Philippe Antonello/Prime Video
Amy Sherman-Palladinocould have been a professional dancer.
“But she definitely was the dance force in the family.
For Sherman-Palladino, this narrative was also a chance to explore the road not taken.
Étoile.Credit:Philippe Antonello/Prime Video
“If you love dance, you never lose that feeling,” she explains.
“You just miss it forever.
At least I did.
Luke Kirby as Jack and Lou de Laage as Cheyenne in ‘Etoile’.Prime Video
It was a way to feed off that creativity and energyandeat a sandwich.”
“We’re willing to do anything to try and keep it alive and thriving.”
“We’re people who are adjacent to that and our affection is real.
Charlotte Gainsbourg as Genevieve in ‘Etoile’.Prime Video
“I don’t think she sees herself incapable of the genius,” she says.
I wanted my character to be an ex-dancer, to have the sadness of aging.
[Ballet] is for the young.”
Gideon Glick as Tobias in ‘Etoile’.Philippe Antonello/Prime Video
Etoileis a unique undertaking of a show.
Set equally in Paris and New York,it’s fully bilingual, switching constantly between French and English.
It’s also a study of ballet in the old world versus the new.
Tais Vinolo and Gideon Glick in ‘Etoile’.Philippe Antonello/Prime Video
“Paris Ballet is one of the oldest ballet companies,” says Sherman-Palladino.
“It goes back to the courts of the kings.
American ballet is more of the young upstart, if you will.
Yanic Truesdale as Raphael and Charlotte Gainsbourg as Genevieve in ‘Etoile’.Philippe Antonello/Prime Video
Ballet is much more of a tradition in Europe.
In America, not so much.”
“There’s also very similar problems,” she continues.
It just took without giving back.
You don’t recover from something like that so easily.
Both companies are dealing with that.”
For Sherman-Palladino, that was the key to getting audiences invested.
“You’ve got to show what everybody’s up in a frenzy about.
You’ve got to see what’s on the line.
Charlotte Gainsbourg as Genevieve in ‘Etoile’.Philippe Antonello/Prime Video
This is about dancers who are dealing with their balletic mortality.
You twist the knee wrong once, and that could be curtains, literally, on your career.”
“Jack and Genevieve [are] dealing with, how do they keep their companies afloat?”
“We can’t just say it must survive without showing people what everyone’s fighting for.”
A noble aim, but one that required extensive training and adjustment on both sides.
Lou de Laage is a French actress starring as prima ballerina Cheyenne Toussaint.
“On stage, you get to do it once and if you fail, you fail.
And on the show you have the opportunity to do it over and over.
But not only the opportunity, youhaveto do it over and over.
“Because otherwise it would’ve felt very alien.
“We used dance for story,” says Sherman-Palladino.
“We’re showing what is at stake.
It’s story as well as beautiful production numbers.”
“He choreographs the way I feel our dialogue flows,” she adds.
“It’s seamless and it keeps going.”
Etoilepremiers April 24 on Prime Video.
