Club Shay Shay - Keke Palmer Part 1

Published Nov 20, 2024, 5:01 AM

In this episode of Club Shay Shay, Shannon Sharpe sits down with the incomparable Keke Palmer for a candid and uplifting conversation about her groundbreaking career and personal journey. From her childhood in Robbins, Illinois, to becoming an Emmy and NAACP Image Award-winning actress, Keke opens up about the milestones and challenges that have shaped her life.

As the youngest actress nominated for a SAG Award in a lead role, the first Black woman to star in her own Nickelodeon show, and the youngest talk show host in TV history, Keke reflects on her history-making accomplishments and shares the lessons learned along the way. She recounts her rise to fame with Akeelah and the Bee and True Jackson, VP, and how her parents’ sacrifices allowed her to pursue her dreams while staying grounded amidst the pressures of stardom.

Keke also dives into her experiences navigating fame as a child star and breadwinner for her family, her homeschooling journey, and the personal challenges of growing up in the public eye. She shares heartfelt reflections on the impact of becoming a mother, how it has deepened her appreciation for her parents, and how it influences her career choices today.

 

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I'm looking at the Disney movie Jump In twelve years old and I think, if I'm not mistaken, that was your first kiss.

Yes, I was twelve and Corbyn was seventeen.

You know, oh man, he and be in jail. Now he going to jail.

I experienced the same thing, you know, in another movie that I did, where the guy was I think he was. I was seventeen and he was like twenty seven.

You're not a more hunh.

That's what Michelle said.

I don't know.

All my life, grinding all my life, sacrifics hustle, petty Price, want to slicet to bro to dis to swap all my life, grinding all my life?

Yeah, all my life, grinding all.

My life, sacrifice hustle, petty Price, want a slice, got to bro the dis to swatch all my life. I grinding all my life.

Hello, welcome to another episode of Club Shay Shay. I am your whole shit sharp. I'm also the propride of Plug Shashay. The lady that's stopping by for conversation on the drink today really needs no introduction, but I'm gonna give her one, and it's well deserved. She was a bona fide superstar before she could even obtain the driver's permit. She's been a leading lady since she was eleven years old. She's one of Time Magazine's most influential people in the world. She's the youngest actress to receive a SAG Award for a nomination and a lead role. She's the youngest talk show host in television history. She's the first black woman to start in her own show on Nickelodeon. She's the first black and the youngest to play Cinderella on Broadway. She's the first black and she went an Outstanding Host for a Game Show at the Emmys. The first black woman to host the MTV Video Music Awards. A passionate voice for the millennial generation. A multi decade entertainer in the industry, A veteran multi talented actors, singer, songwriter, producer, director, host Dance the TV Personality Network executive boys author, oh My God Yeah podcast, the entrepreneur. She's a boss. She's an all around entertainer. She's a pop icon female, a trailblazer, trendsetter, an Emmy and an NAACP Image Award winner. She has over one hundred credits to her credit check this out. She's always booked, she's always busy, and of all the things that I mentioned, the thing that she's most proud of is that she's a mom. The one, the only, the incomparable. Kiki Palmer, Oh my gosh, stop them.

Was so lovely. Thank you, Oh my gosh, thank you for having me on the show. I love the show.

Thank you. I appreciate you.

I'm excited to be here.

And people say, well, Shanna, you love to give people the flowers. I don't give people what they deserve. I give people what they earn, and everything that I read, you've earned that. So congratulations.

I really received that. Thank you so much.

So we're gonna toast the water, okay to all the things that you're accomplishing. Will continue to complish it. Thank you for coming on.

Thank you.

Ah hell, this has been along. We met at the Webbs for the first time, and I think it was in April yep. Yeah, and we tried to like, I would love to have you on the show. She's like, I'm gonna come. I would love club and here we are. So I really appreciate it. Kiki. I understand that you're very busy, so I really appreciate your time.

That's my pleasure.

Let's get it right into it. Grew up in Robins. I think you were born in Robin's Illinois d Waders from Robin's US.

Yes.

How much do you remember about your childhood and dreaming of this, Kiki?

So I remember a tight knit community. We was always going to church every Sunday, you know what I mean. My dad had become ordained, became a deacon by the time I was like, I think eight years old. I would hear my parents talk often about how they fell in love. They did a speech tournament that took them Louisiana. That's when they first had Popeye's and then after that they kind of, you know, slowly but surely, the dreams were deferred. They did theater at the Black Ensemble Theater of Jackie Taylor shout outs to her, which is still going on the Black Ensemble Theater. But it just wasn't something that they could ultimately maintain, you know. My dad started working in fact, in a factory job. My mother was a substitute teacher for mentally challenged children. And then we would just hear of these stories and I would always think to myself that would be cool to be a part of that thing that it seemed to have made them so happy, right.

Two parent household obviously, And if I'm not mistaken, your parents you mentioned in theater, but they kind of gave up their dreams and passion to help you pursue yours after becoming a mom, and you know, the sacrifices that you have to make. Do you understand? Are you more appreciative now knowing what your parents did in order for you to become who you became.

I'm blown away by more parents and what they were able to do. And I talk about this a lot in my book in terms of you know, we talk about like the sacrifices that parents make, but I don't think we often talk about the personal sacrifices that they make in their personal discomfort. Right, there's discomfort that we live in, you know, self loathing or you know, not believing in ourselves, anxiety, depression, whatever you may have it. And those are the biggest things that I think about that my parents gave up for me to do what I want to do. And I remember this particular story where my mom, you know, we had to go do a movie I did. I got a role in a way makes Mason movie called The wool Cap. It was like my first big thing. It was in Montreal, Canada, and my mom told me later on, she said, I was so scared to go out there. I had you know, I met your father when I was nineteen. We were together, you know, every ever since then. So to leave and be separated from him and go with you to another country, especially one as different as Montreal, quarbet, you know that's French speaking totally. She said, I was so scared. But when I looked at you and I knew that you weren't afraid to do it, that made me say, well, I gotta let this go. And so it's the same for me. I found so much strength and things that I never thought that I could overcome, because hey, I got to show up on my son. And so I think that is the beautiful superpower of.

