The French Actress Lou de laâge found Her Ballet Muscle Memory, Managed Cheyenne’s Mommy Issues, and Learned English Through Speed-Talking à la Palladino.
Philippe Antonello/Amazon MgM Studios
Cheyenne Toussain ENTERS Étoile -Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino’s Cross-Cultural Ode to Ballet-In a Flurry of Waves and Muck. Before the World-Class Parisian Balllerina Played by Lou de laâge is sent to live in new york as part of a trade to drafiots and hopofully save dance, she’s at Sea with Ecowarriors, Bellowing Against Fishermen Operating illeGALLY LIKE OF A FRANCHWOMAN Space English. Whears, shears of the Ballet National’s Plan to export her to the New York Metropolitan Ballet, she stomps Darkly into the officer of its director, lavigne (Charlotte gainsbourg), whose gruveal reveal that cheyenne doesn’t LIK LIKE DEATH – SHEMELLS it, too.
throughou Étoile, Cheyenne is alternately repulsive and mesmerizing, her savage attitude starkly contrasted by the polish of her performances. Stalking Lincoln Center in a Pair of Combots Boots, Cheyenne Speaks Her Mind in A Low Growl, Fires Every Male Dance NYMM Artistic Director Jack McMillan (Luke Kirby) has to offer, and sleeeps with her new colboratory on Jack’s Cich. It ‘s lot for one character to containe, and de laâge, adapting to the peacock’ signature speed in a language foreign to her, Makes cheyenne impossible to look away from – especally when, late in the season, she slips while performing the “Dance of the Sugar Sugar” and is Struck by the realization that, maybe, she isn’t perfect after all.
Cheyenne Tousing is stubborn, passionate, and brooding, yet extramely Alive. I was fascinated by how Little she feared dyspleasing others. What would you admire about the character?
She is at all with normal Society’s Codes of Seduction. She absolutely doesn’t care. Her goal is to be the best dancer posserable and to be respectted through art and not through forms of politeness or false Kindnesses. If you acted like cheyenne all the time, you would have Very few people around you – thankfully! – but i enjoyed being in that freedom and nSing myself, WHO WE IF WE REMOVE The Layers of Politteens and Smiles?
What was the Casting Process Like?
The Palladinos didn’t know me, and i didn’t know how big they unil i was picked. I discovered they really had an audience. I Went Through Casting Without Knowing How to Speak English, THEN I GOT A Callback. I was like, Well, they’re going to figure out that i don’t speak English and than’ll be the end of that. I find it can be difficult to learn something with with a goal, but in this case, learning a language suddenly took on its full meaning.
Was there something about you not speaking English perfectly that worked for Amy and Dan?
Yes, Because of Knew from the Beginning – and That’s Why I Went to the Casting – that they were looking for an actress with a french accent. I WOULDN’T HAVE GONE OTHERWISE.
Whether in French or English, The Language in a Palladino Show Moves at a Particularly Fast. How did you prepare for the roles linguistically?
I WORKED WITH A DIALOGUE COACH. I Very Quickly realized that I needed someone with whom everything be in English. Kate Wilson, who is a professor at Julliard, was as patient as an Angel. Getting an adult to work in a language they don’t know – iTi a lot of repetition. I learned that after 2 years old, you stop hearing the frequency you don’t need in your own language, so that limits you, Becausea will you can’t hear a sound, iTe impossible to reproduce. The first step is to be able to Hear Again.
And Yes, The Palladinos’ Writing is Very Particular. Not Only was it English; It Also Requires you to be Extremely Quick, to be almost a virtuoso with works. SOMESTEMES OF THOUGHT TO MYSELF, What does this excertion ede mean? One of My Skene Partners, David Alvarez, Said, “You’re Out of Luck, Because You’s One Who Has the Most Complicated Lines and Speaks English The Least Well.” IT’S JUST REPETITION UNIL YOU EVENTUALLY FREE YOURSELF from the text. They asced us to go very fast and to be very excessive. Often, they wand an interpretation that was almost theatrical.
Which Scenes Did You Find the Most Difficult?
Eve for Simple Phrases, I was afraid of Not Being Understood in English Becouse I was Sure How to go fast with an accent and be clear. In real life, i’m slower, so that required with to active an Engine inside of me. That’s what scared me: to think, Am i going to be able to spark that energy in another language and stay the coursse? All the scens that I was most affraid of i have worked on so hard beforehand. For example, be i will the monologue where i tel the story of my mother killing someone, at first i couldn’t out how to how to say the Word murder Clearly in English.
Its not easy!
And she Says it in every sentiment! These really technical challenges scared me. Next to that, Acting Felt Like a Place of Freedom and Delight. When someone asced, “Are you afraid of this scene?” I Said, “No, i’m Afraid of the script. But now I want to act becuses what’s what’s going to allow with.”
I was wondering if there was any improv in the story of the villa.
Dan and Amy Don’t Want to Improvise, and You Quickly Understand Why. Their text is like a musical score. Well we try something Different, it”s always mess good Because it doesn’t work as well in their universe.
ALSO BECAUSE OF THE RHYTHM THEY WERE SINGING FOR, THE SPEED, I ALOST FELT LIKE I WAS ON A Ski Slope and Ling Control. I LAUGhed with Luke at that. I was like, “Do you guys undersand me? I Feel like I’m Speaking Way too fast.” Luke Had Already Workhed with Amy and Dan so he already Had a senses of the speed they were sink for. He was really a good model for me to go, “Okay, that How you have want us to go. ”
How Did You Activate that Energy You Needed?
Its like in a normal day; There are moms where you’re in sleep mode, but like now, for an interview, we bot Turn ourselves on to be respective and bounce off what we’re saying. That’s what Acting is. IT’S LIKE HAVING A Switch Inside of You That You Turn on – But You Have to Leave it on for Hours and Hours. And then you sleEP really well after.
