Abe Sylvia‘s new Apple TV+ series stars Oscar winner Allison Janney, Oscar winner Laura Dern, Oscar and nine-time Emmy Award nominee Kristen Wiig, and latin music icon Ricky Martin. But the true star of “Palm Royale” may just be the one and only Carol Burnett. O.K., maybe that’s an exaggeration as Burnett’s character is in a coma for the first three episodes, but it was the first subject we broached with “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” screenwriter and he was game, noting that Burnett is “my favorite subject.”
READ MORE: “Palm Royale” Trailer: Kristin Wiig and Laura Dern’s beach club comedy ceries comes to Apple in March
Set in 1969, this very loose adaptation of Juliet McDaniel’s novel “Mr. & Mrs. American Pie” finds Maxine Simmons (Wiig) on a mission to join an exclusive Palme Beach, Florida private club. To do so, she’s going to have to win over or defeat the queen bees of the club, Evelyn Rollins (Janey), Dinah (Leslie Bibb), Mary Jones Davidsoul (Julia Duffy), and Raquel (Claudia Ferri). Like Maxine, they all have their own secrets and scandals, but our heroine isn’t completely the lower-class wannabee they think she is at first glance. In fact, Maxine is legitimately related to the one woman they all fear, Norma D’ellacourt (Burnett), who has been in a coma for some time. If and when Norma awakens, the current social class “status quo” is in danger of being torn asunder.
Dern also stars as Linda Shaw, Evelyn’s liberal and politically progressive step-daughter who, yes, has secrets of her own.
Still going strong at a spry 90 years old, Burnett has worked in front of the camera sparingly over the years most recently appearing in four episodes of “Better Call Saul.” Sylvia says the draw for Burnett this tim around was “being able to come to the set and hang out with those chicks. She loves them and they’re the best in the business and she wanted to get into that sandbox, as she says.”
Despite Burnett’s character being in a coma for the first three episodes, Sylvia says it was shocking what an amazing scene partner she was in those particular scenes.
“Even in those moments where she’s lying totally still and the little twitches of the face and the way her breathing would change, that she was very much a vital scene partner in all of those scenes,” Sylvia shares. “And I love her entrance into the series, the shot that reveals her. I just think it’s so iconic and her little lip twitch, her irritation coming through at what’s happening to her is just brilliant.”
Initially, Norma’s role was somewhat limited, but once Burnett was cast Sylvia knew they had to beef it up.
“I went to the writers and I said, ‘We now have Carol Burnett, and so let’s make sure she gets to do Carol Burnett on our show.’ In episode three, there’s a scene where the women are all sitting around having a cocktail party, and it’s a long scene, and they’re talking about all of Norma’s different beach ball entrances,” Sylvia explains. “And I said, ‘We should just see these. We should shoot them.’ And there’d be little pops to her entrances from the past. It was actually the very last thing we shot during production. We went out with a bang. The last thing we shot was Carol as Cleopatra, and it was just classic Carol Burnett, quick changes. We shot those three sequences, which she’s Marie Antoinette, Botticelli’s Venus, and Cleopatra. We shot all three of the sequences in I would say about an hour and a half. Because she wanted to do the quick changes. She wanted to keep it alive and bright. And so we shot that. She said, ‘I feel like I’m back on my show.’ She was like, ‘This how I like it.’”
Over the course of the rest of our conversation, Sylvia reflects on Martin’s storyline, the inspiration of Slim Aaaron‘s period photography, the genius of Duffy, allowing improv to flow, and much, much more.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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The Playlist: I’ve not read the book, but I read a quick synopsis of it and it sounds like the book is a bit different than what the show has gone in a storyline. Am I wrong?
Abe Sylvia: It is almost entirely different. The book is a total delight. The character Maxine in the book shares a lot of the qualities of Kristen’s character in the show, and there was the germ of an idea of this iconoclastic bowl in a China shop without even trying a female character, which I’m always attracted to. And there was also a really nice relationship that the character forms with a gay closeted bartender named Robert. And so those were really the parts that compelled me to want to develop it further and the things that we really harness the series on, that central relationship with Ricky Martin’s character. The book is one thing, and then you get in there and I’m not going to stifle my own imagination with something. We changed it from Palm Springs to Palm Beach. I’ve always wanted to a show in Palm Beach and make it a little bit more of a Slim Aaron’s world. And just think that Palm Beach was such an interesting world to set a TV series in because you’re casting about for ideas what you want to concentrate on for networks, what are the worlds that we’ve not seen yet on a television show? They’re always talking about worlds. And it’s like, well, mid-century Palm Beach. Because it’s so exclusive and they also don’t let you shoot there. They really frown upon it, just don’t allow it. So, building this world that she was trying to get into, make it as rarefied as possible, making it as difficult as we could for her. But yeah, it is a huge departure from the book. But that being said, the book is a total delight.
That being said, the first season ends on a massive cliffhanger. Did Apple say, “Hey, we don’t know if we want it to be this big of a cliffhanger. Can you shoot it another way just in case?” Or was this always what you had planned and you just went for it?
This was what we always planned and we had Apple’s support. It was always intended to be an ongoing show from the beginning.
Do you have plans already for season two? Is there an outline for future seasons?
Yes, absolutely. Yep.
And, I don’t want to give anything away, is the hope that a majority of the cast would come back in a future season? That it would still take place in Palm Beach?
[A momentary pause]
Absolutely.
