Gilmore Girls husband-and-wife team Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino are back with a new series, Étoile (ay-TWAHL). Set in the world of ballet, it’s a subject that is a personal one for Amy.
“I was trained as a dancer and … I find the world fascinating,” she tells ABC Audio. “It’s an art form where you train your whole life for something, and you’re guaranteed to make no money.”
As for why it makes for great TV, Amy notes, “It’s not as perfect and beautiful and light and ethereal as it is onstage, backstage.”
Like their previous shows, Étoile features the pair’s signature quick and witty dialogue, although quite a bit of it is in French, which posed a challenge for the couple.
“It was really finding that person that we could trust to translate our stuff in an accurate way that the rhythm and the music is still there,” Daniel says. “But I think we pulled it off.”
The series focuses on ballet companies in New York and Paris that decide to swap talent. Luke Kirby, who played Lenny Bruce in the Palladinos’ The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, plays Jack, the head of the New York company, and says he’s now “gained way more respect” for ballet dancers.
“It’s quite a journey they have to go through to do something that’s so beautiful,” he says. “Their dedication is inspiring.”
Gilmore Girls vet Yanic Truesdale is also in Étoile, playing the right-hand man to Jack’s French counterpart, Geneviève, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg. He notes they’ve got “a different dynamic” than that of Lorelai and Michel.
“I worked on that to make sure that he was incredibly supportive of her and 100% committed to her and not have any kind of resentment at his job,” he says, hoping “it would give a different energy and color to the duo.”
Étoile premieres Thursday on Prime Video.
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