Laura Dern does an excellent Kristen Wiig impression.
The Oscar winner channeled the Saturday Night Live alum at the Television Critics Association press conference Monday morning, which Wiig was unable to attend due to COVID.
“Good afternoon, esteemed colleagues, I am beyond sad to miss this day, the launch of our show,” Dern said, reciting a letter that Wiig wrote. The pair co-star in the upcoming series Palm Royale, which will premiere on Apple TV+ Mar. 20.
“In fact, you know what COVID? This is what I think of you. ‘Laura, please lift up one hand…oh, and make a thumb’s down sign.’ Thanks,” Dern-as-Wiig continued. “I really wanted to be here today and celebrate with my friends. I was so lucky to work with these incredible people, this incredible group, here, before you. I am sure you all have prepared questions and I feel so badly I’m not there. I would like to ask Laura to give everyone here my personal phone number so you can ask me all your questions any time. ‘Laura, please don’t give anyone my phone number.’ Truly, I hope you enjoy the show. I’m extremely proud of it. I love it so much and everyone up on this stage. Love, Kristen. ‘Oh, Laura, please begin to clap so they help clap for me. Clap, clap, clap.’”
While Wiig was missing in action, Dern was joined by her co-stars Carol Burnett, Ricky Martin, and Amber Chardae Robinson. In Palm Royale, Wiig plays Maxine Simmons, a woman in 1969 who is desperate to break into Palm Beach high society and rebuild her life—a tall order given that the social circle’s gatekeeper Evelyn, played by Allison Janney, just plain doesn’t like her.
Burnett, Martin, and Dern all spoke about how unique the experience of shooting the dramedy has been in their careers.
Martin said his casting came about thanks to an encounter on a dance floor at an Oscars party. “I was dancing—I happened to be dancing next to Abe,” Martin said, referring to Palm Royale creator and showrunner Abe Sylvia. “And he had a conversation with my agent after that night. And three days later, I had the script and I started reading it. And to make a long story short, maybe a week later, I was flying from Puerto Rico to LA to meet with Tate Taylor. And I was just fascinated by, first of all, the opportunity to work with such incredible legends.”
Speaking of legends, Burnett had the room of journalists—and her co-stars—rapt while telling stories about her start in show business and her legendary career.
“I didn’t even have to read the script,” Burnett, who turned 90 last year, said about what made her want to join the show. “I just wanted to work with these people and get to know them, and go out to dinner, and you know, and have some fun. Of course, in the first few episodes, I’m in a coma, and I still got paid. So, I mean, it was a slam dunk.” (Burnett also gets to say the line, “Let’s play doctor,” to Martin. “I know that sounds kind of lascivious, but they really did play doctor,” she said.)
Burnett also spoke about how different the television landscape is today from when she first broke into the industry.
“I went to New York in 1954, and I was—I didn’t have any jobs or anything—but I lived at a place called The Rehearsal Club, which was for young women interested in the theater, $18 a week room and board,” she said. And I got to make the rounds and do things, and I auditioned in 1955 for Leonard Bernstein when he was doing Omnibus. He did it every week, and this one week they were doing a salute to musical comedy beginning in the early 1900s. And I sang for Lenny, and he said, ‘Take it up a key.’ Sang again, up a key, because he wanted me to belt. And he hired me to do a segment honoring Ethel Merman.”
She spoke about landing her big break in the original Broadway production of Once Upon a Mattress and working on The Garry Moore Show.
“I never thought I would be a television person, but once I got with Garry’s show, that was it, that solidified it for me,” she said. “And so when I got the chance to do my own show, instead of doing a sitcom, which CBS wanted me to do, I had it in a contract that I could do a one-hour comedy variety show, which was what I wanted. I wanted music. I wanted dancers. I wanted guest stars. I wanted a rep company. And so we wound up doing an original musical comedy revue every week, and that was my love, and I feel very fortunate that we came along at that time.”
“You couldn’t do what we did today because we had a 28-piece orchestra, we had 65 to 70 costumes a week, as I say, the guest stars and so forth,” she added. “No network would let us do that now with that kind of money. And I even hired Vicki Lawrence, who was right out of high school. I'd seen her at a contest, and we hired her, and no network today would let me do that, would let us do that, you know, a girl right out of high school with no experience. So I feel very fortunate that our show happened at the time it did. I don’t think it could be done today.”
Palm Royale also marked an important milestone in Dern’s career: It was the first time she’s ever acted alongside her father, Bruce Dern.
“It’s one of the great experiences of my lifetime, and, and forever a treasure to us, but also something we've longed for my whole life,” Dern said. “I’ve had the privilege of working with my mom several times. So, to have never had that experience was incredible. And I know what it meant to me. But to see it means so much to the other people I got to be with.”
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