Laura Dern reflects on working with father Bruce Dern for first time on 'Palm Royale'

For Laura Dern, working with her dad Bruce Dern for the first time on Palm Royale proved to a special experience to talk about. In the Apple TV+ drama about Palm Beach’s social elite, Laura stars as Linda, a hippie activist, while Bruce portrays her onscreen father Skeet. The opportunity to work together on the show is something she had never done before. She stemmed from back-and-forth conversations Laura had with Palm Royale’s production team.


Laura talked about it and said, "I've had the great good fortune of working with my mom several times, but I'd actually never worked with my dad. So that was such a dream come true. [The production team and I] talked a lot about how I'd never worked with my dad and wouldn't that be incredible, but it was sort of filed away. And then, it occurred to everyone at the same time."

She further says, "I became like a kid not wanting to bother my dad. He was busy. And so it was also like, 'Would you want to come play for these amount of days?' And juggling his schedule. But he did, and he and I together had one of the great experiences of our life."


While talking about striking the balance of playing her dad’s child onscreen as his real-life daughter was also a difficult task, Laura said. "You hope that it always is hard.” She further said, “You hope that you found a place that is so relatable for you emotionally, that the lines are blurred and that you connect to it and the themes that you're exploring. So it was hard in the best way. I was there with him exploring deep themes in family, and that was really exciting."


While Palm Royale is Laura’s first onscreen collaboration with her dad, she has worked with mother Diane Ladd several times over the years. This also includes her uncredited appearances in her mother’s films, including the 1973 action film White Lightning and the 1974 romance Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. Moreover, she later costarred in the ‘90s movies Rambling Rose and Citizen Ruth and played mother and daughter in the 1990 crime thriller Wild at Heart, as well as the HBO show Enlightened.