Glastonbury headliner compared to Bridget Jones in unexpected film debut

Keke Palmer and SZA’s critically praised buddy comedy One of Them Days sees two best friends race against the clock to meet a life-and-death ultimatum. 

When roommates Dreux (Keke) and Alyssa (SZA) realise their rent money has been stolen, they have less than 12 hours to procure the funds, get Dreux to a life-changing job interview and avoid any more disasters. What could possibly go wrong?

Unfortunately, as their day goes from bad to worse soon enough the threat of eviction isn’t the biggest problem on their hands.

Our dynamic leading duo flex all their comedy skills from the physically absurd to the emotionally chaotic as you’re left rooting for Dreux (cool, calm and collected) and Alyssa (scatterbrained with the best intentions) to succeed against all the odds. 

‘I think Dreux is so similar to me in the fact that she’s trying to break out of the systemic challenges in order to get somewhere else.

‘But she keeps being faced with them in a way that she’s not necessarily leaning into or understanding,’ Keke, who also serves as executive producer on the project, tells Metro ahead of the movie’s UK release.

The former Disney star pointed out that where Dreux struggles to fall back on her community, she has always appreciated just how much support she has had from her own. 

She continued: ‘For me, my family and my community has always been what’s allowed me to excel, even in the corporate space of entertainment.’

Since her days on True Jackson: VP, Keke’s career has only gone from strength to strength as the multi-hyphenate makes her mark as a producer, screen star, and music artist.

And she’s not run out of steam yet.

‘You start out doing being the chef or the server, the actor or the performer. And I think all of our hopes is to be able to grow beyond that and be able to do what Tyler Perry has done.’

These ambitions are ‘a big part of what she put into the character’.

Now hailed a comedy icon, Keke honed her humour in her youth thanks to a ‘very fun and silly’ family and exposure to multi-cam sitcoms. 

She waxes lyrical about Norman Lear, Whoopi Goldberg (especially in Sister Act), Fran Drescher and even fellow Disney star Raven-Symoné who she says is ‘hilarious’.

She added: ‘That’s So Raven and shows like that I think were big things that taught me what was funny, or how I realised what I thought was funny.

‘As I got older, I started looking at stand-up, so I love Jamie Foxx. I loved how he would even sing in his shows. Also I loved Dave Chappelle’s stand up and his sketch work, his ability to bring important topics to the forefront and create a scenario for us to have discussions. 

‘Definitely, as I’ve gotten older and with comedy, I’ve realised that it’s a great opportunity to talk about important things, but obviously that’s not so easy to do.’

Unlike Dreux, who manages to get into several near-death scrapes, Keke hasn’t faced any similar moments in real life, calling the idea ‘spooky’.

However, she spares a moment to reflect on the intense experience of bringing her now two-year-old son Leo into the world.

‘Probably the nearest death experience that I had was having a baby, you know, which apparently is very much so near death, you know, in terms of just like how traumatic it is for your body and all that type of stuff. 

‘But I just remember feeling like I was Tom Brady going to the Super Bowl,’ she recalled, simulating her heavy breathing.

‘And I was just thinking what I had to do: “take the proper breath, push this baby out, and call it a day. So that was probably the most extreme experience that I had in terms of my health, and just like: “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”’

As a mother, producer, actor, singer and more, Keke brings everything she has learnt to the table for One of Them Days – a comedic tour de force which has landed 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, with reviewers praising the stars’ ‘out of this world chemistry’ and ‘impeccable’ acting.

The film also marks SZA’s feature film debut, and although it is a surprise for many, Keke says the Kill Bill hitmaker was ‘so game and down’.

It comes alongside the singer’s growing fanbase in the UK after she headlined Glastonbury’s closing night in 2024.

Although her performance received a mixed reception, leading to a break after which she admitted she wished she hadn’t done it.

As for Keke, she has nothing but praise in the most unexpected ways.

‘Even though she has this kind of almost Bridget Jones’s quality to her where she’s like, “Oh my gosh, oh no”, she still serves every time. And I really love that. It’s so charming. 

‘She was a natural. We are both musical theatre-type kids at heart, meaning she’s just that girl that does what needs to be done. She’s creative, and she can always tap in at any given moment. And I knew after our first chemistry test that she was gonna be great.’

And she admitted that the American superstar even ‘looks so sexy’ while covered in blood – pointing to one scene in the movie that sees the pair doused in it. 

‘It was just terrible. It was so crazy because we shot that scene in one day,’ she says about the memorably gruesome sequence. 

‘Usually, a scene like that could take a couple of days because you have the special effects and the visuals and all the drama of the blood everywhere, and the actual scene that happens beforehand. But we just didn’t have that kind of time.

‘I just remember at the end of the night them being like “Okay, now it’s time for the blood”, and then we just get drenched in all this blood, and it’s sticky, and [you] can’t take no shower because the water in the trailers is always a little bit weird.

It’s like, “where did this water come from? Oh it’s coming from the toilets.” And so we had to wait to get home to take it all off.

‘I don’t even know how SZA looks so sexy during it, because I literally took a picture of her and posted on my page when we wrapped and I’m like: “you look so good with all that blood. It just doesn’t make any sense.’

One of Them Days comes out in UK cinemas on March 7

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