In a new conversation for VARIETY’s “Actors on Actors” issue, Keke Palmer and Sharon Stone’s chemistry is apparent as they discuss taking away men’s rights, being single moms, Stone getting Father’s Day cards from her kids, possibly working on a project together with Colman Domingo, what to do if a director asks “you to stand on your head and fart the national anthem,” “Euphoria” being shown in high schools, “The ‘Burbs,” and more.
Palmer and Stone on being single moms:
Stone: It’s so hard.
Palmer: Especially solo. I have a lot of support, but I’m just saying.
Stone: I did solo. I adopted three boys.
Palmer: I’m not surprised. Boy mom energy.
Stone: Changed me. And then sometimes —you’ll find, I’m sure, with your son as he grows — there are dad questions. I took them in a certain room of my house and closed the door and said, “This is where we do dad questions. And now you talk to me like I’m your dad.” And that’s what we did. “We’re going to talk about anything you might need to know about this, this or this.”
Palmer: As they got older, did they understand how you were creating this safe space?
Stone: Yes. They gave me Father’s Day cards.
Palmer and Stone on curtailing men’s rights in the same way women’s rights are being taken away:
Stone: Would we tell men we’d like to take away their healthcare? “First of all, we’re taking the Viagra.”
Palmer: Because that’s got y’all acting crazy. All that hairline stuff, cut it out, since y’all are being mean now.
Stone: And we don’t know about the voting. Because you can’t be responsible to come home, take care of your kids or pay that child support.
Palmer: I don’t know if I’m into them driving.
Stone on some advice she received from an acting teacher:
As my acting teacher used to say, “You never tell a director, ‘My character wouldn’t do that.’” If the director says to you, “I’d like you to stand on your head and fart the national anthem,” your response shouldn’t be “My character wouldn’t do that” but “How would my character do that? And why?”
Palmer and Stone on working on a project together with Colman Domingo and getting together after “Actors on Actors”:
Palmer: Oh, my gosh, I just love you. When are we doing a movie? I need to be with you every day.
Stone: I was just talking to Colman [Domingo]. He has an idea for a series for us.
Palmer: Girl, when?!
Stone: If we do it, there would definitely be a part for you, if you’re into it. I’ve been trying to play his wife forever.
Palmer: He’s so handsome.
Stone: He’s a great host.
Palmer: I need to go to a dinner party at his.
Stone: Why don’t I do that? We’ll all do my house.
Palmer: Sounds like a date.
Palmer and Stone on the isolating nature of fame:
Stone: Very few people are going to ever understand that the more successful you become, the more isolating that it is.
Palmer: I’m not trying to strum that violin, but especially as a woman. When a woman happens to be secure — knows what she wants — somehow we’re such monsters.
Palmer and Stone on how Palmer’s role in “Alice” influenced her current era:
Palmer: I did this movie called “Alice” where I played this woman who realized she was a slave. Every day after I did that movie, I was like, “I got to live. For my ancestors.”
Stone: Don’t you think that you called to your ancestors to play the part? And they do not ever let go. They’ll be with you forever because you called to them.
Palmer: Girl. You are speaking the truth. That was the beginning of the era that I’m living in now, which is immense gratitude for self. No more shame. No more time for none of that shit.
[They fist bump.]
Stone on “Euphoria” and her connection to the show:
I think it’s the greatest show on television. We’ve met these kids. We’ve seen them turn into young adults. We’ve seen them turn into full-on drug dealers. And I’ve gone through it in my family. My brother went to the biggest prison in New York. He got in the drug business. It kept going. I was like, “You have to get out. You have to let me pay off your vig.” So when the first episode ended, I just sat there and cried. And then I read these reviews about how people wanted it to be this happy ending, and I’m like, “What you saw was so honest.” “Euphoria” is so relevant. I believe it should be shown in every high school, and I think all the parents should have to see it.
Palmer and Stone on Palmer’s series “The ‘Burbs”:
Stone: I notice on your show, “The ’Burbs,” you have a suburban community that actually has all of the players that would be in the suburbs. You have a charming, not only interracial, but international couple. Then you have the lesbian neighbor. The guy who’s undercover from somewhere. And you have, maybe, a murder. You have managed to allow us to be comfortable with suburbia and all the real things that are in it.
Palmer: That’s the best compliment, because that was the hope for the show. To talk about real things. Expose the stuff that is happening in the underbellies of suburbia, but make it digestible. Dialogue about it. I think about Norman Lear back in the day, watching “The Jeffersons” and Archie Bunker and George.
[Photo Credit: Mary Ellen Matthews for Variety]
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