Keke Palmer Opens Up About Her Older Guatemalan Boyfriend + Sexy New Movie Role
Actress Keke Palmer is growing up right before our eyes. She made her acting debut on Nickelodeon’s True Jackson, VP at 15. Now 17 (wiki lists her as 18 years old), Palmer has moved on to bigger and better things including more grown up roles. In addition to playing a lead role in the soon to release film Joyful Noise, Palmer is staring in Virgin Mary playing her first “bad girl” role. Of the rol, Keke told Vibe Vixen,
“We haven’t started to film it yet, but I’m very excited because this is something new for me. People have always known me, as I said, as Keke Palmer the “good girl.” In this movie, I’m not necessarily being a huge slut, but my character is just that. She’s like, ‘I’m a sex enthusiast. That’s who I am,’ but the reason why I chose this film was because it’s different from what everybody knows me as. And this character spoke to me because she was funny, she was likeable… Even if I didn’t play the character, you would immediately love her because she’s just lovable. It’s almost like [Draya] on Basketball Wives LA. People can say whatever they want about her, but you like Draya because that’s who she is. You either like her or you don’t. No fronting, no nothing.”
Even though this is her first sexy role, Palmer says she isn’t worried about being typecast because she holds strong morals instilled in her by her family. She also says that she wouldn’t take a role that compromises those morals or might make her feel ashamed looking back at the role years from now.
In other, more juicy Keke news, she opened up about her Guatemalan/Black boyfriend, Rodney who is 4 years older than her (21). According to Palmer, she’s had a crush on her man since she first laid eyes on him at 15 and he was 19. She had a crush on him 2 years before her mom finally said the oldest she could date was 21. Since she received her mom’s blessing, the rest was history. Opening up about her Guatemalan beau and dating outside of her race, Palmer said,
“I’ve thought about it. It always seemed so difficult to me because I want to be understood culturally. When I’ve had crushes on other cultures, sometimes they don’t understand. They don’t get my jokes, they don’t get who I am or my family or anything like that. It’s not like I don’t find white guys or [other cultures] attractive, it’s just I want to be understood.”
“[My boyfriend] he was raised by his mother who is Guatemalan, so he’s the only Black person. It’s culturally different, but I realized I can still find a way to understand [them]. Even though everyone is speaking Spanish around me and I don’t understand it, his mother is so kind and open that there’s not a problem. I don’t feel like I’m an outsider.”