Best friends and roommates Dreux (Keke Palmer) and Alyssa (SZA) are about to have One of Them Days. When they discover Alyssa’s boyfriend has blown their rent money, the duo finds themselves going to extremes in a comical race against the clock to avoid eviction and keep their friendship intact.
As the new comedy film hits Australian cinemas on March 6, Nick L’Barrow spoke with the film’s star and executive producer, Keke Palmer, about creating comedic chemistry with SZA, bringing her own life experience to her character, and why watching movies in the cinema is important.
Nick: Keke, it’s such a pleasure to talk with you! How are you?
Keke Palmer: I’m good! How are you?
Nick: I’m doing so well and thank you for taking the time to chat. This movie is so much fun, and one of the aspects I enjoyed the most was the comedic chemistry between yourself and SZA. You’re both musical artists, and with both music and comedy, it’s all about timing and finding a rhythm with the people you’re performing with. I’m curious to know if you’re thinking about those similarities when you’re finding the comedic timing and rhythm with someone like SZA?
Keke Palmer: I feel like all acting is rhythmic! A lot of people always think about that with comedy, because it is so crucial. But even with drama, I’m always trying to find the tempo in what we’re trying to rise to emotionally, while also staying truthful to how I feel.
But I think with SZA, I wonder if she thought about that herself, because she’s obviously an amazing singer and songwriter, and very much always in her own tempo and beat. I feel like we so perfectly found our way to dance together. It felt very much like a match made in heaven from the moment we did the first scene together.
Nick: And you can feel that very much so on screen. I also loved how grounded these characters feel in the chaotic nature of the story. There is such a hustle to Dreux as a character. She does everything she needs to do to get by. I’m curious to know how much of your own journey as a performer, the hard work and the grind you had to go through yourself, that you were able to bring to Dreux?
Keke Palmer: Oh my gosh, so much of it! Especially in that scene where she’s doing her interview with the corporate people. I’ve felt that way so many times where I’m talking to an executive or a brand and I’m like, “I’ve done everything in this damn industry! Just give me a chance to make it to that next level!”
I think for her [Dreux], it’s waiting tables, and for me, it’s being a performer. And I’ll always be a performer, and I love to be a performer. But there are levels to our industry. It’s just as corporate as any other industry. You do want to get to the point of being able to run your own company, or be an executive, or be a producer, or a director, you know?
Nick: I love the fact that this is getting a cinema release in Australia, and deservedly so! The idea of sitting in a cinema full of people and just getting that communal feeling of happiness through laughter is amazing. Is there a moment in your life that stick out to you where you got to experience that communal feeling in a movie and just laughed with everyone in there?
Keke Palmer: I mean, there’s been so many times in my life, whether it was Mean Girls, or Twilight, or even Wicked, where it’s like an emotional feeling in the theatre, where people are just responding to each other. I feel like that’s what I love the most about going to the movies. And I think absolutely after COVID, things have changed. People either don’t want to go to the movies, or they just don’t want to laugh with you.
What I’ve always loved about the movies is the fact that, man, none of us know each other, but we all up in here together. We’re laughing and reacting to the same thing.
Nick: Right? Movies can be such a powerful experience! Keke, I’ll close on this, and I think the power of film, the power of storytelling, and the power of comedy, can feel so unique, but universal at the same time. When you’re telling a story that is meaningful and specific to you, do you also think about how it will reach and touch a more broad, universal audience?
Keke Palmer: Yeah, I think it’s important to me that whatever I’m trying to tell, however specific it may be, that it can be understood by somebody that has never experienced it before. That’s not always going to happen, but it can at least be something that people want to get a view or a piece of new insight into.
Because, yeah, there’s no way that everybody has come from the same world or have had the same experiences, but as long as we can figure out a way through art to at least translate the universal theme, that’s all we can do. I think that we have the opportunity to make some deep connections and revelations that we don’t expect to.
Thank you so much to Keke for her time, and to Sony Pictures for organising the interview. One of Them Days is in Australian cinemas from March 6.
