Gilmore Girls fans know every word to “Where You Lead,” and it’s only a matter of time before they start humming along to the theme song for Prime Video’s Étoile, which debuted on Thursday, April 24.
Executive producers Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino, who also created Gilmore Girls, haven’t utilized a true opening title sequence since Gilmore Girls ended in 2007. (The 2016 Netflix revival skipped the iconic Carole King and Louise Goffin song.)
“In the old days you had a theme song,” Sherman-Palladino told Us Weekly in an exclusive interview. “We found this song, by these crazy guys, Sons of Raphael, and this theme song was just everything we felt we wanted the show to be. And it’s nice to have a theme song. It’s fun.”
However, Étoile — which follows Paris and New York ballet companies as they trade talent for a publicity stunt — wasn’t given a theme song just for fun.
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“Also, in this day and age of streaming, if you put your credits at the end, people can flip them, which I think is a crime,” Sherman-Palladino shared. “I think it’s a crime that people work so hard on something and people don’t have to watch the credits, including the actors’ credits. So it also allowed us to put the actors front and center. Their names are a part of the piece and nobody can flip their names. So, partially, that was the reason, but we did fall in love with this song. It is a fabulous song.”
Fans will recognize familiar faces like Luke Kirby (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and Yanic Truesdale (Gilmore Girls), but Étoile introduces plenty of new blood, such as scene stealer Lou de Laâge, who shines as French veteran ballerina Cheyenne.
“Amy started watching [audition tapes] before me and basically she watched Lou’s and she texted me and said, ‘We found Cheyenne,’” Palladino recalled.
Sherman-Palladino called the reaction “instant” and Palladino was quick to agree. “I went back and I watched all the tapes, including Lou, and Lou just stood out. There’s a vulnerability to her. She nailed the meanness of it, even though Lou de Laâge has no mean bone in her body that I have ever seen. It’s a true feat of acting.”
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“And then French actresses also just have something about them,” Sherman-Palladino added. “I don’t know if it’s their training or the baguettes or the cigarettes, although Lou doesn’t smoke, but she probably used to smoke. But she can go from being mean and degrading in one moment and being heartbreakingly vulnerable in the neck. So yes, she was it when we saw her.”
The French actress was excited to tackle the role of the talented ballerina who would rather be waging war on billionaires polluting oceans.
“I think the whole project was attractive for me because it was a comedy and I [have not] done many comedies in France,” de Laâge told Us. “It’s a comedy in English, and it was my first project in English. And the character is so colorful, so it was so new and exciting for me to play.”
The first season of Étoile is now streaming on Prime Video.
