When watching a series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino, you can expect to see some familiar faces. If the Emmy-winning husband-and-wife team behind the WB’s “Gilmore Girls” and Prime Video’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” like an actor, they tend to recruit them again and again.
Their latest comedy, “Étoile,” which premiered last month on Prime Video, follows dancers from a pair of prestigious ballet companies—one in New York, one in Paris—participating in an international exchange program. (This marks the Palladinos’ second series set in the ballet world, the first being USA’s beloved but short-lived “Bunheads.”)
“Étoile” stars Luke Kirby as Jack McMillan, the stressed-out head of NYC’s Metropolitan Ballet. (The actor won an Emmy for his surly, emotional turn as legendary comedian Lenny Bruce on “Mrs. Maisel.”) Yanic Truesdale, who portrayed the hilariously acerbic concierge Michel on “Gilmore Girls,” plays a slightly less prickly assistant at the l’Opera Francais and Le Ballet National in Paris. And Kelly Bishop, who costarred on “Gilmore Girls” as imperious matriarch Emily Gilmore, plays a similarly demanding mother on the series.
How does Sherman-Palladino feel about working with this trio of loyal performers again? “It’s a huge relief, because you know that what you write is going to happen.”
Fans know that the Palladinos’ style is incredibly specific: zippy, reference-dense dialogue that moves at the speed of light. It can be disorienting for some actors to join this world, but their longtime pals are old pros. “When you fall in love with people, you keep in touch and you’re friends, and you look for ways to get them back into your life,” she says.
But they didn’t solely rely on their trusted mainstays, since the globetrotting story required an international ensemble versed in both acting and dance. It was all about finding the ideal person for each part. Sometimes that meant hiring French actors like Lou de Laâge or established ballet performers like David Alvarez, who played Bernardo in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story.” On “Étoile,” he portrays Gael Rodriguez, a rebellious dancer who returns to the Metropolitan Ballet after spending time on a farm. The show also features cameos from renowned dancers like Tiler Peck and Robbie Fairchild playing small parts tailored to their specific talents.
“The mixture of [performers] was really cool,” Sherman-Palladino says. “We had some actors who did dance, some actors who didn’t dance, and some dancers who had never acted. Everybody helped each other out.”
The pivotal role of Geneviève Lavigne, Jack’s Parisian counterpart, went to Charlotte Gainsbourg. The creators consider themselves lucky that the pilot script ended up in the hands of the French British star, who’s known for her work in independent films like Lars von Trier’s provocative “Antichrist” and “Melancholia.” Gainsbourg rarely ventures into television work, much less productions based in the U.S.
“She just wanted to mix it up and do an American comedy. And she stepped into the battering ram which is our comedy, which is mile-a-minute. It was really a lot, but she never flagged,” Palladino says.
While the artistic directors of the respective companies anchor the plot, the catalyst for their stories is Cheyenne Toussaint (de Laâge), an opinionated, impudent French star the Metropolitan Ballet recruits. Palladino describes the character as “our Johnny Rotten.”
“She’s someone who is never quite satisfied with anything,” Sherman-Palladino says. “So having achieved what she’s achieved, she’s looking around like: What else is there, and what’s next?”
It’s a ferociously difficult task that called for a French actor who could speak quickly in two different languages and come off as alternately graceful and threatening. To find the right performer for the role, the Palladinos and their regular CD, Cindy Tolan, turned to French casting director Juliette Ménager. The team was immediately impressed when she showed them de Laâge’s tape. “She was sensational—just calm as can be and in command,” Palladino recalls.
Though Cheyenne is the titular étoile (French for “star”), de Laâge wasn’t required to do all her own ballet sequences. However, she received training to help her approximate the movements of her double, prima ballerina Constance Devernay-Laurence. “It’s a lot for actors who aren’t dancers,” Sherman-Palladino says. “There was a lot of: ‘You know I’m not a dancer, right?’ And we were like, ‘We know, we know; don’t worry about it.’ ”
However, some of the leads did execute the choreography themselves—including National Ballet of Canada alum Taïs Vinolo. The screen newcomer plays Mishi Duplessis, a naive soloist who leaves New York for Paris, where her overbearing parents are waiting.
Courtesy Philippe Antonello/Amazon MGM Studios
The Palladinos discovered the dancer when they caught her performance in a 2020 Amazon Christmas commercial. “We just dragged her out,” Sherman-Palladino recalls. “She’s never really acted before, but she’s just so smart and so sharp.”
Because of the bilingual nature of “Étoile,” the actors and creators worked together to shape the material: While the Palladinos coached the newbies on delivering lines, the French performers gave the creators guidance on proper pronunciation.
“The Palladinos are so respectful, because they like actors,” de Laâge says. “Someone who doesn’t like actors can’t take someone like me who is not perfect in a language. But they trust me; and when someone trusts you, you just want to be the best version of yourself.”
To transfer their style to French, the Palladinos needed an excellent translator who could handle all the wordplay. Unfortunately, the first few people they hired weren’t up to the task. “Every time we would have a script translated, one of the actors would come up to us and say, ‘This isn’t right; this is not what you guys want,’ ” Sherman-Palladino recalls. “We kept having to switch translators until we found Dany Héricourt, a great woman who stayed with us through the whole production.”
The French stars adapted remarkably well to the creators’ rapid-fire style. “French people talk so fast. It’s amazing; it’s fabulous,” Sherman-Palladino says. Sometimes, they even spoke too fast.
Initially, Ivan du Pontavice, who plays headstrong dancer Gabin Roux, sped through the dialogue without any pauses. “I was constantly asking him to slow down in the first episode,” Palladino recalls. “It was a learning curve, but it was fun; it was a challenge. We like challenges.”
These cross-cultural collaborations yielded something far more meaningful than perfect dialogue: an expanded Palladino family that now stretches from New York to Paris and beyond.
This story originally appeared in the May 1 issue of Backstage Magazine.