Keke Palmer on the Challenge of Keeping Secrets About Jordan Peele’s ‘Nope’: ‘We All Say the Same Three Words’

variety.com:

Angelique Jackson When Keke Palmer got a call from Jordan Peele asking her to star in his latest film, “Nope,” she was quick to jump at the chance to join the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s mysterious project.

After all, she’d already DM’d him on Instagram about a year earlier hoping to work together.Upon reading the script — which centers on Emerald Haywood (Palmer) and her brother OJ (Daniel Kaluuya), children of a Hollywood horse trainer who begin to witness mysterious events at their inland California farm — Palmer was struck by the trajectory of her character.“She’s of so many archetypes, from the jester to the orphan — she’s so skillfully created,” Palmer told Variety on the carpet at the world premiere of “Nope” on Monday night. “I just remember thinking to myself, ‘Wow, the different levels I’m gonna have to go through performance-wise, this is going to be a challenge.’ But also a good, fun challenge.

I don’t get to play characters like that often.” But while collaborating with Peele on the “intense” shoot was a challenge she relished, Palmer was a little less fond of figuring out how to keep everything about the project a secret, which has become a hallmark of Peele’s projects, following “Get Out” and “Us.”“I’m not a secret girl like that.

Like, I don’t really have secrets like that, because I don’t want to slip up… it really spooks me,” Palmer explained. “I’m like, ‘Just don’t ask me about this damn movie,’ because I want to work with Jordan again, and if I slip up and tell you something, then I’m gonna be the one in trouble.”Palmer’s solution: keep her answers short. “I had my one little line — ‘It’s a thriller.