Apple TV’s Palme Royale
| Photo Credit: Apple TV
Carol Burnett has stood to represent many things in her nearly seven-decade long career in Hollywood. Her name is also the first out of Allison Janney and Leslie Bibb’s mouths, when asked what drew them to the AppleTV+ series, Palm Royale.
Set in 1969, the show deals with a certain selection of residents at Palm Beach, Florida. Based on the novel Mr. & Mrs. American Pie, it delves into the lives of country club socialites whose lifestyle becomes an object of desire for Maxine (Kristen Wiig). As she struggles to break through the economic and social barriers, others, including Evelyn Rollins (Allison Janney) and Dinah Douglas (Leslie Bibb), work to maintain the exclusivity of the Palm Royale Country Club.
Allison and Leslie are joined by a vast cast, including Laura Dern and Ricky Martin, whom they are quick to list out as one of the reasons they chose to work on Palm Royale. “And also, Abe Sylvia! I remember talking to him on the phone when I didn’t even know what my character was going to be. He was so fun and had a great sense of what he was going to do,” Janney says.
Leslie Bibb in Palme Royale
| Photo Credit:
Apple TV
“I just remember doing that audition and remember thinking that this writing is so good. It was a very big moment for me, like I had gotten the golden ticket,” Bibb adds.
Janney’s ‘golden ticket’ moment ended up being sharing the screen with Burnett, whom she had idolised while growing up. “There was this read-through at the very first week and I sat right next to her and I was just thrilled to get to work with this comedy legend. I think all of us were pretty starstruck and excited to say we were working with her and she is just so gracious and professional.”
Carol Burnett in Palme Royale
| Photo Credit:
Apple TV
According to Bibb, Burnett showed up at the very same read-through despite not having any lines, “I thought to myself, ‘Oh this is a what a professional does!’”
Abe Sylvia inspired the visual language of the series from the aesthetics and style of lifestyle photographer Slim Aarons. He photographed “attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places” between the 1950s and 1970s. With Aarons’ pictures as the touch-point, Bibb and Janney also drew from their personal inspirations.
Bibb looked to Lee Radziwill, the sister of Jacqueline Kennedy to amplify the All about Eve quality of her character Diana. For her character Evelyn, Janney was reminded of her grandmother. “She was divine and lived in her perfect world. I thought of her when I thought of Evelyn, but my grandmother was not like Evelyn. Evelyn is stuck in the past and wanting to hold on to her fragile place in society and wanting to still belong and be accepted.”
Allison Janney in Palme Royale
| Photo Credit:
Apple TV
While describing the show as “delicious cotton candy” to behold, she adds that the provocative writing is what brings it all together. The characters are surrounded in this elite circle in a tiny place, “but outside the world is changing vastly. Martin Luther King is about to be killed, we are going to the moon, the Vietnam war is taking place. So, it is all happening around them, and we have these women who don’t want it to change, who can’t stop it from changing.”
Though it sounds like a show that is quite specific to its time period, Bibb was quick to point out why its sentiments translate well to contemporary times. “In the timeline of the show, abortion has not yet legalised, and when we were filming it, the rights started to reverse, and I remember thinking that is so interesting. It was like we were doing a show that felt in the zeitgeist. There is a relevance to this show,” Bibb says.
The first two episodes of Palme Royale stream exclusively on Apple TV on Thursday, March 20, 2024.
