Sojourner Marable Grimmett: Girl Talk with Keke Palmer: Keke Talks about Joyful Noise and Her Favorite Things

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Girl Talk with Keke Palmer: Keke Talks about Joyful Noise and Her Favorite Things

Phone Interview with Keke Palmer, Atlanta

January 12, 2012 at 5:00 pm, Duration: 6:41:01

Sojourner: Hi, Keke! How are you doing?

Keke: I’m doing great!

Sojourner: My name is Sojourner and I live in Atlanta. I work in education and am also a Mommy Blogger for Married with Two Boys.

Keke: I heard. She told me that and I thought that’s so cute. (Laughs)

Sojourner: (Laughs) Thank you!

Sojourner: Thank you so much. Well, I wanted to let you know that I had the opportunity to see the movie. I took our oldest son, Roland to see the film with me. We went on Tuesday and let me tell you we had a blast!

Keke: Oh, I’m so glad to hear that. How old is he?

Sojourner: He’s 4-years-old. Our oldest son is 4-years-old and our baby is 2-years-old. So I had a date night with our "Lil Man."

Keke: That’s so adorable.

Sojourner: I just wanted to thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak with me. Some of my readers had a couple of questions for you, so I just wanted to ask you some of those questions. Afterwards, I wanted to play a “Getting to know you game.” Is that OK?

Keke: Sure!

Sojourner: One of my readers, her name is Lashuandra. (She also happens to be one of my Sorority sisters.) She asked, "When you were younger what did your parents do to help you tap into your talents?" "How did your parents help you discover your talents?"

Keke: I grew up in the church choir. My mother always encouraged me… When I wanted to do stuff in the church choir she would make me feel like I was important. Like my role in the choir mattered. She wanted me to explore and try singing.

Sojourner: Frances wanted to know, “What was it like being on set with Queen Latifah?" I know you’ve worked with her in the past. Also, "What was it like working with Dolly Parton on the set?" Were they really funny on set? We’re there funny moments? Were you laughing a lot? Can you give us an incident that happened that was just hilarious?

Keke: We were always laughing. I’m trying to think of specific moments, but it was kind of ... just hard. OK, we would always do Angela Bassett impressions. I would do Angela Bassett impressions from “What Loves Got to Do With It.” Queen Latifah would just crack up, because there’s this line where he’s trying to feed her the cake and Angela Bassett’s friend says, “You Ain’t got to tell me but once.” I used to do that all the time and Queen would just point at me and I would do it.

Sojourner: (Laughs) That’s awesome!

Keke: (Laughs)

Sojourner: Shaunta wants to know, "If you see yourself as a role model? Do you believe that you should be viewed that way? If so, do you feel pressure at all from your fans to be a certain way?"

Keke: I don’t necessarily feel like, “Oh, I’m this role model.” But, you know I have become that through kids eyes. I appreciate it and I take upon that role. As I’ve gotten older, I look at the platform that I’ve been given and think about all of the work that I’ve done and the way that kids look at me, and look up to me. I’ve taken that on (role model) more and more. I have the Anti-bullying campaign and I’m hoping to do more things as I grow as an artist. Because that’s something the interests me. I feel like I can change world. Or change somebody's life by reaching out there.

Sojourner: That’s great! As far as changing the world. Can you talk a little bit about your Saving Our Daughters Foundation?

Keke: Yes, I work with Saving Our Daughters Foundation, which is affiliated with the YWCA. You can go to Facebook.com/SavingOurDaughters and take an oath to say that you pledge whatever you want. It could be that you pledge to help those in need who are being bullied. Or look up people in your area who are being bullied, and if you yourself are being bullied you can ask for help. I always tell people that you’re not going to be able to stop someone from saying something about you, but you can change how you react to it.

Sojourner: Thank you. Now, Donna would like to know, “If you weren’t an actress, then what profession would you be in?”

Keke: I think I would probably be a hair stylist.

Sojourner: (Smile) You know what? Your hair always looks fly. (Laughs)

Keke: (Laughs) Oh, thank you so much!

Sojourner: Do you do your own hair?

Keke: Oh, I work so hard on it. I always have to make sure that my hair looks nice.

Sojourner: It looks awesome! Do you do your own hair?

Keke: I don’t but there are sometimes when I do. You know, usually there’s a hair stylist there, so she does my hair.

Sojourner: Well it looks awesome (all the time in the movies), so I wanted to give you props for that.

Keke: Thank you!

Sojourner: Now, we're going to play a “Getting to know you” game. Girl Talk game.

Keke: OK

Sojourner: So, I’m going to say two words and you tell me which one you prefer. So you tell me which one you like best.

Keke: OK

Sojourner: For example, Football or Basketball.

Keke: Basketball

Sojourner: Chocolate or Vanilla?

Keke: Hmmm, Chocolate!

Sojourner: New York or LA?

Keke: LA

Sojourner: Mountains or Beach?

Keke: That’s a hard one.

Sojourner: (Laughs)

Keke: What type of mountains?

Sojourner: Rocky Mountains. Like where I’m from in Boulder, Colorado.

Keke: The Mountains.

Sojourner: Oh, Yeah!

Keke: (Laughs)

Sojourner: Lastly, what do you want people to get out of the film?

Keke: I want people to get hopeful. This movie shows that when you believe, when there may be nothing to believe in, that’s when the best things come out. You have to have faith. You have to know that there’s a bigger message, and that there will be a brighter day.