While Keke Palmer was on stage at SXSW on Friday, a fan rushed to the stage and asked her to marry him.
Palmer was hosting a live recording of her podcast “Baby, This Is Keke Palmer” with her “I Love Boosters” co-stars Demi Moore, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu and Eiza González when the awkward encounter took place. The man kneeled on the ground while propping up a ring box on the stage and grinned. Palmer’s jaw dropped, and her co-stars reacted with a mixture of shock and laughter.
“I can’t marry you. I don’t know you. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, sir,” Palmer said, which made the audience laugh. When she asked if the proposal was a pre-planned prank, staffers and audience members in the front shouted no, and someone called out, “She needs security.” Her security guard emerged from backstage and a SXSW staffer rose from the audience, both asking the man to leave. He remained on his knees, saying, “She wants to say yes,” and several audience members shouted back, “No she doesn’t.” Eventually, he was escorted out of the event space, with Palmer looking concerned for him and apologetic toward her co-stars and the crowd. “Sorry to this man,” Paige said onstage, laughing and referencing an iconic meme featuring Palmer.
Palmer reiterated that she thought it was a prank, joking that she thought Ashton Kutcher’s hidden camera practical joke series “Punk’d” had come back. She then encouraged everyone in the room to take a deep breath in order to refocus on the podcast conversation, and the audience gave her a round of applause.
“I Love Boosters” was SXSW’s opening night film on Thursday. Palmer, writer-director Boots Riley and the rest of the cast celebrated the film and Variety‘s cover story about Palmer at a party afterward, where Palmer sang live.
