Jenifer Lewis Is Surviving & Telling It All

Jenifer Lewis is bringing big energy, big laughs, and wild stories only she can tell. Keke sits down with the Mother of Black Hollywood to talk about her near-fatal Serengeti fall, the recovery that brought back her high kick, surviving addiction, living with bipolar disorder, memories of Whitney Houston, four engagements, activism, and collaborating with Keke on the Audible series, “The Weddings of Lady Miss Jacqueline.” It’s comedy, truth, resilience, and survival, Jenifer Lewis style. Content warning: This episode includes discussion of sexual abuse, addiction, mental health, trauma, and recovery. Please take care while watching. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Keke Palmer?

  Before we get into anything, we have to be clear about who is sitting in this chair. Jennifer Lewis has appeared in over 250 television episodes and more than 60 films. Broadway, Disney, voiceover royalty, two bestselling memoirs, decades of activism. She's played everybody's mama, everybody's auntie, everybody's matriarch, and somehow still managed to be the loudest and most honest person in the room. They call her "the mother of black Hollywood", and that's not a title you win, that's a title you earn. Baby, this is Keke Palmer.

• 1:07Keke Palmer?

  Guys, I'm so excited. She needs no introduction. I love her, I admire her, I wanna be her, who doesn't? It is the Jennifer Lewis.

• 1:18Speaker 01

  My gosh! Kiki, child, you are little mini me. Everybody knows Kiki is a little mini me.

• 1:24Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh, you remember when we did Madea Family Reunion together?

• 1:27Speaker 01

  Oh my god, Madea Family Reunion. Is that the one where I fell in the grave?

• 1:31Keke Palmer?

  Is that the one you fell in the grave? I know that you were the wedding planner.

• 1:34Speaker 01

  The wedding planner, but I fell in the grave in Meet the Browns.

• 1:37Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 1:37Speaker 01

  Tyler Perry.

• 1:38Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh.

• 1:38Speaker 01

  You know Tyler had just started doing those 100 episodes a day, and he was exhausted. No, he was exhausted, and I went over to him, he was in his director's chair. I said, "Tyler, Tyler, can I fall in the grave?" He said, "Listen..."

• 1:55Speaker 01

  He said, "Listen, just dig her a hole. I'm too tired to go back and forth with Jennifer." "Dig her a hole," and he went to bed. He came back, I'd fell in that bitch.

• 2:05Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh, I would never forget watching you on that set. I'd already loved you, seeing you in so many movies. I mean, whether it was...

• 2:12Speaker 01

  Well, tell them when we first really, really saw each other. I'm getting on an elevator going up, she's getting off an elevator. I don't know what premiere or something it was. And she got off the elevator and saw me, she went

• 2:26Speaker 01

  and ran, and thank God I was young then. You jumped up, your head went right here, and both of your little legs went around my waistline, that's when I had a waistline. Girl, and you just went on and on about, you know, Fresh Prince, whatever you'd seen me on. It was just adorable.

• 2:45Keke Palmer?

  Everything, because you know I've always loved you. And also, that's what I'm telling you, when we did Medias from a reunion, I didn't have a lot of stuff with you, but I would see you and I would watch you, and I was always watching and observing all of you guys, watching Tyler and seeing... So then when I would see you guys later in the years, after all that time had gone by and I'd been growing up, and I had that energy because you guys showed me something. You know what I mean? I got to see a front page, front, you know, seat of how incredible you are.

• 3:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, you did, yeah, you did. We were all out there too. We were all out there doing everything. I was so excited to be in show business and there was no job I wouldn't take. You know, you guys have a choice. We had to take the jobs that were offered. There wasn't a lot going around. But I was there in line with that it factor, honey. Snatching.

• 3:33Keke Palmer?

  Come on, Jackie's back.

• 3:34Speaker 01

  Snatching the gifts. Jackie's back. You know, girl, uh-uh.

• 3:39Speaker 01

  Jackie's back.

• 3:40Keke Palmer?

  And that leg, Jackie's back with that leg.

• 3:42Speaker 01

  The high kicks.

• 3:43Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh, it's insane.

• 3:44Speaker 01

  Girl, that was a scene that was cut. Robert Townsend cut that scene because we had a better scene, but...

• 3:51Speaker 01

  Oh my god. There was one day where I had to do the round, used to call it a roundhouse kick.

• 3:57Keke Palmer?

  That's so amazing.

• 3:58Speaker 01

  Bop da da da, bop da da, and that's my foot kicking my face. Bop da da, bop, bop, bop. So the next day when I had to do it, my leg was actually sore.

• 4:09Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 4:09Speaker 01

  Now, you gotta understand, I was very young then, and I didn't get sore, but after all them bop da da da, bop, bop, bop, it was over.

• 4:15Keke Palmer?

  I love bop da da da.

• 4:16Speaker 01

  And that scene in Jackie's, Jackie's back where I said, "I'm gonna show those bastards I can still..." My leg was so, that was so real.

• 4:24Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh.

• 4:25Speaker 01

  My leg was so sore. Now Jackie's back, we never knew that that...

• 4:29Keke Palmer?

  Shout out to Robert Townsend.

• 4:30Speaker 01

  Oh, oh, Robert Townsend, mm, you know, we had one date, he was a fool, he should have come in the house. "I don't know, honey, God had taken him down," because you know, I heard he was like, you know, mm. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, he was divorced, and we went out on one little date, and he didn't come in, I felt sorry for him, honey, because you know, I was Jennifer Lewis, but you know, I was scary. I didn't blame him.

• 4:53Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh, the guys are so intimidated when that energy is...

• 4:57Speaker 01

  God, you know, child, please, who go, who, who on earth can, uh, sleep with me? That's not gonna happen, it's not gonna be any sleeping anyway. I just want you to know, this is the most uncomfortable chair I've ever slept in.

• 5:11Keke Palmer?

  I done seen you go through so many moons.

• 5:13Speaker 01

  I know, start over, all the way over. Let me see, which, see here, it's the black thing showing. Uh-uh, y'all are keeping up.

• 5:21Keke Palmer?

  And you know, you didn't want to do my pre-show pull-up questions, so we're gonna ask them to lie.

• 5:25Speaker 01

  Go ahead.

• 5:25Keke Palmer?

  Let's get it to it. Okay, so, your sun sign is an Aquarius, this is absolutely fitting.

• 5:30Speaker 01

  When the moon is in the seventh house.

• 5:36Keke Palmer?

  Come on, Excensix.

• 5:37Speaker 01

  The age of Aquarius, honey.

• 5:39Keke Palmer?

  And I feel that you feel very Aquarius, you do, right? You resonate with that sign?

• 5:42Speaker 01

  The only thing I know about Aquarians... Is, um, we're humanitarians.

• 5:47Keke Palmer?

  Highly intelligent.

• 5:48Speaker 01

  And loyal.

• 5:49Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 5:50Speaker 01

  But you know, I never got into the, what do you call them?

• 5:52Keke Palmer?

  The signs, the zodiacs.

• 5:53Speaker 01

  The signs, everything, you know, I was every sign. They said, what's your rising? I'm like, bitch, I am the sun. I am the sun rising, I am the moon rising. Somebody said, oh, well, such and so lives on the ocean, but I need a boat. I said, bitch, I am the ocean. You know, you got to say I am in these things.

• 6:11Keke Palmer?

  You do.

• 6:11Speaker 01

  And I have no arrogance behind it.

• 6:13Keke Palmer?

  Without a doubt, and it's funny because your moon is Aries and your rising is Sagittarius. By the way, my moon is Sagittarius.

• 6:19Speaker 01

  Come on, moon!

• 6:20Keke Palmer?

  You know, so we have some connections here.

• 6:22Speaker 01

  Living.

• 6:23Keke Palmer?

  What are you most grateful for?

• 6:26Speaker 01

  What am I most, most grateful?

• 6:28Keke Palmer?

  What are you most grateful about today?

• 6:29Speaker 01

  Health.

• 6:30Keke Palmer?

  Amen to that.

• 6:31Speaker 01

  You, you, you, listen, without health.

• 6:33Keke Palmer?

  It's wealth.

• 6:33Speaker 01

  You know, I have it in my trust. If something happens to me.

• 6:36Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 6:38Speaker 01

  If after two weeks. I'm not smiling. Pull that plug. I don't want to be here if I ain't laughing. That, you gotta laugh at this baby.

• 6:50Keke Palmer?

  You do.

• 6:51Speaker 01

  You gotta laugh at what's going on in this world. You gotta find your, your nest in grace, and that grace is nature. You know, people, I, I, I think the greatest sin is boredom. Bitch, there's a tree over there! You know, people joke about that tree story I have about that man, one of my fiancees, who looked at me, we were in the car. And I saw a beautiful tree that bloomed the color pink, it was gorgeous.

• 7:25Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh.

• 7:26Speaker 01

  And I said, oh my god, that's a beautiful tree. And he said.

• 7:33Speaker 01

  You say that about every tree.

• 7:35Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 7:36Speaker 01

  The was over instantly.

• 7:38Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 7:38Speaker 01

  And everybody come out, oh, Jennifer Lewis broke off an engagement because of the tree. Bitch, you know that had to build.

• 7:44Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, it had to do.

• 7:45Speaker 01

  There had to be little things that keep.

• 7:46Keke Palmer?

  And it's representative.

• 7:47Speaker 01

  Eating at your joy and eating at your joy. I'm like, honey, I'm writing a book titled Walking in My Joy. You don't belong here.

