Paul Rudnick is a well renowned playwright, screenwriter, novelist, essayist, tweeter and blogger. If the medium requires words, then Rudnick tops the shortlist of anyone looking for witty, cleaver and hilarious material.
He is responsible for plays “Jeffrey,” “I Hate Hamlet, “The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told,” “Valhalla,” movies “In & Out,” “Addams Family Values, “Sister Act,” “Coastal Elites,” the film version of “Jeffrey,” books “Gorgeous,” “I’ll Take It,” “Social Disease,” “I Shudder” and many more. He is also working on the book for “The Devil Wears Prada” musical with Kate Wetherhead which will feature music by Elton John and lyrics by Shania Taub. The musical is set to premiere at Chicago’s James M. Nederlander Theatre July 19-Aug. 21, 2022.
Rudnick new book, the romantic comedy “Playing the Palace” is out now from Berkley Books. It tells the story of New York City event planner, Carter Ogden, and his chance encounter with Prince Edgar, the first openly gay Crown Prince of England. As the two begin a whirlwind romance, they have to decide if love is enough to overcome the odds stacked against them.
We chatted with Rudnick after the release of his latest book to discuss the novel, his obsession with the British royal family and what he thinks you should read — other than “Playing the Palace” — this summer.
WATERMARK: Where did the idea for “Playing the Palace” come from? Were Prince Harry and Meghan Markle the inspiration for the story?
Paul Rudnick: I’ve been thinking about this book, at least this story, for years. I’ve always wanted to do a royal, romantic comedy and I knew I wanted it to have a gay couple at the center but I hadn’t been sure exactly what the story would be or if it would land as a play or a screenplay or a novel, but once I got the voice of Carter Ogden — the story’s hero, a sort of hapless romantic party planner who the whole thing happens to — suddenly it presented itself to me. I realized, “Oh right. this wants to be a book in this guy’s voice.”
I’ve always been, like so many people at home, royalty obsessed. The Meghan story really did feed into it because I loved the idea of that status imbalance. Meghan was a successful, American actress but she was a commoner, she was biracial, she was someone who would not necessarily be thought of as the first choice for a royal spouse and I think Carter is very much in that realm. He’s somebody who’s an outsider and makes his way through a world of rules that he doesn’t always understand or agree with.
I love watching Meghan and Harry. I remember I turned on the Oprah interview and I thought “Okay, I’ll watch five minutes of it and then switch off,” and I of course was glued to the entire thing and would happily watch a daily Meghan/Harry/Oprah show. I thought they handled themselves beautifully and I thought Meghan has been under such intense stress, which I think even her earlier career in the spotlight could not have prepared her for, and that was something that I wanted to get at in “Playing the Palace.” What does it mean to live and have a romantic life with the scrutiny of the entire planet, especially on the internet where every move you make and every outfit you wear and every sentence you utter is dissected and condemned and celebrated.
When did your obsession with the British royal family start?
I think it probably really intensified during the Princess Diana years because she had such genuine star quality and she was also one of the first royals in my awareness who used her celebrity and her media clout to do some real good. I remember when she went into AIDS wards at hospitals and talked to people with AIDS and held AIDS babies and really made sure that that entered the public consciousness. That was a huge step. I mean, there were almost no celebrities doing anything even close. I so admired her for that and it seemed so smart of her as well.
I think there’s that way in which the royals have almost transplanted movie stars in the world’s consciousness. They’re these figures of distant glamour and we can project all our personal fantasies on, especially because they are one of the few groups of celebrities who have some mystery to them because they don’t give that much access, they don’t give that many interviews so we can make it all up [laughs] and we do.
I’ve always admired Queen Elizabeth as well just because I think she always behaves impeccably. Sometimes people have accused her of being chilly or distant but when you think how long she’s reigned for without ever, at least out in public, feeling sorry for yourself or complaining. She’s really been an example of good behavior. Plus I love the way she dresses. I think so many successful people sort of retreat into a kind of drabness and with constant caution, and there she is in sunshine yellow and rainbow plaids all the time. I’ve always heard that’s so people can find her in photographs [laughs].
In “Playing the Palace,” is Prince Edgar modeled more after Prince William or Prince Harry, or did you have someone else entirely in mind when coming up with that character?