Parenthood, being a parent and seeing how it is because a lot of kids now grew up in a single family household, a single parent house. Excuse me, but the knowing that you had your mom and your dad there, what was that experience like that was all you because that's all you knew. But was it like that and Robbins with the most households had double parents.

No, it wasn't. And it's funny because me and my sister were kind of annoyed at that because our parents.

We weren't.

Because everybody else would be like, I'm going to my dad's this weekend, I'm going to my mom's and I got two birthday parties. We were like, damn, we only got my mom and Daddy always stick together. They always on the right page. You know. It was annoying to us a little bit as kids, but it definitely is something that I grew up saying, you know, realizing after the fact that that was important, just seeing them stick together. You know, I don't know if it was just the fact that they were together, or if it was the fact that they just agreed and were together. Like they maybe argued in the back, but when they showed up in front of us, they were united front.

And I would try.

Against us, and I would try to be like, well dad said, or well Mom, actually, why she's so many to you? They would never break ever, ever, ever, And so that I really admire and it showed me what it was like, you know, to have real unity.

Did you ever think about how different your life would have been had you not had the pay.

If my parents didn't uproot their lives and move, you know, drive four days and three nights to California to help me to pursue my dreams. Yeah, I don't know. But and the funny thing about it is like I don't know many parents that would do that. That was just their particular path, right. And I think even if we take the dramatics out of that exact trip and this exact thing to be keep armor my parents, ultimately what they what they did, would showed me that I had a choice, right, And I would like to believe that even if I didn't become an entertainer, if I just stayed in Chicago, we stayed in Illinois, whatever we did, they were gonna show me in multiple ways that I had options because that was something that they didn't have. And I think that's also something that I learned and realized because there was a time period when I was a teenager and I was being exposed to so much that they allowed me to be exposed to that separated us for a minute, and I kind of did that thing that you do when you're young younger. My parents just don't get it. They just don't understand. But I am whom my parents would have been had they had the opportunities that they gave me.

How much are you like your parents?

I'm just like my parents, I think in every way. So my dad, he is super funny, likes to make jokes on himself, always like to be the life of the party, encouraging people.

You know.

I think I love to be a service in that way. That's where my sense of humor comes from. I want to make people feel good, especially in these times. I've leaned more in my humor in terms of the arts, because I feel like that's what we need to laugh. My mom is very like disciplined. She's like, this is what you got to do. She's committed to what she said she's gonna do. She's going to finish it the whole way through. Also very dramatic. Honey, I will give you a scene whether I'm on stage or on stage, you know. So, I feel like I'm a lot like them. I don't know if I'm actually that different from them. I feel like I really am like them, just in another you know, age group, you know genre.

You mentioned that. If I'm not mistaken you film Barbershop, you were still you felt you came to La after you had done the barber that's right, that's right. Was that the moment that your pay realized, like, Okay, in order for her to reach her ultimate We're gonna have to uproot this family. We're gonna have to.

Go yes, And they mentioned that they would say that, I mean, after I did barber Shop. I think I also had did American Juniors, which was like Fremantle's version of American Idol for kids, right, and I got my golden ticket and I actually got to go to California. That was the first time we visited California. And my mom, I think she saw me going. You know, it's so funny. I'm not an athlete, right, but when I think about the NFL and I think about sports, it's very similar to being a child entertainer. There's a system. You got to show up. You're working for corporation. NFL is a corporation. You got to show up. You gotta do this. And I think my mom saw when I was in American Juniors, when they put me through all the different things, singing, dancing, performing, she saw that I was like ready, and I was ready to take it seriously, and so that's what made them say, well, if we wanted to have more opportunities, California may be where we need to go. And so it took some time, you know, but eventually they they agreed and we went Your.

Mom's your Yes, she's that's the only manager you've ever had.

Correct, No, I've had actually had multiple different managers, but she's always stayed. I would like to think of it as you know, my mom, you know, was a CMO. Now I'm the CMO, you know what I mean. But she started the Kiki Palmer brand and we've worked with other people very successfully, most successfully now my current managers, who are are awesome.

So let me ask you a question. Going on these auditions, obviously your mom is going on you with all these auditions, were there ever a situation where you were like nervous or you didn't feel like you gave your best effort and your mom pulled your aside to Kiki, come on that you better do this.

Yes, it was an audition for are we there yet?

Okay?

Okay, I wanted to be in that movie too bad. I was like, okay, this is ice killed. I just did the barbershop, like I got to get already there yet, and I knew when I did the audition it just wasn't right. Something wasn't right about it. It just I knew it didn't go well, and I was really sad. I remember having a conversation with my mom, and I don't know if it was right after the audition or if it was some time after that we had spoke about that, and she just said, you weren't ready. And that's something that my mom has always told me, is that timing is everything. You just weren't ready and that's okay.

You know.

It's kind of like what we say today, like let me cook. I had to keep cooking, you know what I mean, Like I need, you know, And I think that's the things, like you have so many good experiences up until you know, I was getting I got barbershop too, and then I think I got like a little you know, a pictured thing, you know, for Scholastic or whatever, and I was booking stuff and I was feeling good. But there are always those things that happened to let you know, like there's still other levels you got to grow through and learn from it. And in order to do that, you actually got to lose some right to win some and yeah, that's what I remember. That all red there yet. But then it's funny because I ended up doing a few years later, I ended up doing the long shots, and it's a funny story with the long Shots that I did with Ice q Is. Originally they gave me the part right out and then Read Durst became the director and all of a sudden they gave us a call. We've been having working on this movie for a year. They were talking about this movie with me and and he was like I don't want her, and I was like, dang, that's crazy, Like how quickly they can just move you off of a movie. So I was just like, yeah, I was kind of down about it. And then like maybe six months five months past, I said it's not working out with the girl. We need Kiki, And I was like, this is cool, crazy, but again it's one of those moments where what's for you, it's for you. And that's what I always love to think of that story, because even the director couldn't get me off that damn movie. And I probably can do better than you. You know, the NFL.