• 7:56Keke Palmer?

  You're talking about your fiance.

• 7:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, girl, look.

• 7:59Keke Palmer?

  What's a relationship non-negotiable for you?

• 8:02Speaker 01

  Girl, nothing is non-negotiable with me. I don't negotiate. You come in, you tell the truth, you be nice and have a good time. Or go the [bleep] home. Life's too short. I'm sixty-nine, I got, what? Thirty summers left? Go [bleep] yourself. You don't get that? Nobody gets that kind of time from me.

• 8:24Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 8:25Speaker 01

  This belongs to the next generation, bitch. I conquered a dream. I came from nothing. I ate dirt. Do you understand? I have lived the spectrum. I've been poor and I've been rich. Rich is better.

• 8:43Speaker 01

  Don't ask me for no money. Okay, don't ask me for no money. Anyway, no, but in truth, in truth.

• 8:51Speaker 01

  You know, oh, God. No. I am not in a relationship with, with a man. And somebody, ooh, girl, somebody did some [bleep] on the internet. Ooh, that [bleep] ripped me. I ain't never been ripped. I'm like, bitch, I'm trying to save your life. But wait a minute, he went off. He said, wait a minute.

• 9:12Keke Palmer?

  It's the new, it's the con dude you're talking about?

• 9:15Speaker 01

  Oh, no, that con all the time, that's a whole thing. Girl, I should just come on here and done the one woman show for you.

• 9:20Keke Palmer?

  Period.

• 9:21Speaker 01

  I don't even know why I'm sitting here talking [bleep]. Here's the thing.

• 9:24Keke Palmer?

  Cause I want the whole tea.

• 9:25Speaker 01

  Oh, yes, no, now I'm not.

• 9:26Keke Palmer?

  It's a sip tea.

• 9:27Speaker 01

  Do you wanna talk about, let's talk about that fiance first. I want y'all to know, I didn't break off a relationship because, um...

• 9:35Keke Palmer?

  Of trees.

• 9:36Speaker 01

  He said one thing bad about nature. But truly with me, that's, you get one shot to insult nature, bitch. The [bleep] trees give us the oxygen to breathe. What is wrong with you? First of all, I'm Jennifer [bleep].

• 9:52Keke Palmer?

  He was just too negative, though. I actually really relate to this.

• 9:55Speaker 01

  He was very negative.

• 9:56Keke Palmer?

  Because it sounds silly, but when you think about it, like, [bleep], I can't talk about the tree being beautiful and blooming?

• 10:00Speaker 01

  It's hard for people who are not joyful to be joyful. That whole thing, that adage where they say, uh, misery loves company. People don't know what to do with joy.

• 10:11Keke Palmer?

  No.

• 10:12Speaker 01

  And they certainly don't know what to do with bliss.

• 10:18Speaker 01

  See, when you've done, yeah, when you've done, when you've done more the kind of work I've done, girl.

• 10:24Keke Palmer?

  Mm-hmm.

• 10:24Speaker 01

  I went and treated bipolar disorder. I went and took care of myself. I did the work because I wanted to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

• 10:34Keke Palmer?

  Amen.

• 10:34Speaker 01

  I have the it factor, Kiki. So do you.

• 10:37Keke Palmer?

  Ah, you really have it.

• 10:37Speaker 01

  You don't throw that away. Do you know how many of us have killed ourselves because we couldn't handle it? In this business? Come on now, run with me, baby.

• 10:47Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, I'm right, I'm right beside you.

• 10:48Speaker 01

  We don't, we don't need to name them.

• 10:50Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, no.

• 10:50Speaker 01

  We don't need to name them.

• 10:51Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 10:52Speaker 01

  I didn't wanna kill myself, cuz I was bipolar. And so manic.

• 10:58Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 10:58Speaker 01

  No, I'm not gonna kill myself. Are you insane?

• 11:01Keke Palmer?

  How did you even discover that you were bipolar? Like, what, what, what let you know that, like, maybe there's something going on?

• 11:06Speaker 01

  No, I had a nervous breakdown.

• 11:08Keke Palmer?

  You did?

• 11:09Speaker 01

  I went down after all the deaths, uh, from AIDS.

• 11:13Keke Palmer?

  Oh.

• 11:14Speaker 01

  The AIDS epidemic.

• 11:15Keke Palmer?

  This is in the?

• 11:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, oh, this is early ninety.

• 11:19Keke Palmer?

  Early nineties.

• 11:19Speaker 01

  Right at the height of it.

• 11:21Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my goodness.

• 11:21Speaker 01

  Eighty-nine, ninety. I'd known two hundred people that died.

• 11:24Keke Palmer?

  Oh.

• 11:25Speaker 01

  And when I tell you they died like flies, they dropped like flies. I mean, you'd come home and three would be dead. You'd come home, five would be dead on the phone machine. It was, it was a time. It, it, it didn't make sense because we were too young to experience that kind of death. You, you can deal with that when you're wiser and older and your older friends are dying, but that young, we went our twenties, for God's sake. All the boys in the Broadway shows, you know, everybody was gay. We were all carrying on and

• 11:51Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 11:51Speaker 01

  acting out. And here's the thing.

• 11:55Speaker 01

  I, um, yeah, I had a nervous breakdown and, um,

• 11:58Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my goodness.

• 11:59Speaker 01

  A girlfriend whom I respected, looked at me and said, "What's wrong with you, Jennifer?" I'm like, "Bitch, I'm Jennifer Lewis. Nothing wrong with me."

• 12:06Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 12:07Speaker 01

  She said, "Jen, you might need help."

• 12:13Speaker 01

  So yeah, but I went in kicking and screaming because I admired her. And you listen to people you respect.

• 12:20Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 12:21Speaker 01

  But when you're in that manic state, you ain't listening to nobody. You just wanna be high. You wanna be, you wanna be seen.

• 12:30Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 12:30Speaker 01

  It's a, there's a desperation attached to that neediness.

• 12:35Keke Palmer?

  Mm-hmm.

• 12:36Speaker 01

  So anyway, no, I went in and, and got treatment.

• 12:39Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 12:39Speaker 01

  And I'm doing pretty damn good right now. I'm Kiki.

• 12:42Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 12:43Speaker 01

  If you do the work, cuz it doesn't matter what you are. It will always come down to who you are.

• 12:50Keke Palmer?

  What did you find that really helped you? Because obviously, a lot of times when people are dealing with disorders, bipolar and things of the mind, you might get on a medication and it might take everything away.

• 13:00Speaker 01

  No, you, you have to monitor it. You have to be willing. First of all, you have to want to be well.

• 13:06Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 13:06Speaker 01

  You can't go, oh, this is hurting me. Well, if it's hurting, go and get it managed. Like when I started medication, I, I got dry mouth.

• 13:14Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 13:14Speaker 01

  And I was like, oh, what the is that? I went to the dentist and he said, you know, he said, did you just take a new medication? I said, yeah. He said, well, this is one of the side effects. He said, so lower the milligrams.

• 13:26Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, you gotta get.

• 13:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, you gotta wait for your levels. Every human body is different. But the thing is, is people don't have the patience. They're like, oh, I don't like the way this makes me feel. Okay, well, then if you wanna speed in a car and around and kill somebody on the freeway, I think it's worth taking a little time to manage these meds. If meds is what you, the way you wanna go. I never promote that. I promote treatment. Go and talk to somebody. If somebody touched you, somebody molested you, and, and you're not saying anything about it. This is all in my one woman show.

• 13:59Keke Palmer?

  I was gonna say, this is something that you also talked about, what you went through with your pastor growing up.

• 14:03Speaker 01

  Oh, yes, I was molested.

• 14:04Keke Palmer?

  Which is a horrible.

• 14:05Speaker 01

  Oh, no, girl, I was molested. Please, I was molested by the pastor of my church. And I confronted him. After, I think about seven months in therapy, I was able to make that call.

• 14:16Keke Palmer?

  So how old were you when this happened?

• 14:18Speaker 01

  I was like thirteen.

• 14:20Keke Palmer?

  Wow.

• 14:20Speaker 01

  And he pulled over the car and, ooh, tried to kiss me and touch me. I was like, oh. But, you know, yeah, I pushed that back, honey. I was like, not today, bitch. Not me. Uh, but anyway, no, it's real, girl. I was like.

• 14:36Speaker 01

  And Yeah, but you know

• 14:41Speaker 01

  It doesn't matter How it happens, it matters that it happens.

• 14:45Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 14:46Speaker 01

  And you are Pretty much damaged by it for the rest of your life. Unless You get some help. But I say to women out there, the first thing is you've got to tell Somebody.

• 14:57Keke Palmer?

  Mm-hmm.

• 14:58Speaker 01

  And if they don't listen, tell somebody else and Guess what, if they don't listen Tell somebody else. You take care of you. I always tell people, take care of yourself first.

• 15:10Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 15:10Speaker 01

  Then you can give back to the world.

• 15:12Keke Palmer?

  What's a question that no one's ever asked you in an interview or that a question that you wish people would ask you?

• 15:17Speaker 01

  They've asked me everything. Cause I have no, I have no secrets.

• 15:20Keke Palmer?

  Oh.

• 15:21Speaker 01

  I have, there's no shame in my game. I, I um I talk about everything in my memoir, The Mother Black Hollywood, everything from My addictions to molestation, abortions, childhood abuse. There's no shame in my game. Yeah, bitch, it happened. You know, I slept with 63 men. Now that was fabulous.

