Nope star Keke Palmer sat down with Wired and gave an interview complete with wit, good vibes, and energy.
Since she was eight, the 28-year-old actress has donned glasses, but had to upgrade to a unique pair to help guard her damaged eyes, Insider reports.
However, in one humorous moment, Palmer revealed that her retinas are damaged from staring directly into the sun, according to the Wired video.
Sun-gazing is a spiritual practice that requires a person to stare at the sun during either dawn or dusk. There are numerous risks associated when a person takes in too much direct sunlight, according to Insider. Palmer advises viewers never to sun-gaze, which is how she damaged her eyes.
“I wear glasses, and now I’ve been walking around lately wearing two [pairs of] glasses,” Palmer said, according to NME.
“For all my spiritual heads out there that’s always looking for a different meditation vibe, don’t ever do the sun gazing, honey. I did sun gazing in Joshua Tree and I sunburned my retina playing around trying to be Gandhi and sh-t!”
She continued: “So be careful with that sun, the UVs, the global warming. You gotta protect those eyes because now I’m seeing double and stuff. My astigmatism is going left. The doctor said he can’t even promise me it’ll heal. So I’ve just been praying, because damn.”
“My eyes have been bad since I was eight and everybody in my family wears glasses. Hopefully I didn’t do too much to mess it up. Pray for me,” she pleaded.
The sun’s ultraviolet rays can singe the eye’s surface or retina, which helps to receive and organize visual information and transmit it to one’s brain through the optic nerve, which allows an individual to see, according to the Mayo Clinic.
According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, excessive UV light increases the risk of cataracts, eye cancers, and impaired eye diseases.
Palmer’s latest flick, Nope, co-starring Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead), and Brandon Perea (The OA), is due in theaters on July 22, NME reports.