Keke Palmer might admit to a few nerves ahead of her presenter duty at tonight’s SAG Awards, but the actress looked nothing less than confident when she showed up in one of her best red carpet ensembles of the year. (“Presenting is a little spooky, but I’m doing it with Colman Domingo,” Palmer said during a red carpet interview. “He’s a friend.”) Wearing a black velvet Chanel gown with matching opera gloves and gold detailing along the bodice, Palmer styled her hair in a striking orange bob paired with Brilliant Earth jewelry and a red lip.
Palmer is fresh off winning entertainer of the year at the NAACP Image Awards last night. She also just celebrated the release of her critically acclaimed movie, One of Them Days, and her memoir, Master of Me. Last month, Palmer spoke to The Cut about her history in the industry, detailing her thoughts on child stardom. Palmer rose to fame as a Nickelodeon star, playing the lead role on True Jackson, VP.
“Sure, the child-star industry is inherently exploitative. But everything is inherently exploitative,” she said. “Everything is a problem, and everything is hurting somebody else. No disrespect to anybody else, because everyone else’s experience is valid. But I don’t want to group my experiences with theirs because that’s not how I think. And I think that’s a big part of how I’ve survived.”
She later explained she is the type of person who takes the hard moments in her life and “pull[s] the message out of it, to alchemize in real time [to something digestible]. Everything can be beautiful, and I wish it could be. That’s a part of who I am, and that’s what makes me an artist.”
When she looks back at her character True, Palmer sees a reflection of herself. “She was climbing a corporate ladder, working a grown-up job as a kid,” Palmer said. “I felt the same way. She was making it happen for herself independently in the world. Growing up with that character—it bled over into how I wanted to show up, how I want to deal with life.”
