Kerry Barden and Paul Schnee Talk Casting ‘Palm Royale’ and Share Self Tape Tips

Kerry Barden and Paul Schnee share a deep-rooted collaboration with filmmaker Tate Taylor. They have cast several of his films, including Pretty Ugly People, The Help, The Girl on a Train, Ma and TV shows such as Filthy Rich. Their partnership with Taylor extended to the current Apple TV+ series Palm Royale, where Taylor serves as an executive producer.

The series is based on the book Mr. and Mrs. American Pie, which Laura Dern first optioned and developed. The adapted version is set in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1969, and revolves around Maxine, a woman determined to be accepted into an exclusive resort. As the show unfolds, viewers see the lengths Maxine is willing to go to achieve this dream and how far everybody else will go to stop her.

Barden and Schnee recently sat down with Casting Networks to delve into the casting process and share valuable insights for actors, particularly regarding self tape auditions.

When you guys came aboard, Kristen Wiig was already attached to the title role of Maxine, with Dern in the supporting role as the leader of a feminist group (both actresses are also executive producers). What were the next steps for you?

Barden: Tate loves to work with the same actors. He’s worked with Alison Janney (who plays Evelyn, a seasoned member of the resort’s inner circle) on almost everything he has done. He also meets new actors for each project who go on to work with him. For example, Juliette Lewis first worked with Tate on Ma and has now been in three or four of Tate’s projects. Chris Lowell was in The Help and Breaking News in Yuba County.

Schnee: With directors, you get a vibe for the kinds of actors they like. It’s often just as much about personality and what that person is like as a human as it is about their acting style. Tate loves actors, so he’s happy to meet new ones that we think he’ll like.

Barden: With Palm Royale, we started with the series regulars, like Josh Lucas’ role and Leslie Bibb’s role, etc, because those are important in putting together the bigger picture. We’ve known Josh for a long time. I started casting him in the nineties in independent films when I was in New York, so Josh has become a good friend. When we got this script, we made lists, of course. But his role was for the dashing romantic lead (Maxine’s airplane pilot husband) with Paul Newman blue eyes. That narrows down the list, and Josh certainly fits the bill. Josh liked the script, so Tate drove up to his house in Topanga Canyon to meet him, and they hit it off.

Carol Burnett plays the wealthy, comatose society woman Norma Dellacorte. At 91 years old, Burnett is just as sharp and funny as ever on this show. How did she get involved?

Barden: We made a list of the women we thought were right for that, and Carol Burnett was on that list. She wanted to work with those three women (Dern, Wiig and Janney). In fact, she was really vocal about saying, ‘I want to work with these women.’ Her role is mostly nonverbal but what she emotes from her face is pages of material. We got very lucky.

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+.

Ricky Martin plays the country club’s bartender, who is also Norma’s houseboy. That role underwent several changes before arriving at what we see on the screen. Tell us about that.

Barden: Ricky’s role was interesting because it was originally written as a Vietnam Vet, so we were casting for much younger actors. When there was interest in Ricky playing this role, the character became a Korean vet (to accommodate the age). Also, the book that Laura had originally optioned is set in Palm Springs, California, but when they decided to put the show in Florida’s Palm Beach, it made sense to have a Cuban element. That’s when the discussion with Ricky came up.

He’s a good actor, he’s incredibly handsome, and his character is gay, and that’s important to the networks nowadays – to have an authentic casting with LGBTQ actors. All of that coalesced into casting Ricky and making it feel right. But at first, we read a bunch of guys – Latino, non-Latino, vet, non-vet, younger, older, Australian surfer boys (laughs)… but it all came together with Ricky.

Model Kaia Gerber (daughter of Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber) portrays a nail technician and aspiring model, which is such wink-wink casting. Was stunt casting always the plan?

Barden: Laura brought Kaia in because they knew each other somehow. Kaia is the sweetest person in the world and worked hard to get this. She put herself on tape. We gave her notes, and she did a second tape. Then, she asked if she could Zoom with me and work on the character.

