Television March 14, 2024
How Ricky Martin’s Dance Moves Landed Him ‘Palm Royale’ Role (Exclusive)
Kristen Wiig, Ricky Martin and Josh Lucas spoke to “Extra” about “Palm Royale,” their new show about a group of haves and have-nots in Florida high society.
They dished on working with the legendary Carol Burnett, and Ricky revealed how his dance moves landed him the acting gig!
Opening up about Burnett, Kristen said, “It’s hard to put into words. We don’t know where to start. To say she is the heart of the show is an understatement. Everyone, the crew just fell in love with her. She’s incredible. Amazing actress, person.”
She added, “You get excited when you got to do scenes with her.”
Ricky gushed, “And funny in front of the cameras, and behind the cameras also funny.”
Josh put it this way: “It’s not a word I’d use much in this business, but she’s divine. She’s, like, truly a grace and an elegance and a joyfulness and a professionalism that blows any one of us out of the water, which I think is also pretty high for all of us. And her sense of light that she brings to it. It’s just remarkable.”
The trio couldn’t stop laughing during takes.
Lucas said, “That's one of the greatest things [watching] ‘Saturday Night Live’ is when people can't hold their lines, but it doesn't work in television.”
Martin shared, “One thing that I learned was to walk on set without the script and that gave me a lot of security because the beautiful thing about what we did is, like, from ‘action’ to ‘cut,’ anything could happen as long as you follow what the director says, obviously — anything could happen. Yes, we were telling a story, the message at the end of the scene had to be given, but it was so much fun just the way things were flowing.”
Ricky, who plays one of the club’s workers, got offered the part while at an Oscars party last year.
“I was at an Oscar party and I was dancing next to the one and only [film producer] Abe Sylvia and I don’t know what happened. Three days later he was calling my agent, and three days later I had the script in my house. And two weeks later I was traveling to L.A… A month later I was wearing the uniform… I’m very excited to be part of this amazing project. I feel so lucky.”
Kristen quipped, “Thanks to the Academy!” as Ricky laughed.
“Palm Royale” premieres March 20 on AppleTV+.