Jennifer Aniston and Diablo Cody are currently in the process of remaking the 1980 classic 9 to 5, a process which is already receiving mixed reviews. (“It’s going to be tough,” says original star Lily Tomlin.) Still, compared to the countless other reboots floating around Hollywood, this one does make a certain amount of sense given changes to the work environment even just post Me Too, post “work from home,” post return to office. In our humble opinion, it could be good! But the quality of the new movie might just come down to thing that made the original so great, which was its impeccable casting. Tomlin, Jane Fonda, and Dolly Parton starred in the original, forming a trio so beloved that it returned to Netflix over 40 years later. Rumors are currently swirling around the internet about who might end up starring, but the answer is staring the producers right in the face, in the biggest film of the week: Keke Palmer must star.
Palmer is currently promoting her own film, One of Them Days, in which she plays Dreux, a beleaguered Los Angeles resident trying to get ahead in work, and in life, even while the systems of oppression try to force her and her best friend/partner in crime (SZA) down. Sound familiar? Yeah, we thought so. She’s always had a facility with playing characters striving to get ahead, even from her time as a child star in Akeelah and the Bee, and 9 to 5 needs the kind of down-to-earth relatability that Palmer has experience exuding onscreen.
Plus, let’s be honest here, there’s the charisma factor. On her press tours, including the one she’s on right now for One of Them Days, Keke Palmer is a joke factory and a star-quality machine. In a recent viral clip with Palmer, SZA, and OoTD producer Issa Rae, Palmer decides to ask SZA what it was like to kiss Drake, then laughs maniacally while Rae points her and says, “I like you.” Yeah we all do. In his review of 9 to 5, some 45 years ago Roger Ebert said of Dolly Parton that, “she contains so much energy, so much life and unstudied natural exuberance that watching her do anything in this movie is a pleasure.” Baby, that’s Keke Palmer.