KeKe Palmer is an actress looking for a challenge. That challenge fell into her lap when she was cast as Chan’dra in screenwriter Neil LaBute‘s Full Circle on DIRECTV. As a musician she learned how LaBute’s words fit right into that musical scale.
In an interview with Daily Actor, Palmer shared, “The writing is very much so different than anything I’ve ever done. For me, luckily I’m a musician so…I’ve always known like, ‘Ok, now what’s the rhythm of this scene?’ That’s always been one of the first thoughts into my head. And as far as writing, my mom has always told me to respect a writer’s work.”
Her character debuts in the fourth episode of the series with a storyline involving actor David Boreanaz who plays a comedian named Jace whose irreverent joke changes Chan’dra’s life. She now wants more than an apology, she wants redemption.
The 20-year-old actress explained how she took on such a difficult role, “It’s very heavy stuff…but with such a realistic tone to it. You know what I mean? So it’s not the dramatics of how this happened, it’s more so how it would happen in real time. If we’re in the real moment of it all, how would you feel? What would you say? How would it be said? And that was really, really going through my mind and then I was thinking this whole time, ‘Dammit, Neil.'”
Working with LaBute’s words also gave the True Jackson,VP star an itch to perhaps get up onstage and work in the theatre.
“For sure. I’ve always admired theatre actors just for the simple fact that they don’t get a second chance. You have to go out there every night and give it your all and let it go, and that’s hard for an actor to do. Trust and believe me, even getting maybe six and seven shots. It’s hard to let it go,” said Palmer. “So to imagine myself doing a play only having this one chance to do this scene the way it needs to be done and Meryl Streep is out in the audience watching me possibly? Oh, I would be on pins and needles. I would be just dying.”
Palmer’s episode airs on Wednesday, Oct. 16. Full Circle debuts on DIRECTV on Wednesday, Oct. 9.