• 15:40Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh, give me some of that.

• 15:42Speaker 01

  No, you don't want that. You know what I wish I had known? I wish I'd known my body was a temple. I didn't know it. I know it now. And um

• 15:52Keke Palmer?

  What lets you know that maybe, oh, this is a problem?

• 15:55Speaker 01

  I'm listening. Oh, no, I never knew it was a problem. I thought everybody was

• 16:01Speaker 01

  Titties and hips for my book. But anyway, yeah. No, no, no, I didn't know it was a problem. The addiction. Look, when you get off a Broadway stage and all that ovations and applause and people praising you and the Morbitch and the homage. Yeah, what are you gonna do? You're gonna either go stick something in your arm, you're gonna go smoke something, you're gonna drink something to come down from that high. So I used to just go find a gorgeous man and What are you gonna do? Hey. I mean, that's all I, that's what I did. I would have sex. Sex was the drug. And um

• 16:42Speaker 01

  It wasn't until everybody, when life got real,

• 16:48Speaker 01

  and the AIDS epidemic hit, where I went, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. There's got to be more to life than just me clawing at the void of who am I and what am I?"

• 17:03Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 17:04Speaker 01

  Let's, let's, how about we go find out, Jenny? Let's go find out who you are. Let's go find out where you belong. Let's go find out why you came here. Let's go find out who you can help. Let's go find out who you love. Let's go find out what love is. Let's go do the work.

• 17:22Keke Palmer?

  And how did you do, how did you, what did that look like for you? Because that, I feel like we're all clawing at that, especially now in this time. And you speak so much about how, you know, political, democracy, all these kinds of things that are actually really a part of, I think, why we all feel so alienated. We all are feeling just like, you know, there's no system we can trust. The institutions that are here, we are no longer trusting and we're questioning. And it's making us all feel completely uncertain. And so those human questions, those existential questions have become even more paramount because we are slipping into apathy. So how do you decide, like, how do you get to, to know that you can be the person that goes out there and author this yourself?

• 18:06Speaker 01

  Listen, I may get a lot of flack for this response, but, you know, I don't care. I'm gonna be 70 years old next year. I don't care what nobody thinks about me. I give everything I have. Here's what I say to all that is going on.

• 18:31Keke Palmer?

  Okay, so the road trip is happening, all right? The snacks are packed. Somebody already has the playlist ready. And you already know the music is about to be popping, okay? And the kids have been asking, "Are we there yet?" Since before we left the driveway. As someone who travels by car frequently with her child, I know what will make or break that trip is what you pull up to at the end. Because after me and Leo have been in that car for six hours, baby, we are not trying to arrive at just anything. We want to walk into a home. And that's exactly why I like booking stays on Airbnb. When you get to a place that actually feels like somewhere you can live, the whole energy shifts. Now we have a space to spread out, a kitchen where I can throw something together if I want to, a porch where I can sit, breathe,

• 19:16Keke Palmer?

  and come back to myself after that drive. That's the reset you need. The trip doesn't end when you arrive. It's just getting started. And when you book with Airbnb, that's when the trip really begins.

• 19:33Speaker 01

  I try to keep myself aligned in a state of grace.

• 19:40Speaker 01

  It's gonna take a lot of love to balance out all of this hate. We cannot become them.

• 19:49Speaker 01

  We cannot become them. We can't run from it. You can't go and cower in a corner and say, oh, this is not gonna affect me. No, it's coming for your ass too. All of it's coming for your ass, even if it's an aunt or mother or sister that you love, a brother that's not gonna have that health care anymore. It's coming to your door. It's gonna come to everybody's door. And I say this to everyone.

• 20:18Speaker 01

  Live while you live.

• 20:24Speaker 01

  Live. Stand up where you can. Don't sit on your ass and let everybody else fight. You call a whole bunch of friends and you go out there and stand up for the next generation. Yes, I'm talking to you. And make sure it's on me right now.

• 20:44Speaker 01

  You do your part. We've had a good run. Now, we gotta run for these kids. You don't get to sit down on the couch and think this [bleep] is gonna pass over. It's not.

• 21:01Keke Palmer?

  And what do you say to those of us, especially, you know, the marginalized that go out there and they're on the front lines and they're losing their lives. They're going to jail. They're being sent away because I find that energy with myself, especially after having my son, where you get to this point and you're just like, I'm getting emotional about it because I get scared about people dying.

• 21:22Speaker 01

  Okay, okay.

• 21:23Keke Palmer?

  You know what I'm saying?

• 21:24Speaker 01

  Yes, I do.

• 21:25Keke Palmer?

  Like, we have, I don't wanna tell my queer friends to go out there and stand on the front line so they can lose their life. I don't wanna tell my Latinx friends. I don't wanna tell.

• 21:31Speaker 01

  Well, I,

• 21:32Keke Palmer?

  It's hard.

• 21:32Speaker 01

  I want you to hear me, though. Hear this. It's not the front line. It's standing up wherever you are. You don't go out and stand in front of somebody with ice and go, "Uh-uh, girl. You don't do all that [bleep]!" You don't act out. You don't be stupid. There is a way to stand up without standing in front of a gun.

• 21:54Speaker 01

  There is a way to stand up. You write your congressmen. You write your senators. You make the phone calls. You send the emails. Do your part. Go to your local meetings.

• 22:06Speaker 01

  Run for office.

• 22:08Keke Palmer?

  Wow.

• 22:09Speaker 01

  Do your part. Stand up where you are. Y'all see me at the piano. That's my way. I can't go out on the street no more. I'm 69. [bleep] you. I can't run like I used to run. I fell in Africa. I don't have the legs I used to have. I can still kick somebody's ass, though. Don't get me wrong. How about that? You gotta love me. But listen.

• 22:32Speaker 01

  Do your part wherever you are.

• 22:34Keke Palmer?

  I think it's important that we hear this because we get caught up in this one form of activism. And then we become fighting amongst one another. Because it's like, well, you ain't doing enough. You don't... But it's like, people are fighting in the ways that they know how.

• 22:46Speaker 01

  Thank you. And you do your part. This is your universe, too. We're all scared for our children. But I say this. It's okay to be scared, but you must,

• 22:59Speaker 01

  you must be unafraid.

• 23:04Speaker 01

  Remember the price our ancestors paid.

• 23:11Speaker 01

  See.

• 23:16Speaker 01

  Kiki, I don't know where I get my confidence from. I don't know where I get my...

• 23:21Keke Palmer?

  It's a blessing.

• 23:22Speaker 01

  I know, it's... I don't know how I've sustained in this business. I don't know how I even got to be 69, but here I am. And I feel better than I ever have. I'm so happy in my life. I was with Michelle Obama, I know you were too, and I was telling her, I said, "I'm so happy."

• 23:41Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 23:42Speaker 01

  "I'm so happy right now." "I'm not gonna let the world of ICE and this one and that one [bleep] with my everyday life and take my joy."

• 23:56Speaker 01

  "But I'm gonna stand up wherever I am."

• 24:00Speaker 01

  My next song begins with this lyric. Thirty-five point nine million people

• 24:11Speaker 01

  did not vote in 2024.

• 24:17Speaker 01

  Who the [bleep] is talking? Shut the [bleep] up!

• 24:27Speaker 01

  Once again, thirty-five point nine... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scream, but who the [bleep] talk? Who the [bleep] could say anything? And I'm sitting here going, "Thirty-five." You gotta love me. Here, let's start that again, just in case you wanna edit it out. For me, you can keep it the [bleep] in. Bitch, how about you tame your team? Nobody talks when Jennifer... [bleep] you bitch, no, you get it. That's the stupid [bleep] that saved my life in Africa. Come the [bleep] over here, get on the camera. Come on, you know you want to. Come on, show your daughter. Her daughter's in class. Get the [bleep] over here, Lori. Talking [bleep]. I never seen nobody go... But I tell you one thing, she got that [bleep] helicopter to land. Get the [bleep] over here. I've ever had... What the [bleep] are you talking about?

• 25:10Speaker 02

  Because I knew you'd wanna talk about the voting, so... And they were trying to [bleep].

• 25:14Speaker 01

  I don't give [bleep] about voting. Go sit your white ass down somewhere. Come sit down.

• 25:18Keke Palmer?

  She just told her to come...

• 25:19Speaker 01

  Listen.

• 25:20Speaker 02

  She just wants me to cover her.

• 25:21Speaker 01

  This is my fat ass. Listen. Lori saved my life, Kiki.

• 25:27Keke Palmer?

  You guys, you have to tell the story about how you fell 10 feet... Hurt your hip? Had to get on a plane to, what is it Nairobi? What, break it on down, what happened? What was happening?

• 25:40Speaker 01

  But I'm gonna go quick, cuz it's a long ass story.

• 25:42Keke Palmer?

  Okay, we're in for it.

• 25:43Speaker 01

  We got to the hotel in Tanzania in the Serengeti. Lori was exhausted from me acting a goddamn fool all day. I mean, you know, you can imagine.

• 25:52Speaker 02

  Why did we go on the trip?

• 25:53Speaker 01

  To have a good time.

• 25:56Speaker 01

  I said, "Come on, go to Africa with me, girl! We'll have the best time!" Stupid bitch! So anyway, listen. I knew she was white, but I took her anyway. So, listen, my babies. You know, the world can't, we can't even joke like that anymore. Hold on, honey, you're in my life. You ain't that cute. All right, now, listen, listen. So we get to the hotel, she's exhausted. We done flown from Rwanda, we been up there hiking with the silverback gorillas and [BLEEP], you know.