I was actually more interested in the idea of the responsibility he has as the first openly gay royal. We haven’t really had that, at least not on a major English level, but I thought when I watched so many actors come out and sometimes they’re fearful and what they worry about often is that they’ll be asked to become role models and spokespeople, and that makes them nervous. What I found is that once they actually are out they tend to welcome that. They realize, “Oh my god, what was I so afraid of?” But I thought the first openly gay English prince will have to carry that burden for all the rest of us. That he will have to behave perfectly at all times in a way that will be completely impossible. That he’ll be criticized both by conservatives for existing at all and also by hardcore lefties for not being gay in the correct way, not being gay enough, not being enough of a spokesperson.
I thought that this will not be easy. On one hand, why would you feel sorry for someone in a position of such enormous privilege and wealth. On the other hand, I wanted to create a character that was coping, that realized “Okay, this won’t be easy but it’s something very necessary and something that can also be joyful.” So Edgar came more from trying to really imagine what that person might be going through. You know, he’s charming and good looking like so many of the royals are, but they had it a little easier because they’ve got a lot of back up and I thought the first gay man or woman is going to be out there alone and that will be both very exciting and very nerve-wracking to watch. It happens to so many who are “the first” of anything whether because of race, gender or sexuality they are microanalyzed and there’s an unfairness to that but on the other hand, you so admire those people for shouldering that burden.
I didn’t have one specific prince in mind but more the idea of the phenomenon.
The character of Carter has some things in common with you, specifically both of you being from Piscataway, New Jersey and now living in New York. You both use lots of pop culture references in your daily lives. How much of Carter Ogden is actually you?
Plenty, he’s a guy who I know very well. But he’s also inspired by so many gay people in New York I know who sort of cobbled together lives, whether they’re in the arts or in design, they have all sorts of ambitions but they still need to make a living. They still need to have roommates and they tend to live in fifth-floor walk ups in Bushwick, in Brooklyn. I just admire their spirit. The idea that they want the excitement of a gay life in the big city. They are cater waiters or they spritz perfume on you at Bloomingdale’s, they’re personal trainers or they hand out flyers or they go on the internet and try to make a living as an influencer. I just wanted to create one of those guys. Somebody who was living by his wits and enjoying himself but also feeling a little bit battered by the world.
So he shares a lot of my personal background; Carter being from New Jersey and being someone who New York represented a certain kind of dream. And then falling in love with a prince which is something that can only happen I think in a city where those unlikely collisions are possible. That was, in a way, a part of his dream because once you say “I’m going to cross the river into Manhattan,” you’re sort of planting your flag and saying “I want to be where anything is possible.”
How do you decide what form your story ideas will take? At what point in the process do you decide this is going to be a play or this is going to be a film or a book?
I’ve learned in my career to let the characters in the story dictate the form. So rather than saying “I’m going to write a book or I’m going to write a screenplay,” I figure out the story first and then see where does it want to live, does it need the visual scope of a movie. With “Playing the Palace,” I wanted it to have an intimacy because it’s about a guy who’s dealing with these huge stakes of entering the world of the royals but I wanted it all to be from his point of view. It wasn’t just about the palaces and the rituals but it was about what he goes through. Once I knew Carter was going to narrate it, that made the most sense as a novel. That’s when you can go one-on-one with the reader and you can really get inside someone’s brain, and it becomes in the best way this kind of delicious gossip that has got you sitting down and telling you what really happened. You can manage that on stage or in a film but you get the most direct connection in a book.
Have you already thought of writing a sequel?
Anything is possible and I think because the book covers a very specific moment in their lives and they’re at the very beginning of their life together as the story ends there certainly could be. I’d love to explore them further. Who knows what will happen but I’d be very curious to see how these guys make their way in the world, especially because at some point in the future Edgar is going to be the King of England. So I would love to see what happens next with Carter and Edgar.
When I found out you were writing this book, I added it to my summer reading list immediately. Along with “Playing the Palace,” do you have a couple summer reading list suggestions?
I just finished a couple of books that are spectacular. One is “Detransition, Baby” by Torrey Peters, who’s a trans writer and it’s just the most gloriously well written book and incredibly entertaining as well. It’s one of the first deeply authentic narratives of trans lives.
There’s another book by a writer named Jen Silverman called “We Play Ourselves” which takes place on both coasts and it’s a very witty and very smart examination of jealousy and young people making every possible mistake on the ambition ladder.
There was another book called “Last Call [A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York ]” by Elon Green which is a nonfiction book. It’s about a serial killer who preyed on gay men in New York and the bar scene in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and it’s meticulously researched and horrifying but also fascinating because it’s with one of those stories that didn’t quite get the attention it deserved I think because it involved gay murder victims. It’s a very well written description of that time period and this particular crime.
“Playing the Palace” is out now and available wherever books are sold.