Did you like when you because like you said, you gotta take some l's in order to get the majority of the winds. Did you ever become disillusioned? Did you ever? But damn maybe this ain't for me?

Oh yeah, I definitely have. I remember after I did True Jackson VP my TV show How's About seventeen eighteen, Like, that's seventeen eighteen nineteen. It was really hard because you're kind of too old for the kid roles, but then you're also too young for the oh exactly. And I remember having a conversation with my mom and I was just like, man, this is this is tough. I don't know how I'm going to transition this over, Like, I don't know how I'm going to move past this. And she said, well, you know, we can end this now. You can take the money that you have. You can go to college, study something that you feel you know, excited about or you or you can push through this, right, you know, you can push through this period and get to the other side in your career. So it's really the conversation of stay a career person, or go to school and try to really start something new maybe or take a pause. And I stuck with my career. I think I found a lot of freedom in the digital era, you know, producing my own content. You know, shout outs to people like King Batch who really helped me in that era as well, like learning how to use it to my benefit tell my stories. But it was a really tough period and I just what it is is you just don't know what to do. You don't know where to go, what to turn, because you're kind of creating your own blueprint. And I was desperately not trying to be stuck in the same traditional system that really didn't always have a place for me.

But once you got into the movie, the television and things like that, was there ever really a thought of being anything else? I know, your mom said, well, babe, you can stop here and transition and go and do a of the collegiate thing and be a career person, or you can continue on. But it would be hard for me to believe that, because like, once I started playing football, football was it. It wasn't nothing necessarily even in of my thought. So did it even enter your thought that you could be something else other than what you were to track you on?

No? I didn't. But you know it's so funny, is at the bottom of it there is always something that is bigger than what it is on the surface. Like I love entertainment, but really I feel like I'm a social scientist. I like people. I'm curious of people. I like to tell stories of humanity. I feel like we are so alone here and I like to talk about the fact that we never want to talk about it, even though that's the one thing we could relate on and create a community out of. And so as I you know, you have to have enough experiences to have the clarity around. So that's why I love this. You know, I'm sure you have the same thing, Like you probably don't know what it is, but like there's probably a bigger reason why you love football that speaks to all the other things you do. And that's how it was for me. But I didn't know that at eighteen nineteen. And that was a part of the struggle, was that external validation of I'm an actress, I'm an entertainer, and this is who I am. But no, no, that's just one of the things I do. That's and also I don't really do it for that. I do it for something else. What is that deeper thing that I do it for? And that was the living that I've been having where I'm able to now be able to speak to it in a way that I just couldn't then I didn't have the experience.

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Before you your your family relocated to LA, obviously you doing some of the things that you were doing, and that's that community. How was it What was it like for you in school?

So, you know, at first, So in my school experience, I was from what kindergarten, preschool, kindergarten up until maybe like the fourth or fifth grade. First I went to private school and that was kind of tough, you know, because Illinois, a lot of people don't know, it is quite segregated, you know. And I grew up in a town. My town, Robbins, was like all black town. Like I mean, I went to Catholic church, and it took me years to realize that all Catholic churches wasn't full of only black folks, know what I mean. If you went to my church, were probably have thought we were Baptists, right, And so I didn't have that initial experience of what it was like to you know, kind of have that weirdness of racial discourse. And so it was weird for me a little bit. In that private school. That was a tough thing to be the only black kid in my class. So I had a different experience there than I had when I went to public school, which was a little bit more diverse. Around the time I was about seven, and there I felt like I was voted for president, you know what I'm saying. I felt like I felt like, you know what I mean, you know, felt a little bit more like I had an opportunity to kind of be myself. And I was embraced, yes, but it was short lived because I mean I started acting at nine, and then we moved to California when I was ten, and at that point I just was homeschooled. So I didn't have any real school experience, although I will say, as we all know, school, high school, the middle school, all of those dynamics play out even if you ain't in school, so I experienced them in other ways.

That's interesting because you're like you were homeschool since you were probably eleven twelve, that's right, eleven to twelve being homeschool. Do you ever miss out like man, I would it would have liked to be in first period and oh my god, things like that. Do you ever ever think about what what it could have been. You're still who you are, but still have the experience of going to school.

No, I thought about it all the time. I so desperately wanted to know what it was like to like have a fight in the hallway and I'll be like, they ring the bell and we go. And I think that's also why I love acting, because it allowed me to be things that I couldn't be, or that I wished I was, or that I hadn't had the experience of being. But yes, as a kid, that's I wanted nothing more than to know what it was like to have experiences outside of being famous, you know what I mean. I think that fame thing even made it more difficult for me to have authentic experiences because well, once you've perceived me, it's hard for me to introduce you to something new. And so that was really tough, especially when I'm trying to engage with my community that now sees me as an outsider at times because I'm, you know, seen in this privilege, right.

But when you, like you said, you introduced them. But someone's perception of you might not be who you are. But how do you change that perception of them of you? How do you get them to change that perception of you to them? Because that's what I mean. You see this all you see me as as this actress and this and this entertainer. But I'm more fascinating than that.

Yeah, I think that. For me, I try to focus less on changing their mind and more so on being objective about how I want to get my message across. My criticism is to self. My criticism isn't too trying to control or change how other people perceive me, But it's about do I feel like I got that point across? People feel it or not, that's that's up to them how they're going to perceive that. But do I feel that I've done my best, and how I want to show up for myself? Am I speaking and using language that I feel like represents me to the fullest. If I'm doing that and I feel good about that, that's really all I can go by, because you really can't control other people's perception of you, but you do have the autonomy to show up how you want to be perceived.