• 26:25Keke Palmer?

  That's so cool.

• 26:25Speaker 01

  One of them slapped the [BLEEP] out of me. I was like, "Okay, babe." You know, it was from another life, probably. Slap it, but listen, take that out, don't put that in. Somebody say, "That bitch is in the beastiality." That's all I need. Now, listen! Girl, they'll put anything on the [BLEEP] internet. Go ahead, say something! Say something! Now, listen, she's over there with her hand over my mouth, she can't believe it. Y'all don't cut this [BLEEP], I'll slice her [BLEEP] off. Now, tell them, honey, get it up or get stabbed! Now, listen! I pray to God my therapist don't see this [BLEEP]. Girl, my therapist will put me on so much [BLEEP]. That bitch erased a milligram so high, if she see this interview? Don't, don't publish this, please. Now, listen, so, okay, listen. So, we get there, she goes to bed.

• 27:08Speaker 01

  She goes back in her room, goes to bed. Now, I ain't been back there, cuz I run out to the water hole where the little elephant is. She's rolling around in the mud, and I named her Little Keisha. Little elephant. Little Keisha. I said, "Roll, baby! You ain't rolling in the mud, baby! Roll, baby!" And you know, the Maasai warriors was standing around going, "I hope she don't jump her ass in that water hole." Cuz it's deeper than she thinks. Anyway.

• 27:37Speaker 01

  So, the sun went down in the Serengeti.

• 27:41Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 27:41Speaker 01

  And when the sun goes down, there ain't no streetlights in that bitch.

• 27:48Speaker 01

  So my young African butler and I went to my room that sat out in the lap of luxury, you know, money.

• 27:58Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 27:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, hey, hey. Don't ask me for none. Don't ask me for no [BLEEP] money. All right now. Good for you. So, girl, I get out there, she's going to bed, she back there in her room, and I'm getting ready to go to bed, you know, I'm naked. You know, the butler has left, of course. Oh, would you get a... Anyway, so white people, anyway, listen.

• 28:22Keke Palmer?

  Walking out on the deck.

• 28:23Speaker 01

  They gonna say Jen Philouis is a racist.

• 28:28Speaker 01

  By the way. So, I, I'm getting ready to go to bed, I'm naked. The butler's gone, I told him to stay, but mm, I didn't want to get into much trouble. Now, listen.

• 28:40Keke Palmer?

  Walking on...

• 28:40Speaker 01

  So I got out on my deck, I saw an infinity pool. So I went out there, oh, so let me go see the infinity pool. So I'm just walking on my deck. La di da di da di da, and I put on the back the hotel robe, but I'm naked.

• 28:53Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 28:53Speaker 01

  So I'm la di da di da di da walking, and all of a sudden, in pitch black, there was an unsecured gate.

• 29:03Speaker 01

  Oh, my God.

• 29:04Keke Palmer?

  That sounds like a lawsuit, unsecured gate?

• 29:09Keke Palmer?

  Did we sue her?

• 29:10Speaker 01

  Ten feet, girl, I got so much [BLEEP] money, I'm bleeding it. No, I'm kidding. We'll talk, we'll talk about that later. Now, listen, listen, listen.

• 29:19Keke Palmer?

  So you fell ten feet?

• 29:21Speaker 01

  Ten feet down, and what I did...

• 29:23Keke Palmer?

  What do you remember when you fell, and what do you remember when you hit the ground?

• 29:25Speaker 01

  When I hit the ground, darling, that impact, oh, God, I can still feel it, I still got a lot of post-traumatic stress.

• 29:32Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry.

• 29:33Speaker 01

  It was a dry ravine. Boulders, bricks, stones, snakes. That, and that sharp grass, you see the, uh, lions stalking through? That [BLEEP] ain't soft. She had to, later on that night, she had to pick that [BLEEP] out of my back. Girl, I fell like a [BLEEP]. Ain't no sense in me lying, I fell, Skiki.

• 29:55Keke Palmer?

  She said...

• 29:56Speaker 01

  So I'm laying down in the [BLEEP] dark. I'm down down there in the dark, going in and out of a consciousness, not know... And not knowing what the [BLEEP] just happened. But I know I can't move my body. Cause I tried to get up, you know, I've done bodywork all my life. But I couldn't move my body. God damn, Kiki.

• 30:15Keke Palmer?

  That was so scary.

• 30:17Speaker 01

  You know, I didn't know to be scared yet because I'm, I don't go instantly scared. I'm an alpha bitch. You fail bitch, get up and get out. Climb back up. You can't see, but go on up there anyway. So when I realized I couldn't move, god damn.

• 30:34Speaker 01

  You know, one of my things, I'm gonna say this, I've never said this before. One of the things about me is I hate people to wake people up when they're asleep. Let people sleep. We gotta sleep, you know what I mean? Come on, ready to go? No, I'm not! And you know, that's the only thing there's no cure for, is sleep deprivation.

• 30:54Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh.

• 30:55Speaker 01

  Did you know that?

• 30:56Keke Palmer?

  No.

• 30:56Speaker 01

  I gave ketchup on my sleep, you [BLEEP].

• 30:58Keke Palmer?

  Wait a minute.

• 30:59Speaker 01

  So anyway.

• 31:00Keke Palmer?

  Wait, wait, wait, real quick. Real quick, so what happens? You just die? Cause you're sleepy?

• 31:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, you could just die. Anyway, so listen, Kiki, Kiki, listen. I always say, listen 15 times to my friend and then I can't remember what the [BLEEP] I was gonna say. So anyway, I'm down there on the ground. And I don't wanna wake her up. She was so tired.

• 31:24Speaker 01

  I'm [BLEEP]. I can't move. I think I'm getting ready to die.

• 31:26Keke Palmer?

  Do you have your phone on you?

• 31:28Speaker 01

  No, [BLEEP], no. I told you, I'm naked with the flimsy ass hotel robe on. My ass is out, by the way. The hotel robe came off, my ass is up in the night air. Oh no bitch, I'm naked on the ground in the Serengeti. And here comes a goddamn hippo. So anyway, I woke her up.

• 31:45Keke Palmer?

  Hippo?

• 31:47Speaker 01

  I woke her up.

• 31:48Keke Palmer?

  By screaming?

• 31:48Speaker 01

  I was like, Laurie! And you know, she runs around like a Jewish white woman of leisure. So basically, I screamed, Jewish white woman of leisure! And she, guess what she said? But the truth is, I went, Laurie! And she went, yeah. Bitch was doing her nails, yeah, yeah. I'm like, bitch, get down here, I'm dying, you stupid bitch! Run! I said it, Laurie! Cause the next stop on our vacation was the Seychelles Islands. I said, "Hey, I said, "Laurie, we ain't going to the Shayshells." Well, that got her up. She didn't care that I was down. She came running. She said, "Where are y'all?" I said, "I'm down here, bitch." I (bleep) broke my hip, Laurie, help.

• 32:32Speaker 01

  And she ran to the lobby, and when she ran to the lobby,

• 32:38Speaker 01

  I was scared, vulnerable. These are adjectives you don't use to describe Jennifer Lewis.

• 32:47Speaker 01

  So all of a sudden,

• 32:50Speaker 01

  I started hallucinating.

• 32:52Keke Palmer?

  Oh, no.

• 32:53Speaker 01

  The clouds came out over, and a full moon appeared. So then I could see where I was. I woke up

• 33:06Speaker 01

  to see, in that moonlight,

• 33:10Speaker 01

  wild animals, grunting, snorking, snorting. They were (bleeping) and all kind of (bleep). They were hunting. Everything was going on.

• 33:23Speaker 01

  So I was mooning the moon in mating season. Oh, yeah.

• 33:30Speaker 01

  So I'm like, "What the (bleep)?"

• 33:32Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 33:33Speaker 01

  So, you know, I couldn't see the animals before the moon, but I heard them. And if it's one thing I know, I know what (bleep) sounds like.

• 33:45Speaker 01

  So I started hallucinating and a hippopotamus approached.

• 33:50Keke Palmer?

  Oh, no.

• 33:50Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. I knew from my research that this was an animal that had eaten more humans than any other.

• 33:57Keke Palmer?

  Really?

• 33:58Speaker 01

  So I screamed, "Hey, you fat bitch! You ain't eating (bleep) over here, you fat ass hippopotamus! And have you heard of Ozempic?"

• 34:10Keke Palmer?

  No.

• 34:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then the hippo left. He said, "You bitch." He left. I can't stand. I'm laying on the ground in pitch black. I mean, there's a moonlight, but I feel then something.

• 34:22Keke Palmer?

  No.

• 34:22Speaker 01

  No, no, no. I feel some fingers, some little fingers or something down by my private area. Girl, I looked down. It was three pink booty baby baboons.

• 34:32Keke Palmer?

  You're alive.

• 34:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, I swear to God. And I told him, I said, "Now, listen."

• 34:37Speaker 01

  I said, "Listen. I know you little (bleep) have poor night vision, but I hope you see that sign down there. It's been down there for years. It says, 'Out of Order.'"

• 34:48Keke Palmer?

  Out of order is crazy.

• 34:49Speaker 01

  Yeah. So little pink booty baboons, I told them, I said, I said, I said, I'm sure you don't know being little pink booty baboons and all. But my name is Jennifer Lewis and I am an award winning actress from the United States. They said, we sent you on fresh prints. How good is this story? That's pretty much the show, let me shut.

