‘Scream Queens’ Season 2 Star Emma Roberts On What It’s Like To Be Directed By Jamie Lee Curtis

“Scream Queens” star Emma Roberts opened up about what it was like to be directed by her co-star Jamie Lee Curtis on the set of the FOX series.

Roberts, who plays Chanel Oberlin in the comedy-horror anthology, said at the EW Popfest last weekend that having Curtis direct her for an episode of the show felt “amazing.” “Because she’s obviously an amazing actress, she just knows exactly how to tell us what to do and where to stand and do all that in a way that we get right away,” said the 25-year-old actress. “And I love that. It’s hilarious.”

“She trusts us way more than everyone else, and she doesn’t tell us the same thing a hundred times — she tells us once,” said Roberts of what Curtis is like as director. “She’s very encouraging. She’s like, ‘Very funny, very funny.’ She knows to pat our egos on the back.”

Curtis, however, explained that she commends her co-stars because they do great work, not because she wants to stroke their egos.

“It’s not that, honestly,” said the 57-year-old actress, who plays Dean Cathy Munsch on the show. “We work in a vacuum. We do a TV show. It’s a comedy but there’s no response, because it’s filmed and so therefore the crew itself can’t laugh. If you do a sitcom, the goal is to get the audience to laugh in front of you, and you actually get the feeling of it. But if you do a comedy like [in a form of] a movie, it’s a vacuum — you have no response from anyone. … So I think it’s important to say to people [how well they did in a scene] … because we need the feedback [as actors].”

As reported by Deadline in September, Curtis is directing the show’s Season 2, episode 8 as part of Ryan Murphy’s Half Foundation initiative, which provides jobs, mentorships and scholarships to women, people of color and members of the LGBT community looking for a job in the entertainment industry.

Entertainment Weekly recently revealed that the episode is titled “Rapunzel, Rapunzel” and is set to air on Tuesday, Nov. 29 at 9 p.m. ET. on FOX.