Tag: bruce dern

So began a decades-long friendship that entered a new phase when they were both cast in Palm Royale, which premiered in March 2024. Set in 1969 Palm Beach, the Apple TV series follows Kristen Wiig’s Maxine Dellacorte-Simmons, a spry social climber eager to infiltrate high society. Dern, an executive producer on the series, who also plays feminist activist Linda Shaw, had one person in mind for the role of Norma Dellacorte, the flask-toting matriarch who rules the area’s social scene. “I had a mission to get as close to Carol as possible,” Dern says, “and if I had to produce a show to make it happen, I was going to do it.”

The first season earned Burnett an Emmy nomination for outstanding supporting actress—and a group of new female industry friends, including her costars Allison Janney and Leslie Bibb. “What’s wonderful is, at my age now, I’ve got new young girlfriends,” Burnett laughs. “But with Laura, it’s really a deep love. I do feel that it’s kind of like a mother-daughter thing. Not even kind of like. It is a mother-daughter thing, and I’m grateful for it.”

It was fitting, then, that the penultimate episode of Palm Royale season two reveals that Burnett’s character is actually the birth mother of Dern’s character, and her real name is Agnes. Years ago, the real Norma Dellacorte died and Agnes, her boarding school roommate, assumed her identity for a better life. Upon realizing that she was pregnant with a married man’s baby, Agnes allowed her daughter—born Penelope, then renamed Linda—to be adopted by birth father Skeet (played in season one by Dern’s real-life Oscar-nominated dad, Bruce) and his wife, Evelyn (Janney).

“Being here in this room where I first became someone else, I can be myself again,” Norma tells Linda, explaining that she sacrificed her daughter so that her life wouldn’t be marred by the scandal of being born out of wedlock. “Losing you was the greatest pain of my entire life. I love you,” Norma tells Linda, who is happy to be found.

The show’s season two finale, premiering January 14, extends the long-awaited mother-daughter reunion. “The last moment of Carol at the end of our season is just one of the most breathtaking things, as an actor, I’ve ever witnessed,” Dern says, “looking in those eyes and seeing her love of her daughter in that seemingly simple but profound look. You realize this is a woman who did everything for her daughter.”

Carrie Hamilton and Carol Burnett in 1983.Images Press/Getty Images

Diane Ladd and Laura Dern in 1994.Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images

I ask Burnett where that moment may have originated. “Well, in a way, just from my memory about my relationship with Carrie, and how much I loved her and what she meant to me,” she says of her late daughter Carrie Hamilton, who died in 2002 at age 38 from pneumonia as a complication of lung and brain cancer. “Deep down, I might’ve been thinking about that. It finally came full circle, and I could love her and she could love me. It was easy to play.”

A third season of Palm Royale, which would presumably delve deeper into 1970s Palm Beach, has not been renewed as of press time. But what are the actors’ thoughts on the modern-day community, now the setting of a new Netflix reality series and the gated locale where Donald Trump rang in the New Year? “Let’s leave it to Shakespeare,” says Dern: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If we follow the money train, where there is wealth and influence, there are sometimes remarkable people doing extraordinary things, but most of the time when we’re following power and influence, there’s a lot of corruption throughout the world.”