Philippe Antonello/Prime Video
It’s quite possible that television hell has frozen over.
While making new seriesEtoile,showrunner and co-creatorAmy Sherman-Palladinohad to ask actors to slow down their dialogue.
But she finally met her match in the French.
Charlotte Gainsbourg as Genevieve in ‘Etoile’.Credit:Philippe Antonello/Prime Video
“The French talk so fast,” marvels Sherman-Palladino.
“They’re a whole country of fast-talking people.”
Consequently, the TV writers found themselves doing the previously unthinkable.
The dance ensemble in ‘Etoile’.Philippe Antonello/Prime Video
“We had to ask them to slow down sometimes,” says Sherman-Palladino.
The speed isn’t the only challenge with two languages being used interchangeably.
It was super tricky."
Luke Kirby as Jack and Lou de Laage as Cheyenne in ‘Etoile’.Prime Video
Prime Video
“We went through a lot of different translators,” she continues.
This is not what you want.'
So we went to a different translator.
Tais Vinolo and Gideon Glick in ‘Etoile’.Philippe Antonello/Prime Video
Then Charlotte [Gainsbourg] said, ‘I really don’t think this is what you want.’
Finally, we found a great translator who made everybody happy."
“It really is a completely different pace.”
“The way to use a word is super different,” she says.
“French people, we’re more internal, so we play more with the feeling on the inside.
“I have a very different relationship to acting when it comes to the language,” he explains.
“And it was challenging to stay the same character in French and in English.
[French is] not as much of a musical language as English is.
You don’t have the stressed syllables.
Yanic Truesdale as Raphael and Charlotte Gainsbourg as Genevieve in ‘Etoile’.Philippe Antonello/Prime Video
There’s not as much musicality to it.
It’s more monotonous.”
“You have accents, you have playfulness, you have the weight of the words.
It was hard to reconcile both languages and both approaches.
But once you find that coherence, it’s very thrilling to embody.”
Etoilepremieres April 24 on Prime Video.