• 35:09Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh.

• 35:10Speaker 01

  But anyway, the real story is.

• 35:11Keke Palmer?

  It's so good.

• 35:13Speaker 01

  She ran for help. The Maasai warriors came and rescued me. Cause they were the only ones could come down there with the animals.

• 35:19Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh.

• 35:20Speaker 01

  And then she, um, she made them land the helicopter. They didn't want to land the helicopter because it was UNESCO. You can't stress out the animals. It was the migration. And she told them, this one right here. You'll land that helicopter. Or she'll wake up and blow this bitch up. And you don't want that. And by the way, do you have any idea who's on that goddamn floor? And that's when I woke up, because I figured I was being introduced. I went, oh, oh. And I heard them say, we've got to get her to Kenya. I said, well, then call Obama. Obama will send a plane to get me out of Africa. If Meryl Streep can get out of Africa, so can I, you know? So it was all that.

• 36:05Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh, well, we gotta give applause to Lori.

• 36:07Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 36:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, and go get out, she loves the attention, get out. That's my girl, huh? That bitch saved my life. She saved my life.

• 36:15Keke Palmer?

  After things like this happen to you, because obviously this is like an amazing way to alchemize, when do you start putting material like the one you just did together? Like, how do you start writing about traumatic events?

• 36:26Speaker 01

  See, listen here, listen very carefully. What I knew when I couldn't walk for 13 months. The great Jennifer Lewis. Bedridden.

• 36:41Speaker 01

  Forced to become an observer of life.

• 36:46Keke Palmer?

  Hmm.

• 36:48Speaker 01

  A human being opposed to a human doing.

• 36:56Speaker 01

  I got to watch life.

• 37:01Speaker 01

  You know, they say amazing grace, and I say to you, grace is amazing.

• 37:09Speaker 01

  During that recovery, I took an imaginary water hose and filled every room in my house with liquid gratitude.

• 37:19Speaker 01

  And in the wheelchair, to the walker, to the crutches, to the cane,

• 37:27Speaker 01

  I swam in it.

• 37:30Speaker 01

  I didn't know how not to come back. You hear me, little girl? I don't know how to be a victim. I don't even know what that is.

• 37:43Speaker 01

  When the helicopter landed,

• 37:46Speaker 01

  when the helicopter was lifting up off the ground, I knew I was on a helicopter, but I was in such shock, I couldn't hear the helicopter.

• 38:01Speaker 01

  But what I did hear,

• 38:06Speaker 01

  I heard my soul screaming,

• 38:10Speaker 01

  "Whatever this is, Jenny,

• 38:14Speaker 01

  you'll come back.

• 38:18Speaker 01

  I don't know what you done done to yourself,

• 38:22Speaker 01

  but you'll come back, and I'm gonna tell you."

• 38:27Speaker 01

  I journaled every day, a newfound dictum. You cry all you want, but you will not become a victim.

• 38:41Speaker 01

  And my goal was to get that high kick back. And I got it back.

• 38:49Speaker 01

  I most certainly did. I couldn't separate my knees for four months. Now, that was karma, 'cause, you know, I did.

• 39:03Speaker 01

  But on a serious note, girl, please.

• 39:08Speaker 01

  My phys, all these old physical therapists, I had about seven different physical therapists over three years. They come in my house and go, "God damn, I never met nobody like you." Because they'd say, "Give me 20," and I'd say, "No, I'm gonna give you 30." You understand?

• 39:22Keke Palmer?

  But I mean, I think this is quite unbelievable, almost insane, when you think about people having these kinds of falls, let alone breaking their hip. So 13 months, and in that time where you, um, you know, you talk about being a human being as opposed to human doing. So were you just in the room, were you thinking about what you, I'm writing my?

• 39:42Speaker 01

  Oh, I was writing, I was certainly writing the One Woman Show. See, that's an aspect of my talent that a lot of people have not seen. Only people in the theaters, in the clubs, in the universities, over the years, have seen me on stage.

• 39:54Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 39:54Speaker 01

  Girl, I'm a monster on stage. That's where I live. Don't give me an audience.

• 39:59Keke Palmer?

  And?

• 39:59Speaker 01

  Whatever you do.

• 40:00Keke Palmer?

  When I was, uh, getting ready for this, I even, I didn't even realize that you worked with Bette Midler on stage.

• 40:06Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, I was a harlot with Bette Midler, one of her backup singers in 1983. I did 46 concerts with her, and I assure you, there are 46 stories. She was fabulous. We're still friends.

• 40:17Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 40:17Speaker 01

  We're still good friends.

• 40:18Keke Palmer?

  I love to hear that.

• 40:19Speaker 01

  She's always been supportive of my career. She calls me, "Jennifer, Jennifer, how are ya?" I say, "I'm okay, Bette. All right, Jennifer."

• 40:28Keke Palmer?

  I mean, you've broken so many barriers, television, Broadway. You've earned the title as the mother of black Hollywood, but you've always stayed visible, vocal, and unapologetic. When you think about the young women that are coming up behind you, what do you hope that your career may possible for them?

• 40:48Speaker 01

  I want them to...

• 40:52Speaker 01

  First of all, I want them to read my memoir, because I wrote it for you. I wrote it for you and all of you to...

• 41:03Speaker 01

  To witness my journey through mental illness. My journey through conquering a dream. You see, I wanted to be a star. But being a star back then meant something other than what it means today. You had to have talent. You had to be Sammy, Judy, Pearlie Mae.

• 41:31Keke Palmer?

  Wow.

• 41:31Speaker 01

  Moms Mabley, you had to be Sinatra. You had to be Streisand. Now you can just [BLEEP] somebody and you're a star. What kind of [BLEEP] is that? We went to school. As a classically trained actress right out of college. I replaced Jennifer Holliday in one of the original workshop productions of Dreamgirls. Of course, this was back in the eighteen hundreds. But you know, oh yeah.

• 42:01Speaker 01

  Girl, if we hung out, the world wouldn't know what to do.

• 42:04Keke Palmer?

  No.

• 42:04Speaker 01

  We ain't hanging out.

• 42:05Keke Palmer?

  I'm so in awe of you.

• 42:06Speaker 01

  This is your interview. I want to see you.

• 42:10Keke Palmer?

  I'm just so obsessed with you, Jennifer.

• 42:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, I'm a hot mess. But you know, listen, I'm real. And so are you. I'm real. I ain't... I don't know how to hide. Oof, that [BLEEP] just shot through me. I ain't never hid in my... Oh yeah, girl, our spirit is all up in me. Especially after that fall. I can't do nothing that God don't say I can do. Girl, no, I... That, all of that, I've lost so many friends. I had to.

• 42:42Keke Palmer?

  After the fall?

• 42:42Speaker 01

  After you fall on the Serengeti, Kiki. If you recover, if you recover. What do you think I can do? What's next? All I can do is climb Everest. And you can't take luggage up Everest, bitch. You hear me? I can't carry mine and I can't carry yours. You going somewhere now. You going up Kilimanjaro. You going up Fujisan. You going up St. Helen.

• 43:11Keke Palmer?

  You know so many places.

• 43:13Speaker 01

  Oh, girl, I've been all... You know, I've been all over the world.

• 43:15Keke Palmer?

  Right. I'm like, I'm listening to everything you said.

• 43:16Speaker 01

  I've been to Antarctica. These pans came from Kathmandu.

• 43:22Speaker 01

  Where's that? Over that Everest. I took a helicopter through the Himalayan mountain range, girl. I climbed the, the, the, the, um, what are they called? The, the flaming cliffs in Mongolia. You know, I, I've been all over the world because I wanted to see it. You want to know why? Because I wanted to make sure the world didn't revolve around my ass.

• 43:48Speaker 01

  I've seen hungry children.

• 43:56Speaker 01

  And you better believe I feed them now.

• 44:00Speaker 01

  I'm most certainly the [BLEEP]. Do you want to know something? I'm gonna tell you something.

• 44:07Speaker 01

  When COVID happened,

• 44:12Speaker 01

  I got white guilt for the first time. Now, let me tell you what white guilt is. White guilt is basically when you feel you have so much more than others. It's just a saying.

• 44:25Speaker 01

  And I've never felt that because I know I worked for everything. And I worked hard for it. And I've always been generous. I, what are you gonna do? How much money can you have? All of you people out there now that only know money and power and greed.

• 44:41Speaker 01

  God, I wish I could talk to those crazy [BLEEP] people. I don't get them either. That are trying to ruin the world. I've never told this story, but I'm gonna tell it. Because I want you to, I want, yes, I want you to know the circle.

• 44:53Speaker 01

  When I saw American poverty come so close to our faces, because they told us everything. During COVID, we found out so much we'd not seen. So I went in my office,

• 45:06Speaker 01

  and I wrote, uh, wrote a donation for Doctors Without Borders. Because I'd done a fundraiser for them in New York. I knew it was a legitimate charity and I just, a bunch of others, but I just want to speak to this one.

• 45:22Speaker 01

  So I sent that donation off and I knew it would help. Because after I saw the, you remember in Italy was the first real, where the masses of people were dying and, oh my God. And when I saw the mask that had dug into the first responders faces, I just had to give, I had to help, I had to help, I had to help. So I'm laying on the ground of the Serengeti. I done broke my ass and I'm in bitch black.

