Sanaa Lathan Opens Up About Her Career, Therapy, & Healing During An ESSENCE Fest Conversation With Keke Palmer

“For every job you’ve seen me do, there could have been a year of me getting rejected every day,” Sanaa Lathan shared during an intimate conversation in New Orleans. The star sat across from Keke Palmer for Keke Live – a special podcast taping at the 2026 ESSENCE Festival on July 3.

It’s not often we hear one of Black Hollywood’s most celebrated actresses share the other side of the glitz and glam. But that’s exactly what Sanaa did. And it was refreshing.

For years, Black women have carried the reputation of being the strong ones. We build businesses, raise families, and lead teams. We take care of our communities while chasing dreams of our own. We’re celebrated as entrepreneurs, beauty icons, fashion trendsetters and culture shifters. But somewhere between showing up for everyone else and showing up for ourselves, it’s easy to lose sight of what we need.

Sanaa has experienced this, too.

Many of us know Sanaa through Love & Basketball, Brown Sugar, The Best Man and Disappearing Acts. Looking at a career filled with iconic roles, it would be easy to assume the opportunities came one after another. Sanaa’s story tells something different.

Sanaa Lathan & Keke Palmer: Sanaa Talks About Representation, Self-Care, & Managing Panic Attacks

Sitting across from Keke in wide-leg jeans and boho braids, she talked about experiencing rejection, navigating the industry in the ’90s, and learning to advocate for herself. She even delved into battling anxiety and panic attacks, embracing therapy and meditation, and how taking care of herself became just as important as taking care of her career.

Keke, rocking an edgy braided-side shaved hair look, guided the conversation, often connecting Sanaa’s experiences to conversations we have in our group chat. It all sounded so familiar: mental wellness, burnout, and the pressure to always be strong. More than 20 years apart in age—Keke at 32 and Sanaa at 54—the actresses showed how those conversations continue across generations no matter who you are.

Two topics that stood out during the afternoon’s conversation were representation and self-care.

Looking back on her childhood, Sanaa explained why growing up around Black performers helped shape her dreams long before she stepped in front of a camera herself.

She continued: “I understood this is a possibility for me.” Keke built on that thought, saying many people spend years waiting for obstacles to disappear instead of deciding they’ll keep moving regardless of what stands in front of them.

Then the conversation turned to how representation translates into the struggles of Hollywood and her personal battles.

“For every job you saw me do, there could have been a year of me getting rejected every day.”

She explained that during the 1990s there were so few opportunities for Black actresses that she intentionally built friendships with women like Gabrielle Union, Taraji P. Henson and Regina Hall because she needed people who understood the unique challenges of the business.

Sanaa Lathan & Keke Palmer: Sanaa Lathan Has New Peace In Sobriety

Sanaa also shared the now-famous story behind landing Love & Basketball. Despite never playing basketball before auditioning, she refused to give up. She advocated for herself and even requested a basketball coach to get it right.

Advocating for herself continued as a topic when Sanaa opened up about years of anxiety, panic attacks, and eventually realizing how unresolved trauma showed up physically. “You don’t deal with it, the body will deal with it,” she shared with Keke.

She shared how meditation, therapy, and eventually sobriety transformed her life. “There’s a joy and a peace that I have now that I could never have had if I was poisoning myself every day.”

Keke connected those experiences to breaking generational cycles and giving ourselves permission to rest.

“You’ve got to break the cycle,” Keke said. “That’s the practice of saying, ‘I’m allowed to rest.”

So, take it from two living Black women icons we love. Yes slay, yes beat the odds despite what others say, but more importantly, rest Sis. Rest.