You’re like, “I don’t know what I want to say.” [Laughs.] That’s a good answer. I do want to ask though, as great as Kristen, Allison and some of the other main cast members are, you specifically cast two great character actors that I know you grew up with…
I know where you’re going.
…Julia Duffy and Mindy Cohen who I don’t think have had an opportunity like this in forever. Who had the idea to cast them? How game were they?
Super game. They were presented to us as options, and I was just like, “Wrap it up. This is perfection.” Carrie Bard and our casting director brought them to us. And, of course, I’m obsessed by them and their wit and just the light that they carry with them on screen. And they’re both so funny. And we’re always trying to find more and more for those two ladies to do in the show. And Mindy’s character isn’t in the pilot and was supposed to be a one-off in episode two. And we just loved her so much that we just kept writing for her. She’s just sparkly and wonderful and that town gossip columnist. She’s just perfection.
I don’t want to give anything away, but she is part of a reveal that helps someone else figure out another mystery during the season. Did you guys rework that in a way so that she was more involved?
Oh, I think these things just develop as you’re shooting. You have your scripts. I don’t shoot TV shows like a movie where you just break down the scripts and these are the scripts and this is what we’re shooting. I feel like you’re really handicapping yourself if you’re not discovering as you go as well. So we went into production with probably eight scripts and an outline for nine. I’d only shared the first five with Apple. And then as you start to shoot, connections are being made. You don’t realize that certain actors are going to have amazing chemistry with one another. I learned this on “Nurse Jackie.” We had a whole plan for one of those seasons. And then Edie was seen with the great Michael Esper, and we were like, “Oh my gosh, what were we… This is the season. This connection between these two characters.” So, you want to keep your eyes open to those opportunities and run towards them and write for them. If I really think about it, it wasn’t quite a one-off, but the more she was there on set, the more I just wanted her around. And she just pops off-screen.
You have great improvisers in the cast such as Kristen, Alison, and, clearly, Julia. How much improv is in the show or did they mostly stick to what was on the page?
God, I am not quite sure how to answer that. Maybe like a 75/25% split? At the end of episode four, for example, where Kristen and Carol are together and Carol’s trying to say something Kristen doesn’t understand, that was maybe a couple of lines of a back and forth. And I’m like, “I now have the two greatest living comedians in front of me.” So I set up the shot, I directed that episode and I don’t usually do cross-coverage, but I didn’t want to miss a thing. So, I had one camera on Carol, one camera on Kristen, and they just played. We just rolled. And then the more Carol was trying to make her understand what she was trying to say and the more Kristen was getting it wrong, the crew was trying so hard not to break during the takes. So, a scene like that is completely improvised. But we’re not straying too far off of what the plan is for each individual scene.
I know television budgets are not limitless and the show looks great overall, but were you worried about pulling off the gigantic CG whale? That is a massive part of an entire episode.
That was expensive. Really expensive.
Is that something you worry about?
Yeah, you worry about everything. But luckily I have a great line producer in Jesse Sternbaum, and he is very protective of me. And also Apple really believed in the show and believed in what we were trying to do. Certainly, we have to hit a number and sometimes we go over it. That was a situation where you have conversations with the line producers. We did a Havana Nights [theme] in episode four, in which we had 250 dancers, 14 showgirls, and the whole entire cast. We built a fountain and a pool in the middle of the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. And in order to pay for that, I had to have episode three be a little bit smaller. So, you’re sort of always robbing Peter to pay Paul. So it’s like, you find the pattern of the show and you’re like, “O.K., this one episode seven takes place all basically in one house. And so then we get to episode eight and now I have the money for my whale.” You are constantly watching the budget and modulating stories so that if you dream big [there is a means to make it happen]. I would go to Jesse and it’s like, “We’re going to have this whale.” And he’s like, “O.K., then you have to choose. I can pay for the whale if this goes away.” That’s usually the conversation. “Or if you tell me now that you’re going to want 75 dancers at the beach ball, I will find a way to pay for it. I don’t want to spend the money before it’s there.” And so he’ll trim in other ways. But I will say we went over budget on the whale and I sort of mea culpa. We did it, we had a certain budget for it. As the cuts were coming in, we were using more shots of the whale and there was just no way around it. And I knew I was going to have to ask forgiveness on that one.
Well, it’s stunning and beautiful. And also there is a scene in that episode where you’re like, “Oh yes, that’s Oscar winner Allison Janney talking to a green screen CG whale and she’s killing it.” She’s quite great in that episode.
She’s miraculous. She’s one of the greatest living actors ever.
Watching the first episode, I wasn’t sure exactly where it was going, but when people watch it, there’s a scene at the end between Allison and Kristen where they confront each other for the first time. And I was like, “Oh, this is the show.” And it sparked and I was like, “Oh, I want to watch the rest of this.” I don’t know if that was your moment, but were there any moments where you were like, “Yep, this is gonna work.”?
You always hope. You never know. You just try your best. And when you’ve got actors of this caliber, you’re 85% of the way there. They’re so charismatic and they are who they are for a reason. But you’re always worried. The show’s a big swing and tonally it’s a big swing. It’s a really unique piece of television. So I hope people connect to it. I love it. It’s probably the most me thing that I’ve ever made. Most reflective of my personal aesthetic. So, it’ll be doubly wounding if it doesn’t connect for people. But it’s one of those situations where I just love it so much. I feel like Teflon about it.
“Palm Royale” debuts Wednesday, March 20 on Apple TV+