KeKe Palmer Cosmopolitan Cover

The gag is—-KeKe Palmer looks amazing.

Source: Dana Scruggs / Dana Scruggs

Keke is covering Cosmopolitan’s ‘Jaugust’ issue and inside she’s speaking on a number of topics including Dorito Dinge, the George Floyd protests, the viral moment when she gave an impassioned plea to a National Guardsman and more.

The actress spoke with Cosmo via Zoom while quarantining with her family in Chicago and explained why she once again felt emboldened to act and protest much like she did for Mike Brown in 2014.

She also posed for pics taken by Dana Scruggs and rocked a cute kinky ‘fro.

See Cosmopolitan KeKe’s interview quotes below:

On her reaction to the protests:

With a lot of different emotions, when I saw some of the violence. I couldn’t actually see myself doing that because I work from a different place, but I understand it. There are people out there who feel like that is their only option in order to be heard or their only way to have access to something they feel represents value. If the language for so long toward you has been violence, how would you expect someone to respond?”

On Orange Piss POTUS:

“I think President Trump plays into it too. He’s inciting a race war. His craziness is inspiring us to just really get him the f*ck out! It’s like we needed somebody who riled us up so much for us to be activated to the point of saying, ‘Oh, hell no. I can’t let this guy continue.’”

Source: Dana Scruggs / Dana Scruggs

On facing off with a national guardsman:

“At that moment, I felt like, You’re human like me. I’m fighting out here, not just for me but for you too, you and the universe. How in control is this system for them to be able to stop y’all from seeing that? Everything I said came out like word vomit. I know I didn’t let him get a word in edgewise, but it was because I wanted him to feel me. I wanted to connect to the human, not the suit, not this robot-a** s***. “Yo, we need you to take a stand with us because this has got to stop.”

On the guardsman kneeling instead of marching with protestors:

“I thought it wasn’t enough. George Floyd died because somebody kneeled on his neck. I’m not looking for you to kneel. I’m not looking for a moment. I’m looking for us to stand together. If now isn’t the time to do it, then when is? Because there was a time when standing up to the slave master seemed crazy as hell too.”

On acting post-pandemic:

“Before the pandemic happened, I was supposed to start a movie called Alice. (I think we’re going to be able to start shooting in early August.) It’s a true story about how a slave owner kept his slaves past slavery’s end. My character Alice goes from what she thought was the 1800s into the 1970s, where you have Diana Ross on the cover of magazines, where you have Pam Greer in movies kicking ass. Initially, I didn’t want to do it. I wanted to focus on comedy. But this is a story where a young woman finds her power, and I liked that.”

KeKe’s Cosmopolitan cover hits newsstands July 14.

Source: Dana Scruggs / Dana Scruggs