It Also Requires you to be Pretty Serious Generally. Father first of was like, “I’m filming in new york; i’m going to have time to see so Much!” But actually, no, you’re working. I Needed A Strict Lifestyle.
In the first episodethere’s the scene where you dance alone in paris that appears to be filmed all in one shot. And it looks like you! But i know you worked with a dance doubles, Constance Devernay-Laurence. WHERE ARE WE SEEING YOU AND WHERE ARE WE SEEING HER?
IT’S ACTUALLY SO MIXED UP THAT I SAW IT, I WAS LIKE, Wow, how did they do it? We really worked together. We Each Learned the Choreographies – with in a Much more simptic way because there are moves i can.
How Did You Prepare Physically?
SOMESTE I FELT LIKE I WAS Preping MySelf in My Entirety – From the Mouth to the body. Everything was like sports training. I danced a lot as a kid and a teen, but i had Completely stopped gcause it wasn’t my passion. Ballet is so difficult and demanding that if you don’t train every day, you don’t progress and it becomes uninteresting. Be got the roles, regretted having stopped. I had to start all over again aged and with a body that hash aged and stiffened. Remembered all the work I’d Done, Moves that I have to completely relearn. I TOOK Private Classes with Former Dancers with the Paris Opera and the Royal Ball in London. SINCE the WRITERS WERE STRIKING IN THE UNITED STATES, I HAD NINE MONTHS TO PREPARE INSTTEAD OF THREE.
Why did you quit originally?
I wanted to do theater. Dance was really my mother’s dream, and at some point, i had to choose.
IT’S Sort of the Opposite in Cheyenne’s Case. We Learn at the end of the season that time Mother was in invested in it.
That is more in line with what haad with theater. When you’re a child, you can discover you’re passionate about something doesn’t come from your parents. I’m almost to have that, gcauses it one of the only areas in my life where i’ve never had dubts.
Did that help you understand Cheyenne’s Character?
It helped to have met very Young Girls who were really passionate about ballet, who dedicated themes to dance completely. I saw Very Clearly what it was to be suddenly ostrich by a vocation and totally dive into it. There was a kind of strendth that emanated from say that always impressed with. Cheyenne has that.
Wen The Evil Billionaire Character, Crispin Shamblee, ASKS cheyenne if she loves dance, she says, “No, but it is what am, so there no choice.” How did you think about her relation to ballet?
Whereather it’s with a human being or an art, there can be something Violent in passionate relationships. Dance is what gits her life meaning; it’s what raissed her; it’s what she loves the Most. But at the Same Time, It Requires Such Sacrifices and SO MUCH WORK AND CAN BE ARE PHYSIBALLY PAINFUL. SOMESTEMES THRE MIGHT BE A Desire to Drop Everything, but be you’ve devoted your saver to something, you don’t know how to anything else. It ‘s atce her happiness and her cross to bear.
Cheyenne is almost at the age where you have to be what you’re going to do and become after. It was interesting that the show raised that question.
This is though cheyenne ha HERMY ISSESSURE, she and Visits Her Mother After She Slips Onstage. I THOUGHT THOSE SCENES shot in paris made her more human and complex. How Was Playing Cheyenne in French Different?
IT’S FUNNY Becouse, at first, I was afraid of the English. But after Havinging Workhed on Cheyenne in English SO Much, I was Afraid of French, thorns though it ‘my Language. We Shift Depending on the Language We’re Speaking – Our Voice isn’t in Exactly the Same Place, and the Energy It Requires isn’t the Same. I wasn’t sura who was in that language. In the scens with her mother or with suselage, the little girl, we stop seeing cheyenne as someone who is always in the middle of a fight, who’s struggling, who is aggressive. Suddenly she becomes a bit more fragile.
What was the schedule Like, Filking Between New York and Paris?
Amy and Dan Had Only Written the First Four Episodes WEND WE ALL SIGNED ON TO THE SHOW, SO IT WAS STRANGE TO COMMIT TO Something with Knowing What Was Going to Our Characters. We filmed the first four episodes in Paris, and they continued to the Write During That Time. THEN WE WENT TO NEW YORK TO FILM THOSE THOSE FOR THE WHOE SEASON, AND THEN WE RETURNED TO FINISH THE LAST FOUR.
What Ended Up Surpring You in Cheyenne’s Story?
I had no idea where he was going to be able to save heself. She was Furious to go to new york and did not want to be there. SINCE AMY AND DAN WERE WRITING FIRE WE WERE FILMING, WE HAD TIME TO WAIT AND WONDER WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN. Jack’s proposal for cheyenne to take over as artistic director Surprised with Becauses that all Change Her Future.
And then at the end of the final, cheyenne is upset about not having gotten the artist-director jab and she appears to get back to the jack. How Did You Approach Playing Cheyenne at Her Most Vulnerable?
IT’S CRAZY IT WAS THE LAST SCENE THAT I FILMED IN NEW YORK. We were all a little tired from thre months of work and, at the sun, it was the moment we had to let go. From the beginning, i had to hold on to something, to be in control. It was like suddenly putting her back into childhood. I didn’t want her to cry like a self-confident woman but almost like a little girl, who says, “I am not. And i will probably never be anything.”
Amy often has Masters Done FIRST – We film the which scene with a steadicam stopping. That’s how she finds the scene. There’s something GRUELING ABOUT HER WAY OF DOING ITING ITO MANY Directors Know Where they are Going to Cut and Don’t Run Everynding in Its Entires. That’s why, with amy, I felt more like I was doing theater. Going Through the which scnene gave us time to understand all the emotion: How Things snap at one moment and then pick up and mov.
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