Actress Keke Palmer said her time in Tinseltown is coming to an end.
The 30-year-old Akeelah and the Bee star and game show host, who has been in front of the screen since she was 9, said she feels in her soul that there is an expiration date on her tenure in Hollywood.
“I think the timer has started,” she bluntly stated in an interview with Teen Vogue. “I think [I haven’t retired] because I just haven’t felt it yet. But the timer … I know that it’s around the corner.”
Palmer, who made her big screen debut in Barbershop 2: Back in Business in 2004, did not specify precisely what precipitated her current mode of thinking. It is widely known, however, that Palmer is currently embroiled in a custody battle with the father of her child, Darius Jackson, whom she also took out a temporary restraining order against.
The former Nickelodeon star aspires to leave behind a legacy that will be inspirational to her successors in the industry. She did, in fact, make Emmy history as the first Black woman to ever win Outstanding Host for a Game Show for “Password.” She was also the first female to accomplish this feat in 15 years.
“The main thing I want those legacies to be is [a call] to use your power for good, to use what you have to create spaces and systems for other people to thrive,” she explained. Palmer added, “I just don’t believe in holding everything. I don’t believe in gatekeeping. I’m not a coward.”
The Nope and Pimp actress touched upon her son, Leodis “Leo” Andrellton Jackson, who turns 1 in February. She wants to inspire him to be ceaselessly curious about life and to love himself.
“I want to raise him to know that if life is a school, get out there and learn,” she noted. “A part of learning in this place, I think, is to love and to know how to first be unconditionally loving to yourself, so that you know how to love others and be of service to others in a way that doesn’t disadvantage them but instead empowers them.”
