Keke Palmer remembers how a voicemail from Will Smith empowered her through her life and career, and provided support while taking an important life decision as a child star.
The Nickelodeon alum recently revealed how she once considered seeking emancipation from her parents at the age of 17 during her early years as a Hollywood star.
However, she had a change of heart after receiving an unexpected phone call from the Hitch actor.
The call came while she was on the set of True Jackson, VP, the Nickelodeon series that aired from 2008 to 2011.
“I get a call from this really, really obscure number,” Keke recalled on the Nov. 19 episode of The Toast podcast. “And I’m like, ‘What? This is weird, I’m not answering this.’”
The Nope actress, who is a mother to 21-month-old son Leodis with ex-partner Darius Jackson, shared that she missed the call but later got to know she got a voicemail from Will.
In the message, he offered words of encouragement and urged her to carry on after learning about her situation through her lawyer.
“Hey, Keke. It’s Will,’” Keke said while trying to talk like the Oscar winner.
“‘We’re over here doing Karate Kid with [my son] Jaden. I just want to let you know I talked to [your lawyer]. He let me know everything you’re going through, and I want you to know sometimes it’s hard being the first, but you’ll get through. Just keep staying focused, love on your family, and y’all gonna be good.’”
At the time, Keke thought that becoming a child star was something brand new for everyone around her, which made her feel isolated from her family.
“I did have problems with my parents during that time of just them not understanding what I was going through,” she explained. “So, it wasn’t totally peachy keen.”
“This was a difficult thing for me that I felt meant that I had to throw my family away,” she said, but she was not alone at those hard times..
“I’ve always had a lot of people—whether they’re notable names or they’re my attorney—that I had a good community, that also my parents made sure I was around, that would encourage community and not like dissension and us breaking apart.”