Abe Sylvia On Celebrating the Diverse Superpowers of the Cast of the Sublime ‘Palm Royale’

Abe Sylvia’s Palm Royale is about to be your next obsession. With an illustrious cast (more on that later), unapologetic 1960s color palette (the production design and costumes–my god!), and deliciously nimble writing and direction, Palm Royale takes the story of a social climber, but gives it a prickly and funny edge. It’s a soap opera with real pathos and confident storytelling, and I can’t help but believe that it will be the talk of the season.

I knew Palm Royale was right up my alley within the first five minutes. As Kristen Wiig’s Maxine introduces us to the crème de la crème of the Palm Beach country club, Allison Janney’s Evelyn turns dramatically towards the camera. With the swirling colors and intoxicating score, I knew that Sylvia’s comedy series was pure gaygasm.

“We had the music going while we filmed that, actually,” Sylvia admits at the top of our conversation. “I used to be a dancer, so I was shouting out all the cues. For all the actors crossing, I only used dancers, because they carry their bodies in a certain way, and they have such style. They were all walking to the music since I knew what music I wanted for that moment, and I thought it gave that opening a slight elevation. Allison didn’t know where the camera was as it was moving in. She had heard in the playback this rush of violins so she added this hand gesture. When we were in the edit, I wanted the flourish to match up with her hand movement. In my own gaygasm, the level of detail of her performance is stunning–she’s such a head-to-toe performer.”

A lot of hour-long shows do not know how to balance the stakes of a drama with physical comedy and biting wit. If it teeters off to drama too quickly, a show risks losing its audience, but Palm has a secret weapon to make sure this buffet of tone always leaves us guessing where the story will be taken next.

“Kristen Wiig,” he says plainly. “She is the lynchpin of the tone, and it’s a very disparate cast. There are some people who are known more for their dramatic work while others are primarily in comedies. Kristen is able to play every laugh real and every physical thing that she does has enormous pathos to it. And humanity. She’s a once-in-a-generation talent, and it’s not unlike Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton. People like her can do amazing things with their faces but they maintain that humanity where they can contort their face one second and then make you cry the next. It makes all the other places we go all okay.”

Palm doesn’t just have one of the best casts assembled in years, but we quickly learn how keen the creative team is to shake up the dynamics between them. Once Maxine has integrated herself into the club’s inner circle, characters played by Janney, Leslie Bibb, Claudia Ferri, and Julia Duffy won’t simply step aside and let her off the hook. Wiig’s character also has to combat Mindy Cohn’s Ann’s prying eyes and scribbling pen while keeping her marriage to Douglas (why, hello, Josh Lucas) afloat. Sylvia reveals just how he got this cast together.

“The show originated with Laura Dern and her producing partner, Jayme Lemons,” he says. “They brought Tate Taylor and identified him as a director, and he and I have worked together before. When I read the book, I thought it was a wonderful jumping-off point for a story about a woman who will do anything to belong. We moved the location from Palm Springs to Palm Beach since we felt like that was a world that we hadn’t seen before. What was wonderful about having Laura and Tate as EPs is that they are both actor magnets. As the script was going out, people knew who was involved, and that was worth its weight in gold.

Laura didn’t know that she was playing Linda at the time of development. Kristen responded to the script immediately. Tate’s longtime casting director, Kerry Barden, has the most amazing taste in actors, and he knows how to assemble a true ensemble. Tate and Allison are the best of friends, and she even says that she thinks she’s been in everything Tate has done. For her, she wants to be with good people. After that, the balls just started rolling. Carol [Burnett] jumped right in–I couldn’t believe it. For the first few episodes, her character is in a coma, and I wanted to make sure that was clear before she joined up, and she told me, ‘I want to be in that sandbox.’ After that, we wanted to make sure she had more stuff to do where you see The Great Carol Burnett. As we built the cast out, we wanted to make sure that everyone is able to show off what they are best at. This is a show that loves its actors and wants them to chew the scenery.”

Sylvia penned the screenplay for the Oscar-winning film, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and he wrote several episodes for Showtime’s emotionally bruised George & Tammy. As I watched Palm Royale, I felt as if Sylvia takes us gently by the hand once again to bring us into a world full of fabulous color and the emotions brimming just beneath the surface. I couldn’t help but wonder what advantages Sylvia had as a screenwriter by keeping this story in the not-so-distant past.

“It allows things to be naturally extra,” Sylvia explains. “You are transporting people to a time and place that they might not be familiar with, so it gives you license to get drawn in. As Maxine finds herself within this world that she wants so much, the show gets more absurd, and, as a result, the stories get bigger and absurd. I grew up in musical theater, and there is something that releases the performer and allows them to get outside themselves when they are entering a different time or period. For Tammy Faye and Palm Royale, the clothes and the hair give the actors the permission to perform. I love a performer who knows how to hit a joke. What needs to be real is the rules of the world need to be harmonious, and it’s true to the people who are playing it.”

If anyone is tuning into Palm for Ricky Martin, you will be taken aback by his textured work in the Apple comedy. His Robert is cautious but firm when dealing with Maxine, but their relationship blossoms in such a beautifully organic way. Robert is protective of Burnett’s Norma, but he understands what it feels like to be a person living on the periphery of the candy-coated decadence. He shares a scene with Dern and Wiig towards the end of the first season where each of Robert’s friends acknowledge his conflicted feelings of presenting himself in an authentic way.

“That scene was important to me,” he says, thoughtfully. “I look at Ricky’s character as the heart and soul of the show. The gay character is the straight man for the comedy. The show is a gay fantasia filtered through his eyes even if it’s not his point of view. It’s a necessary leavening of the tone. Ricky is so brilliant, and he is such a beautiful soul. This is a moment of great upheaval, in 1969, and, later, his character expresses the desire to live in a place where he can feel safe.”

I thought I knew who Maxine was when I dove headfirst in Palm Royale. She’s quick-witted and springy, but I was surprised (and charmed) as she revealed more about herself. How can she expect to be embraced without revealing some true vulnerability? Is there a little bit of Maxine in all of us? And, if so, what does Sylvia most wish would rub off on him?

“Her optimism. She is a very good-natured character, and even if she schemes and she is trying to rise, she wants the best for everybody. I sometimes struggle with that sunniness since I am a cynical person but I also believe in the innate goodness of people. Contrary to what is happening in the world, there is a beautiful part of everyone if we can find it. That’s her greatest quality, but it’s certainly a worthy goal.”

Palm Royale debuts its first three episodes on March 20.