AppleTV+’s “Palm Royale” made Emmy history when it landed nods for Outstanding Stunt Coordination for Comedy Programming (Mallory Thompson) and Outstanding Stunt Performance (Colby Lemmo and Sonja Wajih) for Episode 6, “Maxine Finds Herself.” It marked the first time an all-women stunt team from the same series has been concurrently nominated in both categories. In the episode, Claudia Ferri and Kristen Wiig go all out and get into a fight after Raquel (Ferri) pulls a gun on Maxine (Wiig). From trashing bedrooms and throwing couches, the pair tumbles down stairs and has a chase across the lawn before ending up in the pool.
While most fights are typically 20 seconds, this lasts a full three minutes. Putting the episode’s stunt sequence together was exciting — particularly for Thompson, who said the script described the scene as a “Dynasty-style fight.” Thompson was familiar with the reference in which Alexis (Joan Collins) and Krystle (Linda Evans) get into a catfight and fall down the stairs of the Carrington Mansion. Speaking with Variety, Thompson says, “We got to pitch as many different crazy things as we could think.” Everything she pitched was approved by the episode’s director Stephanie Laing and showrunner Abe Sylvia.
In putting it together, Thompson designed it with Wiig and Ferri in mind. The sequence took over four days to shoot because of the different locations and required over 60 setups. Wajih admits that when it came to the stair fall, she found the setup hilarious.
But this was, ‘You’re going to go down with Colby, and you’re going to be entangled. It’s going to be a catfight brawl down the stairs.’” Wigs, wardrobe, long acrylic nails and jewelry — all needed to factor in, as both characters were the epitome of glamorous and flamboyant Florida socialites. Wajih says, “It was all kind of tricky because we started with a dive onto one another, and Colby and I hold on to each other, but have moments of flailing, but we’re also being mindful of not catching my heel in Colby’s cover-up, or not catching my ring in anyone’s wig, or in the stairs.” She adds, “It was a funny choreographic creative element to go down together, and also have all those elements to play with.” Lemmo points out that it wasn’t a simple staircase fall and was broken into three different steps because of how the stairs were designed.
She also reveals where Wiig and Ferri actually intercut into the moment: “When they are coming toward camera, that’s them rolling and tumbling over each other, and then Sonja and I come down again.” As the two were entangled, Lemmo notes it was important to keep each other safe. But when you’re that entangled, you don’t know which way is up, which way is down. We got down to the bottom, and Sonja said, “I just needed to hold on to you.
There’s no real planning of how it’s going to happen; you hold on, and tuck and roll, and you just go.” The fight didn’t end there; the pursuit continues with a chase across the lawn before they end up in the pool. Thompson says, “We pitched early on that we wanted to follow them into the water. That was a big ask because we have to get an underwater camera just for one shot, essentially, and but it just elevated it, and really brought it up to the ‘Dynasty’ level of ridiculousness.” A special underwater camera rig was set up to capture Lemmo and Wajih as they hit the water.
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