• 46:02Speaker 01

  And I hear a doctor from Rome with a very deep voice. You know, those Doctors Without Borders, they're international. The doctors and nurses come from all over the world. And I heard these words. Mrs. Lewis, we are doctors without, we are doctors without borders. And we've come to take you home.

• 46:38Keke Palmer?

  You're kidding.

• 46:39Speaker 01

  There's your circle. There's your circle.

• 46:45Keke Palmer?

  That is so crazy.

• 46:46Speaker 01

  And it took everything from me, even in a state of shock and excruciating to pain, excruciating pain to not say to that doctor, bitch, I just sent y'all a bunch of money. Please get me out of here. Bitch, I'm a doctor without borders. Girl, you know, they had to accompany me home on the plane, shooting morphine into this leg.

• 47:11Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 47:12Speaker 01

  24 hours to get back to the States. It was unbelievable.

• 47:15Keke Palmer?

  I'm still gagged by the depth of, here's your circle, okay?

• 47:19Speaker 01

  There's your circle.

• 47:21Keke Palmer?

  When you walk into a room today, do you feel like the legend people see? Or do you feel like you're still Jenny from Missouri?

• 47:32Speaker 01

  Oh, Kiki.

• 47:40Keke Palmer?

  I need everybody to hear me clearly. You do not need a milestone to enjoy yourself. I said what I said. Society has us out here waiting for promotions, engagements, and New Year's Eve to twist open something nice. Meanwhile, I'm over here with a chilled glass of Stella Rosa Black because I remembered to water my plants three days in a row. That's growth, literally. And the flavor, sweet, smooth, rich, bold, deep berry, blackberry, blueberry, raspberry, all sitting together like a Real Housewives reunion, where everybody kept their glass in their hand. This is wine for everyone 21 and up who understands that sometimes a celebration is the random

• 48:22Keke Palmer?

  Wednesday, or the quiet night in, or the "I finished my laundry and put it all away in one day" victory lap. You are the occasion, so please act accordingly. Head to stellarosa.com to find your favorite flavor. Your next occasion, which is literally whenever you decide, is already taken care of because, baby, this is Stella Rosa. And please, please, please, drink responsibly.

• 48:50Keke Palmer?

  Let me walk you through my Tuesday. I woke up and immediately had to decide what to wear to a meeting, what to feed my son, whether I'm taking the call from my car or rescheduling, and it's not even 8:00 a.m. yet. By noon, I've made 100 decisions, and I'm already over it. So the things in my life that don't require me to think, those are sacred. That's exactly what Fruit of the Loom Women's Underwear is for me. I open the drawer, I grab a pair, and I already know it's going to be comfortable and fit right. There's no guessing, no adjusting, no "let me try another pair" moment. It just works. When your whole day is full of decisions that actually need your energy, having that kind of simplicity in your routine creates real peace of mind. And trust me, that feels really, really good.

• 49:35Keke Palmer?

  Fruit of the Loom proves that simple feels really good.

• 49:43Speaker 01

  I'm both.

• 49:45Keke Palmer?

  Come on, integrated.

• 49:46Speaker 01

  I've never changed. I know that I ate dirt when I was a little girl. I know, I remember how hungry I was. You never forget.

• 49:58Speaker 01

  Having, you know, going out in the snow, rain and heat to the outhouse, you never forget that. Course I got five bathrooms now, bitches. Hey, titties and hips. Don't ask me for no money. So, anyway. Yeah, you gotta love me, right? Okay.

• 50:16Keke Palmer?

  I love it.

• 50:17Speaker 01

  So, you gotta love me!

• 50:19Keke Palmer?

  The catchphrases, the whole circular narrative, the callbacks, the continu- this, this is a masterclass.

• 50:26Speaker 01

  You know.

• 50:27Keke Palmer?

  This is crazy, I mean, you're crazy.

• 50:29Speaker 01

  I gotta say, listen. You know what I am, Kiki?

• 50:39Speaker 01

  What I think I am.

• 50:45Speaker 01

  What I really think I am.

• 50:48Keke Palmer?

  You're brilliant.

• 50:50Speaker 01

  I'm free.

• 50:53Speaker 01

  I'm free is what I am. I'm free.

• 50:57Speaker 01

  I'm like Morpheus.

• 51:00Speaker 01

  Come on, bitch, what you got?

• 51:04Speaker 01

  And if it's ugly, you take that somewhere else now.

• 51:08Speaker 01

  Mama don't go for that now. See, when you've heard a li- oh, when you've heard a lion roar in your ear.

• 51:17Speaker 01

  See, a lion came. I heard a lion roar while I was laying. Now, you gotta understand that. And do you know what happened? You do, you do you know what went through my mind? Lori done ran for help. I'm laying there.

• 51:32Speaker 01

  Wasn't no [bleep] hippo, wasn't no baboon, it was a goddamn lion! And I heard that [bleep].

• 51:41Speaker 01

  I was like, oh, this is it, Jenny.

• 51:49Keke Palmer?

  What a way to go.

• 51:50Speaker 01

  But then you know, but then you know what I thought? Because, you know, I am Jennifer Lewis laying there. Guess what I thought?

• 51:58Speaker 01

  What a headline.

• 51:59Keke Palmer?

  Yeah, right? She got it.

• 52:03Speaker 01

  The king ate the queen. I swear to God, that went through my mind.

• 52:08Keke Palmer?

  Because what a way that would have been just so cruel.

• 52:10Speaker 01

  I mean, to be ripped up by a goddamn, I'm like, damn, God. I thought I was your girl. But what a death. I'm like, well, bring it. Here we go.

• 52:22Speaker 01

  Jennifer Lewis's body's been flown back to the States. They got one, they left one toe and one eye. Here she come, look. That dead bitch, dead.

• 52:32Keke Palmer?

  That would have been horrible.

• 52:34Speaker 01

  Look at the camera woman. She's like, god damn, I ain't never seen nobody like this. I bet you won't give me no goddamn coffee no more. Look, they have my face on this coffee. So I really drank it. Keke Palmer got faces in your cappuccinos. Get on, baby.

• 52:50Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 52:51Speaker 01

  Mama's proud of you, baby. Mama's proud of you, baby.

• 52:54Keke Palmer?

  Hilarious. I mean, you said we are as sick as our secrets. What does that mean to you? Because sometimes we hold so many secrets, we don't even know.

• 53:04Speaker 01

  And that is, you don't have to say.

• 53:05Keke Palmer?

  We've lied to ourselves, you know what I mean?

• 53:06Speaker 01

  You don't need to say no more, that's it.

• 53:10Speaker 01

  The truth will set you free. And it's the hardest thing in the world. You think I wanted to tell the world that I was molested? You think I want to tell the world I was, had bipolar disorder? Tell the world that I'd been conned out of $50,000? You think I wanted to tell the world all of those things?

• 53:35Speaker 01

  You don't know why?

• 53:42Speaker 01

  Because I wanted you to learn from it. I got everything I wanted because I told the truth.

• 53:52Speaker 01

  There's a price. There's a reward for being honest. There's a reward for going to tell somebody you were touched. You see? Because if you're holding it in, you're gonna eat yourself to death. If you hold it in, you're gonna drink yourself to death. If you hold it in, you're gonna get high yourself to death. See? You gotta let it out.

• 54:19Keke Palmer?

  You worked with Whitney Houston when she did The Preacher's Wife.

• 54:21Speaker 01

  Yes, I did. That's my girl.

• 54:23Keke Palmer?

  And you shared that you confronted her?

• 54:26Speaker 01

  I did. I did. I didn't know what... I didn't know what using drugs really looked like. You know, I used to drink when in my twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, and sixties. But, um... No, I stopped drinking a long time ago. I never got in trouble for it, but, you know, look. Here, listen.

• 54:51Speaker 01

  My voice meant more to me than...

• 54:54Keke Palmer?

  Mmm.

• 54:55Speaker 01

  ... I had a gift.

• 54:58Keke Palmer?

  I get that.

• 54:58Speaker 01

  Now, I will share this, since I'm sharing everything. When I found out about the con artist...

• 55:07Speaker 01

  I just happened to find out about that on the day my mother died.

• 55:11Keke Palmer?

  Oh.

• 55:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, so it was a double hit.

• 55:13Keke Palmer?

  I'm so sorry to hear about that.

• 55:14Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 55:15Keke Palmer?

  Both things.

• 55:15Speaker 01

  And I... Thank you. And I got real mad at God. I said this on The Breakfast Club, "Don't stay mad too long.

• 55:24Speaker 01

  Don't hurt yourself too bad."

• 55:29Speaker 01

  Because God didn't do it, you did.

• 55:35Speaker 01

  We wanna blame somebody. Goddamn. You did it. I did it. Girl, wait till you see this one woman show.

• 55:46Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 55:46Speaker 01

  I'm gonna leave y'all the fruits of all of my labor. I'm gonna give y'all the wisdom of the ages. I'm gonna tell it all.

• 55:57Keke Palmer?

  But in your commitment to letting your life not only exist as a testimony, it is, because I think that's what we all have here. You know, our lives should be a testimony to others. There is something that, at the end of it, and I think as a performer, I always have to remind myself this, but I wonder how you manage it is, what do you keep for yourself?

• 56:19Keke Palmer?

  How do you know what to keep for yourself? How do you know the difference? And I think people need to hear this in this generation.

• 56:27Speaker 01

  Wow, that's a good question.

• 56:28Keke Palmer?

  You know, we go online and it's like, but telling the truth doesn't always mean exposing your life. It doesn't always mean exploiting who you are. So what is the line that you draw between being truthful and being real and authentic, but also not letting everybody get to impart on your growth?

