Earlier this year Keke Palmer opened a dialogue about fame and consent when she tweeted, “No means no, even when it doesn't pertain to sex."
“I was at the bar the other day and this girl asked me three times for a picture and I told her three times nicely that I did not want take one with her,” she wrote in April. “She still preceded to film me against my will….”
Palmer explained that the situation was lose-lose for her, especially because she knew she was on camera. “If I went off on her I would’ve been wrong, so I just nervously laughed while my privacy was invaded upon,” she added.
A few months later, in Glamour's July cover interview, Palmer expanded upon how she chooses which aspects of her life to share, which she'd rather keep to herself.
“It's true that you do have to take the good with the bad, whether you're famous or whether you're working at Starbucks,” she said. “Everybody that walks in there isn't going to be nice, but [you] can say to the asshole that comes to you at Starbucks, ‘I'm not fucking taking your order.’ It's the same thing. So yes, as a famous person people are going to do that to me, but I also can tell people, ‘Hell no.’”
Palmer isn't the first star to weigh in on fame as it relates to privacy (or lack thereof), but that doesn't mean that the sentiment doesn't bear repeating. Especially for actors who get into the business because they enjoy performing, fame is simply a by-product—not the end goal—of their career choice. “I do this because I love it, not because I wanted to be famous, but because I wanted to create art and conversations,” she says.
Several people rushed to Palmer's defense in the original Twitter thread, empathizing with her desire to not be The Famous Actor Keke Palmer every time she steps out the door. Still, a few outliers continued to double down on the opinion that when a public person is in a public place, they should drop everything for their fans.
“Celebrity-ism is something that many people want, so it's hard for them to have compassion for it—because if they don't envy it, then they despise it,” the 28-year-old tells Glamour. “Neither of those things will help you understand or put yourself in the position of someone else, but at the end of the day, it's a job. That's why I always try to help people get that viewpoint.”
“I'm a human being learning how to set my boundaries and let people know when I'm on the clock and when I'm not,” she says. “That's me keeping it real.”