Gotcha, you shot a Disney pilot pilot that didn't get picked up?

Kick and Jamal?

Did you like man oh man? Who? And you? Because I'm thinking talking to you listening, You're a very confident person. You believe in Kiki okay, but when that didn't get picked up? Do what did that do to you? Mentally? You're like, damn, I just knew this was gonna be this is gonna be my big, big break.

What did I think? I want to go back to that moment and really tell you what I thought. I think I was down, and I think I was surprised because, like you said, I've always been quite confident. But it's weird because I've always had this relationship with myself where there's a voice inside my head that would say, well, hey, they I don't know what that is. I wish I could when that could describe what that is. But like when things didn't go my way, and maybe it was the encouragement of my parents, or maybe it's a relationship that I had with self growing up. You know, when you pray as a kid and stuff that's fostering also the personal conversation with yourself inside. So I don't know if I just was comfortable with that and just decided to have a positive look on things. But when I was younger, a lot of times before I hit a place where yeah, it was tough and it was hard for me to tell myself something positive. Most of the time, if a movie or a role or something else, I would say, they've made a big mistake or wow, so where am I going now? Because I know if this isn't it, God has something else for me. I don't know why that would be that way, but I just would think, well, you're not going to take away gold and give me silver. I do love silver.

Though. Then you get the role Medea's Family Reunion. Do you remember auditioning for that? And how did that role come about?

You know, it's so funny. I didn't audition for that at all. I actually had did A Kiln to B with Lionsgate, so we had already done a Qielyn to Be and they were figuring out the distribution when that movie was going to come out. In the midst of them doing that, Tyler, they had did a big screening for Keeling to Be a lions again. They were so excited about this movie, so did a big screening and one of the people that were in the screening was Tyler Perry and he was doing with these Reunion and randomly said he's doing with DCEM Reunion. You know, my family, we were huge fans. I remember before I became an entertainer, sitting up at my uncle Ronald house okay, on my Auntie Lungs. Guy was watching the play. Okay, so I'm like, oh my gosh, Tyler has called us and they were like, he wants you to come and do a table read. So we did the table read. The next thing, you know, I got the role. I'm in Atlanta shooting with Dias frem Reunion.

Wow.

That was crazy. That was crazy.

Your big break though, was really a Key Leend to Be. That was the movie that put Key Key Palmer. Okay, yeah, she legit yeah, she legit. She she is, Yeah, the kid that was doing the roles and all that. No, she's a bona fide she she's someone that's going to be wreckon, to be reckoned with, not only now but moving forward. What was that role and how did you?

Like?

I mean, you played it? Oh my gosh, you did, you did? You did the thing.

Thank you so much when I think about that movie now, I mean my mom was so like I remember we were in the room whatever, and she was like, oh, yeah, I got this new script. They want you audition if I'm about to read it. It's called a Quila to be sound like an animation. But so she I remember her. It was My mom is so dramatic, Like I'm telling you, she comes out of the room. You do this movie?

Wow?

I like, Mom plays like it's too much. It's sometimes sharing it's too much, and she's like, I'm telling you, we need to do a tape read of this as a family. So she had us all doing I mean, my dad was playing hob Vier, you know what I'm saying. I only had to play a Quila. She was playing the mama. My sister was playing doctor Lebry and we all read it and at the end we all were like, oh, I have to do this. Wow, we were all and we just felt like it was I think it's everything that we that we care about. It's about community, it's about the beauty in our community, and it's about words and language and has very spring thring, especially when you think about a young black girl being able to express herself through words and just the history of who we are as if people, how words often were kept from us. It has so many deep layers that I think we don't even have to say, we just feel intrinsically. And I just think about the scene where she says, I don't need help from a truculent, supercilious guarden, a dictatorial, truculent, supercilious gardeners like knowing that she was not only able to express herselves with those words, but also embody what they meant. It is so freeing, and then poker to the fact that that was her final word and it means beautiful, and it was the one word that she was struggling when she did not know how to accept herself in her community. But at the end, when she realized that her community was love and they were beautiful even in all of what they experienced as a grown woman mother. Now I get why that movie was so impactful, you know, and it is the gift that keeps giving.

You know how when you shot that movie, how long afterwards did people forget that your name was Kiki and call you a.

Literally? People still to this day you call me, come up to me like they'll be like, stop popping that gum. That still is the most popular thing that people do when they see me. Literally.

You mentioned Tyler Perry and you've been in the Model Family Reunion, and I've heard a lot of women says, Tyler Perry has paid me more money than anybody else in Hollywood. Hear Taraji say that. I heard a Megan Good say that. I heard a few other women say that when we talk about the pay disparage, not just from men to women, but from white women, black women. Even Viola Davis incomparable she got an egot me, she got them all, has said that the pay that she receives and no one is more accomplished in than she is. Why do you think it's so hard for Hollywood to accept a Taraji, t Key, Viola, any of them, Megan Good and see them as see their counterpart.

