Prime Video’s decision in early June to ditch Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino’s classical ballet themed dramady Étoile after just one season sent shockwaves through the high-end drama community earlier this month.
Cast members Yanic Truesdale, Taïs Vinolo and Ivan du Pontavice put on a brave face as they touched down at the SCAD Lacoste Film Festival in France’s Provence region this past week for a screening and Q&A, which was arranged prior to news of the non-renewal.
“Of course it’s a bummer, but at the same time, we’re here to celebrate the fact that it existed,” said Franco-Anglo actor Pontavice.
He plays hot-headed French dancer Gabin Roux in the drama about two world-renowned New York and Paris ballet companies that decide to collaborate and share dancers to save their financially-struggling institutions.
“We’re just celebrating the experience. We like to tell tales about how it happened, our experience, it still feels very fresh. It just came out and we’re still very excited about being a part of it,” he added.
Canadian actor Truesdale, who plays ballet instructor Raphaël Marchand and right-hand man to Le Ballet National director Geneviève Lavigne (Charlotte Gainsbourg), echoed these sentiments.
“I’m taking it as a last celebration of the show,” he said of the SCAD screening. “One of the things I said in many interviews is that this was the one job in 36 years on which I made the most friends. At a human level, the fact that we won’t be able to hang out on set anymore is a big disappointment.”
Truesdale. who is a long-time Palladino collaborator through his role as Michel Gerard in Gilmore Girls, expressed regret that the show had not been renewed for a second season.
“I was very excited to see the second season because knowing Amy and Dan’s writing, they set things in the first season, and then the second season, once everything is established, is really, when they start to fly with the material,” he said.
He joked wryly that he had considered launching a GoFundMe, when asked whether he thought there might be potential partners out there who could salvage the show.
Per Deadline’s exclusive break on the non-renewal, the writing was on the wall for Étoile, after it failed to make it into Nielsen’s weekly Top 10 for Originals on its release April 24, and also only briefly topped Prime Video’s own top 10.
Vinolo, who plays Mishi Duplessis, a U.S.-trained French ballerina who is sent back to Paris against her will, suggested the cancellation was indicative of the challenges facing the real classical ballet world, which were explored in the short-lived show.
“It’s all about the money and no longer about the art. It’s like in the ballet world too. Ballet has been here for so long, but a lot of ballet companies that have potential cannot show that potential because of the financial aspect. It’s very sad. This show did such a good job at showing that,” she said.
Pontavice also suggested that contemporary audiences were no longer prepared to persevere with a show if it does not engage them immediately.
“Even myself, if I watch a something, and I’m not invested after a couple of episodes, I quit watching it,” he said, adding that audiences would have been prepared to invest more time in getting to know a show a decade ago.
Quizzed on what the legacy of the show, Truesdale pointed to its message around how the arts are under attack.
“I always reluctant to make predictions about anything,” he said. “I never thought Gilmore would be still alive 25 years later but for me, this show is a love letter to art. I was hoping that love letter would be received on the other end, because I feel like art is under attack in America, and without art, we lose the essence of being human. For me, that’s a very important message, and hopefully that’s the legacy.”
Vinolo highlighted the show’s representation of the ballet community, even if the characters will not get a longer story arc.
“All the characters are so different, with different sensibilities… even if there is no second season, the show achieved a lot in terms of representation and identity,” she said.
Portavice believes the first season will have a long tail: “Despite the disappointment and cancellation, judging by the positive reactions I’ve seen online in a very short amount of time, it’s had a huge impact in certain communities already.
“So even if we don’t get that season two, I actually think that in a couple years people will look back to the show, and enjoy a lot of the things in it. It might take time, it might be slow for people to really get into it, but I think it’s there to stay and to grow.”
