Keke Palmer shares the key difference between working at Nickelodeon and Disney as a child actor

Keke Palmer has shared how her experience working at Disney differed from her time at Nickelodeon.

During an appearance at Claudia and Jackie Oshry’s The toast podcast, the 31-year-old actor reflected on his major breakthroughs throughout his career. She mentioned a few of the films – i.a Barbershop II and Akeelah and the bee – she did as a child and noted that these works led to her work with Nickelodeon.

“What put Keke Palmer on the map as boooom was True Jackson, VP, she told Claudia Oshry. “After that, my life was changed, honey.”

Claudia also called Palmer “one of the few people who did both” when she was part of Nickelodeon and Disney Channel projects. In 2007, Palmer starred in the popular Disney Channel Original Movie Jump in!along with Corbin Bleu.

Palmer was also asked if she liked working on one of the two networks more than the other. However, she said this question was not easy to answer, so she first explained what she liked most about Disney.

“Disney is really great when it comes to not just the storytelling you see on screen, but the storytelling in the company,” No said star. “They tell stories through marketing, through their employees. They have the needles in the office.”

Keke Plamer Says Her Pay 'Was Really Amazing' While Working on Nickelodeon's 'True Jackson, VP'
Keke Plamer Says Her Pay ‘Was Really Amazing’ While Working on Nickelodeon’s ‘True Jackson, VP’ (Getty Images for Essence)

She went on to gulp about why she loves the fact that Disney is like “a whole universe.”

“I think it feels really good when you’re a kid because the magic doesn’t end. There’s an element of it being really, really fun to be a part of,” Palmer added.

The actor then shared the benefits of working with Nickelodeon, saying the company’s pay “was really great.” She also claimed that while Disney “has a way of making you want to be a part” of what you’re doing, that wasn’t the case for Nickelodeon.

“Nickelodeon is like, ‘Come in and get this check.’ It wasn’t about making it necessarily exciting,” she said. “Except for the slime.”

Palmer went on to recall an experience where she was “slimed” as the network was known to dump green slime on actors’ heads to either celebrate or embarrass them.

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“One day we were doing this big promotional thing about all the new shows coming to Nickelodeon. We had to slime. Obviously, when you film things, you don’t just film it once. You film it multiple times,” she explained.

She also said the incident happened while she was in her “weave era,” referring to the terminology for having artificial or natural extensions sewn into human hair.

“When I tell you they slimmed me, they had to wash it all out. I lay under the dryer for hours just to get slimed again?” added Palmer. “Oh dear, I hated that slime after that. It was too much.”

Palmer has previously opened up about her personal life while rising to stardom. During an interview with People last month she spoke out about having an “inappropriate” relationship with a 20-year-old man while working on True Jackson, VP, at the age of 15.

“I was trying to balance being really young, but also feeling pretty mature. If I thought it was inappropriate, I wouldn’t have done it,” she explained. “In my mind, it was like, ‘I got a full-time job … No one can understand me but a grown man.” But he knew there were a lot of things that I can’t understand when I’m 15.

The relationship – which Palmer said she kept hidden from loved ones for years – lasted until the actor was 20. However, she also admitted that the five-year romance had a long-lasting negative impact.

“I was mentally unable to process and understand things that would have made that relationship appropriate,” he said Scream Queens alum added. “The power dynamic brought me to a place that hurt me in ways I couldn’t have known. I didn’t have the language or the strength to accept that who he met was a child, not the woman I wanted to be.”