• 56:51Speaker 01

  One thing is learning.

• 56:55Speaker 01

  That saying no is saying yes to you.

• 57:02Speaker 01

  You can't fix nobody else. I'm so sorry.

• 57:10Speaker 01

  The work has to be within.

• 57:14Speaker 01

  You know, I see some things about myself on the internet that I know are not true. Um, those people are dead now. You just go kill a bitch. That's basically what you do. Oh, I didn't say that out loud, did I? Okay, let me get back to the question. I'm kidding, kidding. No, look, here, look. You gotta break it with some laughter, honey.

• 57:33Keke Palmer?

  You do.

• 57:34Speaker 01

  Because when people laugh, you gotta understand, the cells dance when we laugh. And when you got them laughing, you go

• 57:42Speaker 01

  and you stick that wisdom in there. And they get it better because the body's lighter to receive.

• 57:48Keke Palmer?

  That's literally scientific.

• 57:49Speaker 01

  Yes, absolutely. Here's the thing, pumpkin. Self.

• 57:57Speaker 01

  I hope whoever's supposed to get this gets it.

• 58:07Speaker 01

  And I'm gonna say it like this, cuz I ain't gonna go all deep and ignorant.

• 58:12Speaker 01

  I used to be me, me, me, me.

• 58:23Keke Palmer?

  Me.

• 58:27Speaker 01

  Hmm, but now it's we.

• 58:31Speaker 01

  Now it's us. Honey, you gotta see yourself in that other person. You can't change nobody. You can't. There's nothing you can do. You go to your quiet place. Sit down and shut the (bleep) up! Easy! We are fragile creatures!

• 58:56Keke Palmer?

  What did Whitney say?

• 58:59Speaker 01

  Oh, no, she was just, she, it was an odd behavior. I don't know, we were in like a kitchen in that pier, that pier downtown off the Hudson River. And something happened. I saw that she was uncomfortable or something. And I just simply said, you know, you know, cuz I was still young too. I was like, well, I'm in therapy. And she just turned on a dime and she went, "Lord, save me, Jesus Christ, take care of me."

• 59:26Speaker 01

  Nothing wrong with that. "Lord, save me, Jesus Christ, take care of me." And if somebody say, "Lord, save me, Jesus Christ, take care of me", the way you know Whitney Houston can say it,

• 59:38Speaker 01

  you let it live.

• 59:41Speaker 01

  Go about your (bleep) business.

• 59:45Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 59:47Speaker 01

  But she was wonderful. God damn it.

• 59:53Speaker 01

  Without, with no lies attached.

• 1:00:00Speaker 01

  I miss her every day.

• 1:00:04Speaker 01

  Not because I spent three months with her, you know, playing her mother and being that close.

• 1:00:13Speaker 01

  But there's not a time you can get on internet that she won't pop up somewhere doing something.

• 1:00:22Speaker 01

  Her voice was the eighth wonder of the world.

• 1:00:29Speaker 01

  And there were only seven wonders back then.

• 1:00:33Speaker 01

  Sitting that close to her in Yonkers in that church, watching her sing the genre from whence she had come. "Help is on the way."

• 1:00:47Speaker 01

  I remember her sitting there going, "My God, what a phenomenon."

• 1:00:55Speaker 01

  She was beautiful. She was just beautiful.

• 1:00:59Keke Palmer?

  I miss her too, I never met her.

• 1:01:01Speaker 01

  I think we all miss her.

• 1:01:04Keke Palmer?

  You played Whitney Houston mother, Tupac, Tracee Ellis Ross, I mean Angela Bassett, or should I say Tina Turner?

• 1:01:11Speaker 01

  Let's get something clear. I did not play Tracee Ellis' mothers. Tracee Ellis Ross' mother. Played her mother-in-law. Tracee Ellis Ross, my girl.

• 1:01:21Keke Palmer?

  What is it that you think makes people trust you so much on and off-screen?

• 1:01:26Speaker 01

  It's what you see right here.

• 1:01:28Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:28Speaker 01

  It's what you see right here. It's because I care.

• 1:01:35Speaker 01

  I care. I care that my great-niece,

• 1:01:42Speaker 01

  18 months old, what is she, 18 months? I care that she gets to dream like I did. I had a dream. I lived, I loved, and I conquered because I didn't know how not to.

• 1:02:01Speaker 01

  You couldn't tell me I couldn't do something, what? But Mandela said I could, bitch.

• 1:02:08Keke Palmer?

  Okay, okay.

• 1:02:09Speaker 01

  Harriet said I could.

• 1:02:17Speaker 01

  When I say I can't.

• 1:02:20Speaker 01

  You got any more questions for me? There's some things people can't touch, Kiki. And that lives in the depth of our souls. We're special. Living, experiencing the human experience. That's something beautiful. That's not something to think that to attach the ego to everything, me, me, me. Now, I ain't gonna put you down for it because I was there once. But at some point, grow up, bitch. And love something else.

• 1:02:58Keke Palmer?

  Other than your pain.

• 1:02:59Speaker 01

  Take care of other people. Help an old woman across the street. Keep the door open for somebody. Let somebody go in traffic. Just say, "Go."

• 1:03:10Keke Palmer?

  But the great thing about what you're saying too is that sometimes those are the only things that does make you feel good. It sounds crazy and it sounds counterproductive, but when you have nothing to give or you feel that you have nothing to offer, if you just can put a smile on someone's face, simply...

• 1:03:23Speaker 01

  Just be nice.

• 1:03:24Keke Palmer?

  You know, it really will return back to you.

• 1:03:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, but be nice.

• 1:03:28Keke Palmer?

  It really, really will.

• 1:03:29Speaker 01

  It's the best feeling in the world to do something for someone else. And, and, and I remember my therapist saying it once. She said, "If you don't know what to, you don't know what to do, Jennifer, just get up and do something for somebody else."

• 1:03:44Keke Palmer?

  That's right.

• 1:03:45Speaker 01

  Just, you know, take it off you. Read a book, bitch, but stop complaining about everything. We have so much. You better read about the Congo. You better read about the Sudan. You better read about Gaza. You better read about Compton.

• 1:04:04Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 1:04:05Speaker 01

  You read about what...

• 1:04:07Keke Palmer?

  Because it's closer than you think.

• 1:04:08Speaker 01

  The people who don't have as much as you. Everybody don't get to take a shower. Everybody doesn't get breakfast.

• 1:04:17Keke Palmer?

  A lot of people don't even...

• 1:04:17Speaker 01

  Everybody doesn't have shoes.

• 1:04:18Keke Palmer?

  No, it's true.

• 1:04:20Speaker 01

  Be nice to each other, that's all. And like I've been saying, we had a good run, didn't we? You run for these kids now.

• 1:04:31Speaker 01

  Let's get to sit on your ass. Americans are so complacent.

• 1:04:37Keke Palmer?

  You've been engaged four times.

• 1:04:38Speaker 01

  Yes, I have.

• 1:04:39Keke Palmer?

  But never went the whole way?

• 1:04:41Speaker 01

  No, I didn't.

• 1:04:42Keke Palmer?

  Why not?

• 1:04:43Speaker 01

  Well, let me tell you, the first one, I was too young.

• 1:04:48Keke Palmer?

  How old?

• 1:04:48Speaker 01

  I was nineteen.

• 1:04:49Keke Palmer?

  Okay.

• 1:04:50Speaker 01

  I was nineteen, you know, I wanted to be in show business.

• 1:04:55Speaker 01

  And, um, but I loved him. I loved him deeply. He was from the Dominican Republic. And he called me Jennifer. Jennifer. And he used to sing.

• 1:05:08Keke Palmer?

  Oh, my gosh, Jennifer.

• 1:05:09Speaker 01

  Oh, no, Jennifer. Jennifer. You don't have to be a star, baby, to be in my show. I told him, but I do have to be a star, so I gotta go public. Anyway, so number two was, who was the second guy? Um, yeah, he was wonderful, but, no, no, he was wonderful, and I loved him too, but he was gay. And I didn't know, and that was the time, that was when you couldn't come out.

• 1:05:36Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:37Speaker 01

  You know, and, you know, he was gay.

• 1:05:39Keke Palmer?

  He told you?

• 1:05:40Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no, oh, now.

• 1:05:42Keke Palmer?

  How'd you know?

• 1:05:43Speaker 01

  Hmm, we always know. Come on now. There's a chapter in my memoir titled, Dick Diva. I think you would know if somebody was gay. Um.

• 1:05:54Keke Palmer?

  The third.

• 1:05:55Speaker 01

  Which third? Oh, the third guy. The third guy was, oh.

• 1:06:00Keke Palmer?

  Why is it always that?

• 1:06:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, I loved him too. I did, but,

• 1:06:07Speaker 01

  he was so damaged. God damn, girl, you can't save nobody. He, I could, you know, and you always, listen, somebody, come closer.

• 1:06:23Speaker 01

  Nobody wants to admit this. But let's just say I believe it.

• 1:06:31Speaker 01

  When somebody that is that close to you, they're a reflection of you.

• 1:06:36Keke Palmer?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:06:38Speaker 01

  So don't do too much finger pointing and blaming. You chose that [BLEEP]. And you figure out why you there with it. And why you can't leave it. Don't blame nobody else, though.

• 1:06:52Speaker 01

  So I pretty much chose myself in all four of them.