Schnee: We lucked out with the meta-joke that she’s a model in real life. However, during the auditions, we did not limit the initial spate of readings to models or would-be models or model types.

Barden: In fact, the actor the producers initially responded to for the role was Crosby Fitzgerald, who we ended up casting as the pregnant young woman in the bookstore scenes. She was a new actor to all of us.

Photo courtesy of Paul Schnee.

How did she enter your orbit? Though an initial submission?

Schnee: Yes. She read for Mitzi and was really, really good!

Barden: The producers liked her audition for Mitzi enough to give notes and have her do a second tape, which was also really great. But that’s when things with Kaia started to take shape, so we asked Crosby’s agent if she would be interested in playing a different role, and she was like, yup!

What was the biggest challenge with the casting process on this show?

Barden: During the late sixties and early seventies, America underwent a huge change. So casting the group of (feminist) women in the bookstore was very important to get right. Their scenes were all with Laura, so we needed dynamic actors. It’s always challenging to cast lesser-known actors who will be going toe-to-toe with somebody like Laura, who’s an Academy Award winner, or going toe-to-toe with Kristen Wiig and Allison Janney, who are genius comic actors.

Schnee: It’s fun and tricky doing an ensemble like this. There are clear leads, but it’s still very much an ensemble cast. One misstep can stand out, so it can be challenging to cast a show where everyone is distinct and memorable and funny and interesting, but also doesn’t take you out of the show. It could have been a danger with someone like Carol Burnett, for example, where you’re like, oh my God, there she is! And then you’re taken out of the show.

But it worked! I also loved that Mindy Cohn from the iconic 80s show Facts of Life played the editor of the high-society newspaper, The Shiny Sheet. She was so great! Was she a submission or already a Barden/Schnee regular?

Schnee: She was submitted. We put breakdowns out and then go through the submissions. With her, it was like, let’s have a read!

Barden: Who doesn’t love Mindy Cohn?

Any memorable stories in the casting process?

Barden: Leslie Bibb’s reader on her tape was Sam! (Actor Sam Rockwell is Bibb’s longtime partner.)

Photo courtesy of Kerry Barden.

That’s hilarious! Both of you are such veterans in this business. What’s an advantage that comes with that?

Barden: Paul and I are aware of what an actor’s strong suits are and what their weaknesses are. For example, some actors aren’t good at auditions, but we know they can deliver. If that’s the case, we will have conversations with the creative team and say, such-and-such an actor is not great at auditioning but watch this clip from (this film they appeared in). It’s about us having an awareness of the actors we want to present to the team. For example, we know several actors that are dyslexic. We’re not going to give them a new scene in the room, on the spot, and say, okay, go.

Schnee: It’s analogous to being very smart and a good student but not a good test taker. Just because you don’t do well on the SAT doesn’t mean you’re stupid.

This show was cast during the pandemic, so it was all done through many self tapes and Zooms. Now this process is very much the norm. Any tips for actors when doing these types of submissions?

Schnee: I understand it’s not always ideal because you tape yourself, send it off, and don’t even know whether anybody’s watched it. In the very early days of self taping, a lot of actors were trying to stand out or make it look like they just stepped in right into the movie. Like putting themselves in the location of the scene, getting in a car, going to a bus stop, or maybe putting on a suit and micing themselves and then editing it all very nicely.

It’s not necessary. I mean, if you’re good, you’re good. Going to a location is not going to make you better.

Barden: In addition to what Paul is saying, (it’s a good idea to) have a reader that knows how to respond to the scene because then there is more of a connection for the actor. Although we’ve cast people where clearly their mother is reading with them!

Not everyone can have Sam Rockwell as their reader!

Kerry Barden: Exactly! We did a movie called Sisters years ago, and James Brolin put himself on tape, and (his wife) Barbara (Streisand) was helping him. You could hear her talking to him!