Ricky Martin doesn’t know why it has taken him so long to return to acting. Maybe he was waiting for the right story to tell after his Emmy-nominated turn as Versace’s partner, Antonio D’Amico, in “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” in 2018. Maybe Hollywood was still struggling to see him beyond his sexuality.
Whatever the reason, the Puerto Rican superstar is hoping that his starring role in Apple TV+’s “Palm Royale” — in which he holds his own opposite comedy royalty Carol Burnett and royalty-in-the-making Kristen Wiig and Alison Janney — will mark the start of a new chapter in his career. In the new, ’60s-set comedy series, Martin plays Robert Diaz, a Korean War veteran who works as the eagle-eyed employee of the show’s exclusive country club and the caretaker of Burnett’s high-society doyenne, Norma Dellacorte. Although initially presented as a wary gatekeeper of the club that Wiig’s character, Maxine, is attempting to join, Robert has his own history of feeling like an outsider.
Martin adeptly plays Robert’s emotional and sexual repression, which stems from the rejection he experienced from his family in Puerto Rico and the tragic loss of a male lover who served with him in the war. “He doesn’t want to fall in love with anybody because whoever he falls in love with gets hurt or dies,” Martin says on a recent video call. All these details are gradually revealed over the course of the 10-episode first season, which was by design.
“Un.