• 1:06:57Speaker 01

  And I loved on the internet when they hear me talk about that. They go, "Oh, well, something must be wrong with her." Well, something was. It was wrong with both of us.

• 1:07:08Speaker 01

  And you be careful with all that judging on the internet. And another thing I want to say, since I got the mic.

• 1:07:17Speaker 01

  You want to know who you are?

• 1:07:20Speaker 01

  Read your comments.

• 1:07:24Speaker 01

  You go read them little nasty things you put on the internet about other people.

• 1:07:29Keke Palmer?

  That's deep.

• 1:07:31Speaker 01

  Whatever you talking about, that's who you are.

• 1:07:38Speaker 01

  So be very careful with that [BLEEP].

• 1:07:41Keke Palmer?

  That's a read.

• 1:07:42Speaker 01

  It's a word, honey. Y'all call it a word. Y'all call it bars.

• 1:07:46Keke Palmer?

  OK.

• 1:07:46Speaker 01

  I'll take it.

• 1:07:47Keke Palmer?

  Because if you, some of y'all go back and read that and see what you're about.

• 1:07:51Speaker 01

  That's what I'm talking about.

• 1:07:53Keke Palmer?

  You'll be spooked.

• 1:07:54Speaker 01

  Listen, honey, you can't, you can't say I'm running. When you run, you're gonna meet yourself when you get there. You can't run. I said that on The Breakfast Club. I tried to run. And I said this, "I got money to run."

• 1:08:12Speaker 01

  But you meet yourself when you get there.

• 1:08:15Keke Palmer?

  You have the one woman show, which I cannot wait. I have to have a front row seat.

• 1:08:19Speaker 01

  That one woman show gonna wear y'all out. And your name is in it. I don't say nice things, but you know. There's a lot of people in it and I love them. I'm saying, not saying nice things.

• 1:08:31Keke Palmer?

  Oh my gosh, I'm so happy. I cannot wait to be dragged beyond and into my life.

• 1:08:36Speaker 01

  Dragged, and I mean dragged.

• 1:08:38Keke Palmer?

  I'm also happy because...

• 1:08:40Speaker 01

  You, who else? Uh, Kim, uh, Kim Whitley, Wanda Sykes, Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Holliday, Jennifer Lawrence. Oh, I'm going off on everybody. Viola, uh, who else is in there? Oh, Shirley Ralph's gonna get it. I'm gonna, you know, we're good friends.

• 1:08:57Keke Palmer?

  Yes.

• 1:08:58Speaker 01

  I'm gonna tell her, I knew it.

• 1:09:00Keke Palmer?

  I'm so excited for that. I'm excited for you being in the Southern Belle, Lady Miss Jacqueline, Southern Belle Insult Series on Audible.

• 1:09:07Speaker 01

  Miss MC. I love her, you know, I talk like her. I had to go against what you were doing with one of those characters. That's a funny show.

• 1:09:16Keke Palmer?

  Thank you so much.

• 1:09:17Speaker 01

  That's gonna be so good. Congratulations.

• 1:09:18Keke Palmer?

  Thank you.

• 1:09:19Speaker 01

  You're doing three characters.

• 1:09:20Keke Palmer?

  Yes, I'm so excited.

• 1:09:22Speaker 01

  Now, listen, I done talked and talked and talked about myself, which is my favorite subject, I have to say. But I wanna talk about you now.

• 1:09:31Speaker 01

  Congratulations.

• 1:09:37Speaker 01

  I've watched you. Cause everybody's constantly going, "Did you see what Kiki Shepard did?" I mean, Kiki, I keep Kiki Shepard. You know, Kiki Shepard's my daughter.

• 1:09:44Keke Palmer?

  She's one of my best friends.

• 1:09:45Speaker 01

  Of course. Yeah, I'll show Diana DePaulo. We would be good friends. We did Broadway together, Kiki and I. And, um, but they call me all the times and they, they say, "She's a, she's a mini you, Jennifer." And when I watch your work, mm, okay, here it is.

• 1:10:07Speaker 01

  You have the it factor.

• 1:10:13Speaker 01

  It's like a precious jewel. A precious gem. Very few people have it. It doesn't make us better or worse than anybody else. It's just that, I don't know, maybe when God was shining up some jewels, he did like this on one of them.

• 1:10:35Speaker 01

  You got a little bit of that spit.

• 1:10:39Speaker 01

  And what I see you doing is honoring it.

• 1:10:44Speaker 01

  So, I would not have come over here

• 1:10:49Speaker 01

  if I wasn't as proud as I am of you. I don't have time. I'm trying to save the world right now. There's a lot of [BLEEP] going on in the world. And I'm responsible when you have been given as much as I have been given. I don't have time to carry luggage up Mount Everest.

• 1:11:09Speaker 01

  And that's what we're fighting right now.

• 1:11:14Speaker 01

  So, I wanted to get over here and tell you how proud.

• 1:11:22Speaker 01

  And, um, don't stop. I talked to your sister that night

• 1:11:28Speaker 01

  at the Obama's party.

• 1:11:30Keke Palmer?

  Yep.

• 1:11:34Speaker 01

  Everybody's gonna keep an eye on you. I don't think you're capable of getting a big head. I think you've known who you are a long time. Because when you come from that childhood showbiz [BLEEP], that ain't no easy road to toe. So stay on, stay on top of it. And take care of you. You hear me?

• 1:11:55Keke Palmer?

  Jennifer, I'm so happy that you came on this show because even though I'm the lucky one that gets to have the conversation with you, the people that watch my show, you know, that's what it's about. So you weren't really just having a conversation with me, but you were having a conversation with, you know, hip-hop culture, the kids, the millennials, Gen Z, Gen X.

• 1:12:14Speaker 01

  Who I love, by the way. That's who I'm fighting for, you guys. I'm fighting, I've lived my life. They can't do nothing to me now. I mean, I got, you know how many people? I got

• 1:12:30Speaker 01

  everything I wanted.

• 1:12:37Speaker 01

  I got to grow up

• 1:12:43Speaker 01

  and learn to be still enough

• 1:12:47Speaker 01

  to look into the eyes of a baby

• 1:12:51Speaker 01

  and see myself.

• 1:12:54Speaker 01

  I'm in my skin now, having done the work to be able

• 1:13:02Speaker 01

  to watch a moonrise

• 1:13:07Speaker 01

  and become it.

• 1:13:11Speaker 01

  That's work.

• 1:13:14Speaker 01

  Y'all babies. But what I showed up for is to tell you is that it's all possible.

• 1:13:23Speaker 01

  And it's always, always right around the corner. So stick around. Don't [bleep] up.

• 1:13:32Speaker 01

  Don't [bleep] yourself up. Don't hurt yourself too bad when you get mad. Stay alive. It's it's coming. It's already here, really. But you gotta wake up to it being here. It's right here, right now. So make me proud. You already do.

• 1:13:53Keke Palmer?

  I love you so much. And I have to shout out Big Age, which is your other new Audible series with Central Entertainment and Nisi Nash.

• 1:13:59Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:14:00Keke Palmer?

  So I wanted to shout that out.

• 1:14:01Speaker 01

  No, things are great. Things are good. You know, let's keep it moving, y'all. But once again, the biggest thing right now is stand up wherever you are. These are challenging times, but they've always been challenging. So act like you know. But the biggest thing about this is it's for the kids now.

• 1:14:22Keke Palmer?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:23Speaker 01

  You gotta stand up. It's for the babies coming. You gotta stand up.

• 1:14:29Keke Palmer?

  I couldn't agree with you more. We need those words and we always love it for you and that piano.

• 1:14:33Speaker 01

  A three chords and start screaming. You know what that is? It's passion.

• 1:14:38Keke Palmer?

  It is.

• 1:14:38Speaker 01

  I am literally dragged over to that piano to just hit those same chords every time, but scream out whatever's going on and say, but to lift you up. Oh, I want to be rageful. I want to say, can't do it. That's not going to help anything. That's not going to help anything to get mad and go tearing through the world, murdering and killing and fighting and screaming and, oh my God, y'all, stop that. Find that love in you. It's there. Find it. I know life is hard. You will not.

• 1:15:21Speaker 01

  If you want the rose, you got to go through the thorns. Grow up and navigate those thorns. Life is hard. And once you realize that, you'll be better for it. Grow up.

• 1:15:37Keke Palmer?

  Well, I'm ready for the third chapter. We got "The Mother of Black Hollywood," we've got "Walk in My Joy," and soon we going to get "Get Up."

• 1:15:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, that is. How'd you know? That is. That's it.

• 1:15:48Keke Palmer?

  I know.

• 1:15:49Speaker 01

  I love you, Keke Palmer. Go, Kiki. It's your birthday. Go, Kiki. It's your birthday. Girl, you are so cute.

• 1:15:56Keke Palmer?

  I love you.

• 1:15:57Speaker 01

  Come here, pumpkin.

• 1:16:03Keke Palmer?

  Jennifer, you've shown us what it means to tell the truth out loud, to survive, to fall, to get up, to laugh, anyway. You've played everybody's mama and auntie on screen, but in real life, you've been a guide, a warning, a protector, and a blueprint. From segregation to Broadway, from trauma to triumph, from silence to authorship, you didn't just walk in your joy, you built it. And if resilience had a voice, it would sound a lot like yours. Baby, this is Keke Palmer.

• 1:16:34Speaker 03

  Baby, this is, this is Kiki. Baby, this is Keke Palmer, yeah.