SZA thinks concept of fame ‘is so weird’

SZA is years into her career with two successful albums, but fame is still something she grapples with and thinks she wasn’t meant to have.

“Some people are very well acclimated in being perceived and also have a different mechanism to approach that,” SZA tells Extra in an interview promoting One of Them Days, her film with Keke Palmer. “Keke has this crazy network of a mechanism where it’s like, everything just kind of like flows, even when the cameras are on.”

SZA, on the other hand, says she doesn’t “really know what is happening” or “what the hell [is] going on.”

“I didn’t grow up famous, I grew up in the ‘burbs, I went to regular school, went to regular college, did regular odd jobs until everything popped off,” she explained. “I’ve never been examined in this way. … I get just a comfortability with letting my shoulders down and knowing that I’m not in danger just because I’m being perceived by people that I don’t know.”

She agreed with Keke’s sentiment that fame is weird and argued against those who say she knew what she was getting into.

“They be like, ‘That’s what you you signed up for,’ and then I’m like, ‘I didn’t even know what I was signing up for, actually,'” SZA said. “I just made a couple songs and I was grateful that they were liked, and then I kept going.”

It’s not clear how long she will continue despite the success of her recent album, SOS, including its Lana deluxe. 

“To fulfill my last 2 album requirements I think I just wanna make peaceful children’s music n get outta here,” she tweeted in early January. “Then [I’ll] go be a farmer n donate the produce to underserved communities.”

One of Them Days arrives in theaters Friday.

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