Keke Palmer Clarifies She's Not Retiring Despite Past Comments: 'I Was Thinking in Like 20 Years!' (Exclusive)

Keke Palmer thrilled fans in January when she said retirement was “around the corner.”

But with the second season of her show Password premiered March 12 on NBC, the actress made it clear in an interview with PEOPLE that she’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

“People took it literally, but I was thinking in about 20 years!” she says. “But also, what I will say is that I meant a different kind of ‘slowing down.’ I think there’s a version of me that really wants to produce more, that really wants to direct more, that wants to work even more, no only in front of the camera.”

“I’ll still do things, but I don’t know if I’ll always want to do three movies a year,” she explains. “It’s amazing. Thank God I’m doing it. But I don’t know if I always want to do it at that level or that way.”

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‘Password’ contestant Sam Seitles and hosts Jimmy Fallon and Keke Palmer.

Evans Vestal Ward/NBC

Meanwhile, Palmer, 30, teases that there’s a lot to look forward to this season Password, including guests such as Jimmy Kimmel, Wiz Khalifa, Chance the Rapper and Johnny Knoxville, and fashion designers such as Dolce & Gabbana and Sergio Hudson. The show will also have new “extras” for contestants including Shoot the Moon and tiebreakers.

“Usually I’m just the host, but this season, whenever there’s a tie, I can jump in as well Password fun,” she shares.

Some previous contestants will also return for another chance to win cash prizes. “We heard some of their stories about what their life was like and what happened the first time they won Password“, she notes.

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Keke Palmer, Jimmy Fallon and ‘Password’ contestant.

Evans Vestal Ward/NBC

When Palmer isn’t working on projects like Password, animated series Prime Video The second best hospital in the galaxy, and her podcast Honey, this is Keke Palmer with mom Sharon Palmer spends quality time with son Leo, who turned 1 in February and whom he shares with ex Darius Jackson.

Although she wants to teach Leo how to eventually be independent and “on his own” like her parents did, Palmer admits that her son is also teaching her a few things.

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Keke Palmer with son Leo.

Keke Palmer/Instagram

“Leo teaches me that I have the right to enjoy life,” she explains. “I gave up a large part of my childhood for what my family and I now have the freedom to do. We’re all putting parts of our lives on hold for this career and for this opportunity to find generational wealth… So for me, there was often a feeling [with] of my childhood, ‘Damn, I’ll never get that moment back,’ that moment that everybody has where they can just say ‘to hell with it’ and be irresponsible and just be a kid.”

“I didn’t have that moment, because I always had to show up, be on time and stick to my ways,” she continues. “With my son — it’s not that I’m going to be irresponsible — but my son has given me permission to explore some of those things that I thought I’d missed. And I can do that with him. We have fun together, let our hair down together, and he just gave me a chance to remember what it was like to be a kid again.”

Keke Palmer Clarifies She’s Not Retiring Despite Past Comments: ‘I Was Thinking in Like 20 Years!’ (Exclusive)

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