Because they don't have to. I mean, it's a terrible thing, but I think for me, the biggest thing that I think about in those regards is like, how can we come together and how can we do our own things? How can we show up for each other more. You know a lot of times we have these actors that come out on the front line and they're talking about this, and then no one goes to see the movie. That don't help us. You know the comments, we need a million if you really care about me not getting paid. You know what I'm saying, show up, watch the movie, show through the numbers that there's an audience for this. But it's one of those things where I feel like I'm in a place in my life and I talk about this in my book where it's like I cannot change all these systems, and I'm also I don't want to keep telling the people that are literally benefiting the least to stand out there on the front lines and lose jobs. I mean, I have so many friends and people in this industry that are losing jobs fighting for something that they aren't even directly benefiting from. That I then just want to turn around and say, let's come together. You know. I know that feels cliche, but like literally, that's what it'll take, is to come together figure out how to create a system that can continue to feed itself within our community. And that's I mean, it's not easy to do that. You know. One of the only people that I think has ever done something like that is Tyler Perry, and that's why I continue to give him his props, because it's not easy to step away from a corporation. He did the first few media movies with Lionsgate and then to decide it to do them on his own, and people said whatever they want to say, or it's not this is not there, Okay, Well, he was figuring out the numbers so that he could stand on his own and that he could do it the way that he feels it should be done. And I just feel like that we should encourage each other to do it, to try to do it that way, because you're not gonna be able to change something as it stands, right, but you can change yourself and how you work in it.

Right, I'm looking at the Disney movie Jump In twelve years old, and I think, if I'm not mistaken, that was your first kiss.

Yes, so that was.

That go with your parents.

So you know, it was actually a big thing for all of us because I was twelve and Corborn was seventeen.

You know, ah, man, he and be in jail. Now he's going to jail.

So that was very you know, weird, Yes, and he was such a brother vibe to me. Even though Corporates is adorable, it's so cute, we all love the hair, it was like, that wasn't a relationship we had. And so I remember I had had a call with my agent and I was like, you know, you know, I am I'm scared about this. This is weird. And she was like, well, you know, making good had to kiss Samuel Jackson and eaves vy you so and I was just like, huh, I should have start. Why would that make what.

I'm supposed to do with that?

Yeah, I felt like she that was weird too, you know. I mean, and I don't really know what to make of that. You know, it's like, this is our craft, this is our art. I think there's a weird thing that happens with kid entertainers where we have to literally dissociate so much. Yes, as an adulthood in the workplace in ways that's not normal or common, right, and to tell these stories and I don't really know what to make of it. But what I would say is what I've always said to my mom, is that I wish that there was more therapy for kid entertainers on on set, you know what I'm saying, Like, I wish there were more people to help them process. And you know, of course they have you know, what is it intimacy coaches and they talk things through, and I'm sure that's the experience of any of these kinds of situations, but it's still it is hard to differentiate from is this my real life experience or is this someone else? And yeah, it's it's weird. It's just like a thing, you know what I mean where you know, I experienced the same thing, you know, in another movie that I did, where the guy was I think he was. I was seventeen and he was like twenty seven.

You like a molder hunk.

That's what Michelle.

Said, Come come.

Soon.

You've been waiting for that. You've been waiting for that too soon? Oh my good.

They don't call you honky ynky for nothing.

Hair.

That is.

I did not expect, okay to scene you were seventeen, he was twenty seven. Yeah, I did.

I did.

Go ahead, pour it up.

Can't I get a glass bad? Keep it up? Oh lord?

But yes, it's like the age differences and all that stuff. It's a it's a you know, it's a thing. I just remember, you know, I got off that call. I'm thinking about a jump in and Corbyn was like talking to me, holding my hand, being a sweet person, and the kiss was like five seconds. It was that. But again, just the art of being an entertainer and being a child. It's a very difficult thing to process all the time because you're dealing with really big adult things. And yeah, you.

Know, when did you realize that, Okay, this is the job I'm acting. This is not truly what it is. How soon were you able to delineate between the two.

Well, that took some time. That took some time. I would like to say I didn't start. There would be an element of method acting. I remember I was doing joyful noise with Queen like Keifa, and she had seen me and my mom were getting ready to do this crying scene, and me and my mom would do this thing where we were talking. We would have to pull from I have to pull from, like my life or thinking about dark things about my life, because I had not had yet really enough experience to understand how to draw a correlation between me and my character. And I think that was really like a heavy way to go about getting to the emotion because it would be impossible to create delineating factors between my life and my characters. But I think as time has gotten, you know more, I've had more experiences in my life. I've been able to recognize myself with my character without thinking that I am my character, and I've been able to separate myself in other ways, you know what I mean. Like I think I moved away from California for a while that helped me. I remember when I did Broadway for the first time, right at twenty one. That was kind of like the first time that I've ever experienced a lot of time away from California, which is very much an industry bubble a lot of the time, and I experienced other worlds like, oh, everybody doesn't care about what I do. In New York. I'm like, some people are into wall streets, some people are in the fast some people in the theater. Some people are into you know, there's so many other things that people are interested in, and I think that also helped me too to understand what it means to step outside of one particular space and that I'm not what I do. This is just something that I got to do.

Is there any type of scene that, even now that Kiki would be unwilling to do? Would you do you like a nude scene or you do?

Like I say, yeah, those, I'm not I'm not into that, you know, like, you know, giving you just hey with titties out, you know what I mean? You know what I mean.

I don't.

I just don't feel I don't think I feel confident in that to really go ahead and do that. I'm not mad at a love scene, but it's like, what kind what kind of choreography are we doing?

Right?

You know what I'm saying? But you know, other than that, you know, I'm open, but yeah, I'm not into nudity.

How now that you are mom, does that play a role into it and.

To the worlds I want to take?

Yes?

And I think before I was a mom, it was my parents, my family, my community, what I want to represent, and then it's become even more my son, my my you know, what I want him to see and know. And that's not stringent and rigid, right. I think mothers and women are nuanced. They don't mean, well, I'm not doing all these rules now, But it's just like, how will I speak to him about it? Is this something that I can stand behind? Things like that?

So nickelodeon True VIP the fourth highest page child star on television? How did that role come about?

