Kristen Wiig Talks ‘Palm Royale’ Wigs and Spray Tanning, Ricky Martin on the 1960s Speedos He Wants to ‘Wear Forever’ From Wardrobe
There’s a rule for social climbing that never goes out of style: Fake it ‘til you make it. And for Kristen Wiig’s ambitious Maxine Simmons in the forthcoming comedy “Palm Royale,” the actress said admission into high society in Florida’s wealthy Palm Beach island comes with a high-maintenance look.
“That definitely helped along with my spray tan — it really dialed it in,” Wiig told WWD on Thursday how hair, makeup and wardrobe helped enhance her interpretation of her character: a former pageant queen who relocates to 1969 Palm Beach, where the members-only club Palm Royale is the playground of the elite.
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“We were so lucky with the wigs and the sets. Everyone’s wardrobe — you just felt like you were there, and I’ve never seen anything like that on anything I’ve ever worked on,” the “Saturday Night Live” alum said at the AppleTV+ series premiere in Los Angeles ahead of its release for streaming on March 20.
The actress was joined by her costars Allison Janney, Ricky Martin, Carol Burnett, Kaia Gerber, Laura Dern and Leslie Bibb, among others. “Palm Royale” costume designer Alix Friedberg, who has worked on two other Dern projects, including “Big Little Lies” and “Enlightened,” curated the looks.
Janney plays the icy queen bee of Palm Beach’s high society, and she’s a fixture of the “Shiny Sheet” — the glossy newspaper covering galas, gossip and the glamour of socialite life. She also has a closet of caftans to envy.
“The wardrobe that Alix Friedberg put together for all of us ladies on ‘Palm Royale’ was extraordinary. In my first fitting I thought, ‘OK, I know who Evelyn is.’ And all she put on me were these flowy gowns and it was just so much fun, and then the hair — Jill Crosby created all these incredible hair designs for me that it was hard not to feel… I almost didn’t have to do any acting,” Janney explained. “I put on those costumes, that hair, the makeup and it was so easy to be in character because you don’t dress like that, nobody dresses like that anymore.”
Martin portrays the club’s waiter, who spends most of his time in a uniform — and sometimes in a lot less.
“I went from…a uniform that a bartender wears while working in such an exclusive club like Palm Royale to be almost naked in the show and wearing all kinds of Speedos,” Martin said. “What was fascinating for me is that whatever I used, most of them were original fabrics from the ‘60s and original T-shirts from the ‘60s, I was like, ‘Can I keep this?’ and they’re like, ‘sorry, this is a gem and this is part of someone’s collection. You cannot use this.’ The sandals that I wore were originals from the ’60s, so for me that was fascinating. And this is the kind of underwear that I want to wear forever, to be honest. Bathing suits, I’m sorry, it kind of made me say, ‘I want to [wear them] forever.’”
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