Hollywood's smart money is on Chicago's Keke Palmer
PROFILE | Robbins girl, 14, sure bet for stardom with 'Longshots,' series, music
Keke Palmer is no long shot. Hollywood actually considers her a sure bet. Just ask her grandmother Mildred.
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Jasmine on the gridiron
"My grandmother knows how to brag," said the 14-year-old triple threat from south suburban Robbins who is conquering TV, movies and music. "She even has a picture of my new movie 'The Longshots' on her front door."
Palmer has been practicing for superstardom at her grandmother's house for years.
"Oh, she's a sassy old woman who always spoiled us. I'd come over to her house and not drink this powdery milk she would give me. Ick! But I would sing. My grandmother likes country songs, so she would say ' "Blue Moon." Sing me that one.'
"She also told my mother, 'This little girl is going to be a star,' " Palmer recalled.
Everyone should have been listening to Grandma Mildred.
This fall Palmer stars on a new Nickelodeon series called "True Jackson," she has a hot CD called "So Uncool," and on Friday she's in the new Ice Cube movie "The Longshots."
Of her hot career, she giggled and said, "No lie. I'm doing a lot."
Back in Chicago last weekend, she said she couldn't wait "to have some Harold's chicken. It's the one thing I need."
Otherwise, she spent the weekend "just seeing some old friends and family. I went to my grandmother's house and it was just perfect."
Life isn't perfect in "The Longshots," about a girl who joins a guys' football team. "This is the true story of a girl from Harvey, Ill., who was a national champion on an all-male team," Palmer said. "I couldn't even believe I got this script. I got to act and play football. Yeah!"
Learning to play wasn't tough. "I'm a tomboy and a girl's girl," Palmer said. "And the truth is by the time I was at the age to do all the sports stuff, I was being home schooled. So I didn't get to try out."
She worked with real football players and coaches on the film. "I just wasn't allowed to be tackled," she said. "But that doesn't mean they took it easy on me. It was actually a busy time. I was filming the movie in Louisiana all week for four months, and on the weekends I was touring with my music and flying around to different cities.
"I was really tired."
It was worth it because the film has a great message. "It says that boys and girls can do anything they want if they work hard at it. If you put in the time, you just don't know what could happen to you.
"The film also says that by being courageous you inspire others," she says.
On the Nickelodeon series, debuting in November, "I play a 15-year-old who gets a vice president's job at a huge fashion company," she said. "I get to wear all kinds of cool clothes, which is really awesome."
Asked about her favorite fashion statements, she says, "Oh, I got to wear a Marc Jacobs dress -- red at the top, beige at the bottom. With some designer jeans. It was gorgeous. Then I had on this other thing and I don't even know who did it. It was this beautiful black poufy dress. I was like, 'Man, I wish I had this dress in my closet.'
"They don't let you take the stuff home," she said with a wince. "I just wish they did."
Then again, her wishes have mostly come true.
Palmer began her career at age 9 with a blip of a role as Queen Latifah's niece in the Chicago-made "Barbershop 2: Back in Business."
That role was enough to send Keke and her family packing and moving to California. Six weeks later, she had a role on "Cold Case," nabbed a national Kmart commercial and was handpicked from hundreds of girls to play opposite William H. Macy in the Emmy-nominated TV movie "The Wool Cap." The role earned Palmer an NAACP Image Award and a Screen Actors Guild nomination. Guest roles on "ER" and "Law & Order" followed.
"We didn't plan to stay in California but went for a week. Three major agencies wanted me," she marveled. "So my family thought we should really give it a try."
After moving in with her father's brother, she nabbed all that work. "I couldn't believe it was all happening. My mom kept telling me, 'This is not normal,' " she says. "She told me, 'I don't want all of this to stop and for you to be all upset and depressed. I want you to be grateful for what you have now.
"I was like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, Mom,' " she recalls. "But my mom was right. I met girls who had been in California for four years and didn't get one thing."
Palmer made a big splash with the sleeper hit "Akeelah and the Bee." She also starred in the Disney Channel movie "Jump In!," which reached 8. 2 million viewers. Palmer cut two tracks for the hit soundtrack.
What's next? Palmer has it all mapped out.
"I love Will Smith and Jodie Foster. But mostly I want to be like Will. You know how international he is. Everybody knows him," she marveled. "Any city, any state, any town people know Will.
"I want people to know me like that."
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