With 'Palm Royale,' Bruce and Laura Dern are (finally) father and daughter on screen

Bruce: I was balancing this between two Tarantino movies: "The Hateful Eight" and "Once Upon a Time."

Laura: But the fact that you said yes was our dream come true.

Q: Had someone tried to get you guys on screen together before? You've both worked with director Alexander Payne — Laura in "Citizen Ruth" (1996), Bruce in "Nebraska" (2013). Has he ever said, "Hey, would you two ever ...?"

Bruce: Alexander Payne is the only guy who tried to put us together in a film. He did "Nebraska."

Laura: Nobody knows he did it.

Bruce: What happens is, at the end of the movie, I'm driving the truck down the street, and the kid [Will Forte as David Grant] is letting me drive it. We go past an alley. And as I go past the alley, I don't really look down it. But up the alley comes a waif-like-looking Laura and she comes up the alley, maybe about 20 yards, and climbs into a dumpster.

Laura: I was playing my character in "Citizen Ruth." He was like, "You guys have never been in a movie together; get your clothes on, be Ruth, and just come down the alley and dive into a dumpster." That was our first chance. But he [Alexander], actually — he has other things up his sleeve. We knew this ["Palm Royale"] would be our first real opportunity, but that we'll have another one, hopefully, soon.

Q: How was that first day on set together? I couldn't help but notice the surplus of olives on the table.

Laura: Do you know why? Because our production designer Jon Carlos, who is so brilliant, came to me and said, "What does your dad love? What is his favorite food? What is his favorite drink?" I said, "Since I was a kid, he would always have, then a Pepsi, now a Coke, with olives in it." So he gave you that big jar of olives and some Cokes. [Reporter's note: Bruce had a tight grip around a glass of Coke during the interview.]

Bruce: Pimento olives. That was because I ran a lot. And there's salt in olives. So you put a salty olive in a Coca-Cola or a Pepsi-Cola, and that was my drink.

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