized to the television producer and thought that everything was settled between them, but days later she spoke with one of her co-stars who didn’t have as rosy an interpretation of the conflict. 

It all started when Keke had scheduled an unspecified ‘business obligation’ for what was to be a day off on her Scream Queens shooting schedule. 

However, Palmer was later told by staff members on the series – seemingly at the last minute – that she had been rescheduled to shoot on what had previously been her day off.

Instead of canceling her plans, she skipped the day of shooting and instead took care of her prior obligation, though it’s unclear if she communicated that decision with the production.

That’s when she was called up by Murphy and reprimanded.

After she apologized, Keke told a female co-star that she thought she and Murphy were ‘cool,’ but her co-star said the situation was still ‘bad,’ which Palmer thought was an attempt to scare her straight. 

The Nope star added that early on her time on Scream Queens she had hoped to become one of Murphy’s regular stars, such as Emma Roberts, Sarah Paulson, Jessica Lange and Billie Lourd.

However, after she skipped the rescheduled shooting date to focus on other obligations, she feared that Murphy had blacklisted her and would know longer cast her in other projects – though it’s unclear if the conflict between the two occurred on the first or second season of Scream Queens.

Palmer has not starred in a Murphy project since.

‘I’m still not sure Ryan cared, or got it, and that’s okay because he was just centering his business, which isn’t a problem to me,’ Palmer wrote in her book.

‘But what I do know is even if he didn’t care, and even if I never work with him again, he knows that I, too, see myself as a business.’