Palm Royale has officially opened its gates to viewers with the first three episodes of the glitzy and glamorous dramedy starring Kristen Wiig now streaming on Apple TV+.
If you’ve watched, you have already met the characters Laura Dern, Allison Janney, Leslie Bibb, and Amber Chardae Robinson are playing, but TV Insider caught up with them and executive producer Jayme Lemons to discuss the joys of working with this show’s star-studded cast and some of the secrets the characters are keeping close to their expensive vests.
Palm Royale tells the underdog story of Maxine Simmons (Wiig) and follows her efforts to break into Palm Beach’s high society. As Maxine tries to break through the impermeable line between the haves and have-nots, the series asks what lengths someone will go to to grasp the position they’re after and how much they are willing to sacrifice.
(Credit: Apple TV+)
Secrets abound in this society that Maxine finds herself in, particularly with her first “friend,” Dinah (Bibb), who is having an extramarital affair when the series begins. But when it came to filming with an icon like Carol Burnett, who plays Norma Dellacorte, Bibb couldn’t hide her adoration. “My first scene with her, I curtsied to her, and I was like, ‘I don’t know why’…. but Dinah would curtsy to her.”
Bringing Burnett into the fold may have been part of a bigger plan as Dern, who executive produces and plays Linda in the series, says, “We’ve been talking so much about developing the book and five years of development and what parts of the story did we care about and loving to create opportunities for a female ensemble, but also did we just do the whole thing so we could meet Carol Burnett?”
“I think so,” Lemons chimes in. “It worked,” she adds excitedly.
It really was a highlight experience for Bibb, who made it clear that working alongside her peers on the project, “you come away from this show a better actor… I felt like I learned so many important things as an actress.”
“Carol’s been one of my idols forever… I’ve always said that acting is a team sport, and we have a great team together. Team Palm Royale is great. We all know how to throw the ball to each other and run with it and play, and to get to do it with the likes of Carol and Kristen and [more]… There’s so many great people to play with in this series. It’s definitely one of the reasons I wanted to come aboard,” Janney reveals.
For Robinson, who plays Linda’s friend Virginia, filming “was a masterclass working with this ensemble. I had such a blast coming into work every day, just learning from everyone around me because they’ve all been in the game for such a long time, so just watching how they take up space, watching how they show up, ready to roll.”
Watch the full video above for more.
Palm Royale, Wednesdays, Apple TV+