‘I do not read criticism, I tell people not to send me things’

in Palm Royale, it’s women over 50 who are firmly in charge. American comedy legend Carol Burnett, who plays the rich heiress Norma, is a sprightly 90. Wiig is too modest to claim to have blazed a trail, but admits she has had to learn to tune out the noise.

‘Criticism can be [about] anything from looks to performance to choices to clothes,’ she adds. ‘I do not read it, I tell people not to send me things. I don’t really want to know, because if you listen to the good you’re going to listen to the bad.’

If having a family has brought perspective on her career, that may be in part because it was hard-won. She and Rothman went through years of unsuccessful IVF before having their twins via surrogate, just before the pandemic took hold. ‘I went through a phase where I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen,’ she says. ‘It was a challenge, but worth it.’

It sounds as though the twins, at four, are already earning their keep in the Wiig-rothman troupe. ‘We have a little basket of wigs in our playroom,’ she says, ‘and it is comedy gold, right there, sitting down and not expecting a child to walk into the room with a wig on. It’s the greatest thing ever.’

Are wigs a condition of entry into the household? ‘Yes,’ she says, laughing. ‘“You must wear a wig if you’re going to be living in this house.”’

By prioritising home life, everything else becomes easier. ‘The kids and my relationship have so much to do with it. It’s hands-down the most important thing to me, so the choices become easier to make.’ If Palm Royale does well, she hopes there will be more of it, still filmed in easy reach of her house.

‘I just hope people have a good time watching it,’ she says. ‘There’s something to be said about escaping into a fun world and I hope – without it sounding really cheesy – that it brings joy, and that people escape whatever they need to escape.’

As she says this she cringes, as if in physical pain. Naturally, this is very funny, a glimpse of the gifts that got her to this point. Finally she has a character to improvise with: ‘actor worried about seeming naff ’.

‘I’m seeing it in print as I’m saying it out loud and I’m like, “Oh God, how is this going to read?”’ she says, before gathering herself. ‘But you know what, that’s how I feel! I want this show to bring joy!’

When Kristen Wiig’s involved, they usually do.

Palm Royale is streaming now on Apple TV+, with new episodes premiering on Wednesdays

Above: Wiig in her new show Palm Royale, about high society in 1960s Florida