Where do you get your confidence from? There’s been a lot on social media about how “Keke Palmer seems to be immune from social anxiety.” Why do you think this is?
I’ve been seeing that! I think it’s so funny because honestly, I do have social anxiety. My social anxiety, I learned over the years, my defence mechanism, was to just be very flamboyant and performative, so to speak. And it’s worked in terms of my career because I am a performer, but that is my version of survival. It’s just like, well, let’s just fill the space with noise! You know what I mean? That’s my version of it. So we all get anxious and get weird and awkward, but I think that I learned to lean in because that’s the only thing that I know to do. In my version of being a human that’s how I survive the situation is lean in and make fun of myself and try to have fun with it, and then it’s over…I just feel like the only way to deal with it is what could you do? Am I going to just blow up and implode at that moment? So I just have to figure out a way to find my way through so I try to make jokes and talk about the ridiculousness of the situations that we’re in and make fun and try to laugh and make things easier for myself and the people that are experiencing it with me.
You recently wore Jamie Lee Curtis’ vintage Chanel dress to the SAG Awards and looked absolutely incredible. Can you tell us how that came about?
Keke Palmer attending the SAG Awards in 2025 and Jamie Lee Curtis in 1986Getty Images
I had no idea that she had worn it!… but what a treat that she had worn it. It was just a beautiful dress that Molly Dickinson, the stylist that I worked with on that piece, we immediately loved it, we were obsessed with it. And next thing you know, when they were doing the write-ups on it, somebody pulled that Jamie had worn it. And Jamie has been someone that’s been very encouraging to me in my life. I have an actual personal relationship with her since we did Scream Queens together. So for me, it was even that much more better that she had actually worn it as well, because that’s my girl.
And she was there on the night, right?
She was, and I didn’t even get a chance to see her, which was insane. But I had just saw her, we had done a retreat or something a few months back, so we had reconnected then and seen her. And when I had my son, she sent him so many books. And anytime that we see one another, it’s literally we’re back on that Scream Queen set. I mean, she was like a aunt to me when I was working on that. Very much just embracing me, seeing me, supporting me, encouraging me. A great person. I think I was 21, 22, so it’s also the growing pains of being a young woman, with my career, finding my place in the show on the cast and all of that stuff was very much so just like a smart business woman and just amazing. I can’t wait till we get a chance to work together again.
One of Them Days is in cinemas nationwide on 7 March