So that roll came about in the whole Little Kid's Network of acting. My mom's on the phone, somebody called her, somebody call her. There's role characters called True Jackson VP, and he can you need an audition for this? And so the creator Andy and Gordon, he was like, you know, I didn't know that she did comedy because this is kind of you know, this guy came from like just shoot me, like he's done a lot of like sick you know comedy, Oak comedy, and so he was coming to you know, kid television, which a lot of people like him were doing at that time and really making it amazing. And he was like, I didn't know, you know, I only knew her from a killing to be that was a really dramatic work. I didn't know that she had a sense of humor. So we had in lunch with him, and then I think I did. I got on tape for it, and the next thing, you know, I got the role. Wow, and I was like, oh wow. It made me think about the Disney Dang, and I was like wow. So it was gonna happen. It just wasn't time right, and it was a whirlwind, like I thought. I feel like I was popular then, you know, And a lot of times people think about a Quilling and Bee and they don't remember it in real time. Like in real time of Quilling to Be bombed, it wasn't like a movie that did good in the theaters, Like nobody really went to see it. People didn't understand it. They didn't understand the name like it did.

You know.

It was not really a success, to be honest with you. It wasn't until DVD's, you know, and people buying the movie after the fact, and people hearing about it and were getting around that it became popular. So Quilling to Be became propular over years time. Whereas True Jackson v. Pitch Honey, once that hit the air, it was up and it was stuck.

You did a premiere four point eight million views, setting a record for Nickelodeon's largest audience for a live action premiere. How did you handle that kind of success, because, like you said, you had been in the other roles, but you had never had this your lead and to have this level of success.

Yeah, I was traumatized straight up because it was just like nothing felt real anymore. And I didn't know how to say no a lot of the times because everybody wanted something from me and theyre's like this, there's this validation that they're looking for me to approve of them, or they expecting this from me, whether it be fans or even friends, even family. I didn't want to let anybody down because now they're putting me up on this hill and I don't even see myself there, but anything I do or say it can hurt their feelings. So now I don't know how to have boundaries for myself. And then I'm a kid, so I got to stay at a child's place and it was just really a lot for me to manage. And then I'm making all this money and you know, so many people are trying to take me from my parents, and I know that sounds so crazy, but it's true. You know, you have all these people that are making money off of you, and they telling you you know what's best for you, and that your parents don't know. And I remember feeling really burdened by that because I love my parents, you know, and I just felt like, well, damn, am I in trouble? You know what's going to happen to my career? It was just so stressful for me as a kid. I was really under a lot of stress.

You mentioned that there are people coming in trying to say, well, you know who, I can take you so much further than what your parents take it. Did you ever think that, damn, while my parents really holding me back, could I be bigger than what I ask?

You?

May im now.

I didn't know why I needed to be bigger. I guess I'm just thinking to myself, what what am I missing? I was happy my family we came to California for me to pursue my dreams.

I got my own show, right, so everything throught according to my honey.

My parents at their best made forty thousand dollars a year growing up. A year I was making that a show. So I was like, this is unbelievable. We're happy, We didn't come into this for money. We came into this for love, and look at what we've been blessed with. So when they were doing that, it just was confusing to me. And as a child, I just was afraid that it would all go away, because then what now we're going back to Chicago, and if I don't keep working, and if I don't listen to these people, if I don't like what happens then and so I was just very often scared. I had a lot of anxiety, and I didn't have anybody to talk to because my parents didn't understand that. And then they're also afraid because they see what's going on, and now they don't know. Now they checking me, and I'm like, I don't need to be checked. I don't like them. People were on the same page y'all, you know, but it was like we couldn't communicate, and it was a really terrible time for me.

You're making all that money, what you buy, you buy something, really, you get something, you get something crazy.

I remember the most thing I did. I used to love neda Porte, like the little website online. I used to just buy a bunch of clothes, you know, bags and stuff like that. I was just really into the fashion then, especially with the show Trough Jackson VP. Everything was just about fashion all the time. So I just remember always shopping. That was the main thing. Then I bought me a little Apple computer, you know, nothing really big, right, just little regular stuff that you know. I think, any kid, well, how much.

Access did your parents allow you to have to the money? Because we hear all these stories the child actors they have. They have these hit shows and they're making tons of money and by the time they're seventeen eighteen, they got nothing.

Yeah, so my parents got me a business manager when I was twelve, wow, And they wanted me to know that they weren't the ones controlling my money. They had heard these stories and my mom said, I don't want money to come in between me and my child. And so you know, Coogan that that Cougan account is set up because a young man I forget his full name, but I know his last name is Coog and his parents stole his money. So they made the Cougan account right within our industry to help kids have some money. It's like ten percent I think or something like that. And so that always was there, regardless of anything else. And then on top of that, you know, my parents rationing me out an allowance, but they also rationed down my older sister allowance as well, you know. And I think the thing about it is somebody could say, okay, but that was your money. Yeah, but we're a family, and everybody sacrificed for me. Where I'm at. My dad gave up his pension, Okay, he had worked at the company he worked at for over fifteen years. Gave up his pension for me to have an opportunity for my dreams. My mother, they gave up everything. She gave up everything so she could travel with me and do what she need to do with me. So how I feel about it is what's mine is theirs. What's theirs is mine, And I would do it again. I would give up and sacrifice twenty more years of my life working in this industry so that I could provide and we could have the business we had today.

You know, it's not normal that a child is the provider for the family. Normally, it's vice for parents, father, mother. Sometimes the father will.

Have a tissue.

Yeah, look at my bad, go ahead, you So normally that's that's not normal. Normally it's the father. Sometimes you have a dual parent, then both work, but as a child, you are the the provider of the family. Yes, did you realize what was on kiki shoulder?

Yes? I did, and I wore like this Marg Jacobs wrong way. I wore like an armor's O.

Can you do it? Amazing?

I would do it again for my family.

That's why you did it to begin with.

For community, And I think that is the thing. You know, life is a lonely place, it is, and when you have your family, and if you're the one, then you're the one that's it. That's the way it was. And now you know my sister could go to family and she had to worry about nothing. Okay, she got to live and do what she wanted to do. The same thing for all of us. We get to do things that we weren't able to do. And I wasn't the only person that's sacrificed. But yes, a lot of it was on me. And it's just one of those things where I feel like I could be sad, but why Look what I gained. Yes, I gained so much more than what I sacrificed.

Kiki. A lot of times when I talk to people, I said people will write down their goals what they want to accomplish in life, but very few people are willing to write down what they're willing to sacrifice to achieve those goals. You had a dream, and you wrote down your goals what you wanted to become. But you say, you know what, what I'm willing to give up. I'm willing to give up being a high school student. I'm willing to build. I'm willing to give up being a college student. I'm willing to give up what a normal seventeen, eighteen, twenty twenty two year old to accomplish those goals. Do you understand what that means? Your parents, I don't know if they've told you how proud they are of you. I don't know if your sister has ever told you how proud they are of you, but they are.

You know, my brother told me when we went to my sister's graduation, He said, the time was now, and you were the one to do it. I don't know if you know, I don't know if you realize, but you changed our lives and I was just like you know he was. I was seven when he was born. I'm a lot older than him. I never know how he's seen this or look, you know what I mean. Yes, I know my brother used to tell his friends when he you know, he was six my sisters through Jackson b p All. You know, I know that he thought of it, but he said, you know, whatever prayers that were prayed about us, whatever was done, whatever my answersts did, the moment is now you You've done it. You've changed it for the Palmers forever. And it's just like, man, it's crazy, and I think that, Look, you can look at it as I'mkiki Palmer, but I would be I think a lot of people have had this. We may not know their names, but people that's watching this, they done gave up stuff for their family. My dad and my mom, they gave up stuff for their family.

Correct.

My dad, he was accepted to UCLA, he didn't go because my grandmother needed them. My mom had an opportunity to go to school at Juliard, she didn't go because my father needed her. They decided to do certain things for the community and it was all paid back and then some. And I just that's how I truly believe in things. I believe there is no reward without sacrifice, and sometimes that's hard for people to understand and accept. But there are many nights while I was lonely and I cried and I had nobody. There was many more moments why I felt like I couldn't make it. I don't know what I'm gonna do. But then I said, you know what, I'm here for a reason and I gotta I gotta push through this. So I did.

There are a lot of prayers that was said that you even know he.

Heard, and that is facts, and I can see it in my life today when I see certain moments and things come up, or certain opportunities that I'm having, or you know, I told my mom, it's so different. There was a conversation where, you know, I would see fans when I was young, and they would say, thank you, we love this movie, we let this movie is good. It's great. But now when people come up to me, you know, they say, thank you for what you did for the community. We appreciate you. I'm like, wow, it's almost like, yeah, y'all, you see my heart. You see why I'm doing what I'm doing. I did not. I don't expect that, but when I hear that, I'm like, damn, that's crazy. It really It really touches me. It reminds me of why I'm doing what I'm doing.

You're one of the great success stories of a child actor. If there's anything that you could love young boys, young girls that want to follow in Kiki's footsteps, what's some of the advice you would give them.

You can't change the world. You know. There's a great quote that I love with Mother Teresa, and she says, no great things can be done, only small things with great love. So focus on what you can do on the inside with yourself. You know, my book Mastered Me is all about self mastery, mastery of the self. How you move in this world, how you choose to show up and perform, how you choose to identify your purpose, and how that informs the way you're going to perform, and how that leads you to your power. That's what it's about to me. So I would say to lean into you, you trust yourself, Know where it is that you feel safe haven it create a community that allows you to flourish and encourage you to be your best and then be easier yourself. Take it one day at a time. Because I didn't know the blueprint I was drawing, but I trusted and had faith that it was going to work out, and I followed my heart. I followed what made me feel good, what made me feel happy, my sense of purpose, what drew me to something from a good place, That's what allowed to lead me. And so yeah, trust yourself because you know, at the end.

Of the day, there's a viral clip that's circulating where Justin Bieber says he wished he could protect Billy Eilish Billy Eilish from the industry, but I mean, obviously he came up in the industry, extremely successful. You came up in the industry. What is it? It's because the kids are like kind of like isolated like a lot of times. I mean, I don't, like you said, your mom travel with you everywhere, but you know, I had Kal Mitchell here and I've had some others that you know, sometimes the parents are not around, and you know sometimes and kids are, they're vulnerable, they're easily taking advantage of.

Yes, I think it's everything you said, kids are easily taking advantage of. You can go all the way back to Judy Garland when they were pumping her up with drugs. So I mean it happens and even if it's not the most extreme idea, it's still traumatizing. Like I can't tell you that. I mean, I've experienced some crazy things, but I can't tell you they were done when I was a kid on set. But even still it was hard. So I just think being a child and working in an adult world. This is an adult business. There's nothing childish or kitty about showing up and working twenty hours a day. You know. I just don't think there's anything that can really prepare a child for that, because mentally they're not able to be able to understand that. And so there are some things in place, but like I said, I feel like there should be therapists, and I'm seeing an interview recently what Ravens Simone was saying that on her show they do have that. So I just think there needs to be more things implemented to protect a child from a childhood that essentially they're being stripped of because the thing about childhood is you're allowed to be a child, which means I'm allowed to cry and kick and scream, I'm allowed to have a bad attitude. You know, my son we did Halloween pictures yesterday. He kicked and scream the whole time. He can do that because he's a kid, but when people are there, because it's a business, you can't do that. You can't kick and scream. You're not allowed to be a kid. You're not allowed to say I don't want to do this. You're not allowed.

You have to be an adult as a seven, eight, twelve year.

Old you do. And that's why a lot of times people say so and SO seems so mature, They seem so what they've aged. The industry will aid you. You know, sometimes I feel fifty because the way that I had to be objective about things in order to survive the scenario. You know, it's going to make you more mature. And so, yeah, I get the statement, because you know, everybody wants people to be able to enjoy their childhood. But as a child entertainer.

You don't get to know who you get robbed at that.

No, you can't.

You have to.

There's no way to be a kid there, you just it's not fit for that.

Nickelodeon scandal. Quiet on the set your Mom's some Nickelodeon says were very well weird and cultish. Did you have any back did you experience any.

Of that, I did not. I'm very grateful to God I didn't experience anything like that. You know what I'm saying. I don't want to make it seem like always because my parents was doing more than any other parents or something like that, because I'm sure many these parents were doing their best, but my parents, they were really so strict on me, and a lot of times I feel like that's why I didn't get some opportunities or I don't eve wanna say opportunities, but why some people didn't want to work with me, or if it's not even that there was necessarily going to be something sinister going on in a in a sexual manner, but it would also be financial. You know, my mom, she would read those contracts, would say, well, this is the second year she needs a race, and they're like, okay, well she's coming. So instead of doing a third season, we'll were packed the second season so we can get three seasons and we don't have to pay her more. And so those are the kinds of things that Sharon would do that I think she was just so alert that it would scare some people off, you.

Know, and take advantage of a child.

She was serious about that. She really was. I don't remember she cursed a lot of people. A lot of people. She definitely did. I ain't raising no dummy, y'all need to make sure she gets her school. I'll never forget that's what she did on the Quilain the B set because they were it was kind of was kind of starting to overwork me, and she said, I'm opposed to set down. She ain't got no school all day, y'all, I ain't raising no fool. It don't make no sense for her to be on this set with this movie where they're talking about a little girl learned how to spell and y'all ain't gonna let her read wow. And I was, I mean, as a kid, sometimes that's something would embarrass me. Yes, it would embarrass me, but now it's like, WHOA, thank goodness. And she would tell me that, you know later on that she was scared, but she was just doing what she felt she need to do to protect me. So yeah, I feel like any of the crazy industry or hard things I went through most of the time, I brought him on myself as a young woman because as a kid, Larry and Sharon were.

Like, what are some of the best advice that men women in the industry before you have partaken shared with Kiki.

A lot of people have shared a lot of things with me. I remember I was on a set of The Long Shots with ice Cube, and I think I've told this story before, but you know, he was very cool, very chill. She didn't say too much, a man a few words, but very nice. And one day they were like, ice Cube wants to speak to you, and I'm like, okay, you know, so they called me into a room. He's like, way far distant from me and as some bodyguards, and I'm like, what were we about to talk about it? You know, He's like, I just want to tell you, Kiki, you a beautiful young lady. And I see how kind you are, how nice you are to everybody on the set. But I want you to know that you're growing into a young woman and a lot of times, the way that people see you, the way that these men see you on set, it's not the way that you see yourself. So protect yourself, be careful and don't let them take advantage of you. Know who you are and know what you have so that people can't use it against you. And I was just like, I didn't understand it because I was like fourteen at the time, and I was like, okay, you know, and I just said can I go, and he's and I walked out. That's stuck with me, and it was so important, I think, for him to say something like that to me, you know what I mean, if he's a father, he's someone who has seen a lot in this industry, especially with young entertainers. And I always remember that, and I was always so grateful to him for that. I haven't seen him since, but I would love to tell him that that really stuck with me all these years. And thank you for reminding me.

Are there any roles that you turned down that you later regretted.

I don't say that I would regret this one, but it would have kind of been cool to be in Half Nelson. I remember they had reached out to us about that. My mom was so, you know, they've always been so particular about how I represent the community. You know, they grew I grew up with them always talking about Ruby d Is Davis, you know, Muhammad Ali and just entertainers and how they use their platforms correct. And so they were like feeling bad about the fact that I would go from doing the Quila and the b to being a drug dealer, and so that's why they weren't interested in that. But you know, obviously Ryan Gosling is a great actor, and so is Shrika Epps. So it was a great movie.

Of all the movies that you've done, which movie it's Key Key Palmer most identified with MM.

That people identify me the most way, Absolutely Killing the Bee. Really, people still to this day that is the movie when they think about me. I mean, I've gone on the airplanes and people say, are you the little girl in the Key Lave? And I'm like, yeah, that's crazy that you you know that? So that's the one that I think people still think about the most. And then True Jackson VP yeah. And then now Nope, have.

You ever gotten stage fright? Have you ever gotten up there and forgot every word that you were supposed to say after knowing it back?

Wasn't that happened to me once I was doing Broadway? And you know what happens is you kind of go like blanking your mind when you're doing so many shows like that, right, because you get used to the fact that I know what I'm doing, and they rehearse you and rehearse you, and rehearse you so much that you're like, I got this, and you can actually leave your body a little bit.

Wow.

One night, I left my body doing a lovely night, a lovely night, and I was like, oh, what kind of night is it? I was like, and honey, it was the strangest thing, because you know, I'm doing my dance and everything, and so I was like, I just stayed dancing and smiling, like literally, I felt crazy. And now I look down and I see the conductor and he's like, and he's mounted it back to me, and I suddenly got back on track. Honey. I felt like I went and you know what they call it. They called it you go into the little white room. I went to the little right room, and I didn't know how I was going to recover. That was the scariest thing I ever experienced in my life.

But do you think the audience knew that you had lost your trainer? Thought?

I would love to have asked somebody. They might have thought we're choreography, you know, because I'm literally like, it was strange. I went from being like and it was just like, is she good? And they had to have thought that. But once I got back in, I got back in, and that was it. You know, it was spooky.

This concludes the first half of my conversation. Part two is also posted and you can access it to whichever podcast platform you just listened to part one on. Just simply go back to Clubha profile and I'll see you there

Club Shay Shay

NFL legend Shannon Sharpe—3x Super Bowl champion and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame—sits do 
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