7 days ago
‘Étoile' creators on writing a show for ‘genius' Luke Kirby
Kelly Bishop. Alex Borstein. Milo Ventimiglia. Liza Weil. Emily Bergl … and Luke Kirby. When it comes to casting, Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino are nothing if not loyal, and their ensembles inevitably feature more than one familiar face from series past. So after his Emmy-winning turn in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, it comes as little surprise that they would put Kirby center stage in their latest series, Étoile.
In this installment of the Dream Team: Étoile series, the creators talk with their leading man about his first audition, the 'lifetime' commitment he made to them, and finally fulfilling his costume wish.
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Gold Derby: Luke, how did you first find your way into the Palladino-verse?
Luke Kirby: I had an audition. My agent called me and said, "You have an audition," and it was for Lenny Bruce. And he said, "You could actually maybe get this role because you kind of look a bit like him." I thought, "Wow, that's the nicest thing you've said to me in 10 years." They sent me a YouTube video of Lenny doing his bit on Steve Allen and a recording of his airplane glue bit. I just went over it and over it and over it. Then I stepped into a room with these two geniuses, and I guess they felt sorry for me. My plan worked!
SEE'It's very daunting': Luke Kirby on taking the lead in 'Étoile' after playing 'vampire' Lenny Bruce in 'Mrs. Maisel'
Amy and Dan, what was it about that audition that made you fall in love with Luke?
Dan Palladino: We had actually cast all of the Maisel cast — we had found Rachel [Brosnahan] and then it was like, "Sh-t, we have to find a Lenny Bruce, because he's so important in the pilot." And by the way, it was originally conceived that we were not going to see Lenny Bruce necessarily past the pilot. A couple of guys came in. The first guy looked like him and did well, and we thought, "Good, we're going to get this guy. Let's see who this next guy is." So Luke walks in and we were just immediately smitten. Luke really studied, Luke knew Lenny Bruce, he knew his stuff, and he just absolutely nailed it. We could have told him in the room that his agent was right, that he's probably going to get the part.
Amy Sherman-Palladino: We had the discussion — Lenny was going to be a one-off. And we said, "If we just want to do the one-off, maybe you go with the guy who basically did a Lenny Bruce impression. But if we ever want Lenny Bruce to act, to do something other than his standup, to be a fully fleshed-out person, we have to go with Luke Kirby." So we went with the guy who's going to give us some options in the future. And he came in and it was just so obvious. The more that we worked with him and especially when we got into that scene with him and Rachel at the end, we wanted him to be the first person that put in her ear, this idea of this future of mine can work. It just became, well, that's going to be the guardian angel, that's the muse, that's the weird, twisted, guiding light, if you will, of Midge Maisel's career. That is the genius of Luke Kirby. And he's a delightful man to be around.
Kirby: I'm just a vessel.
Luke, when you sign on for a Dan and Amy show, you end up becoming a part of a troupe that they take with them from show to show. Did you realize that you were going to be making a lifelong commitment?
Kirby: No, I had no clue. All I knew was that in all likelihood that I'd be told to speak faster. And so I arrived on set very, very ready for that note. And it came very quickly. But I didn't know that when I arrived on set, I'd also be immersed into this world designed by all of these different departments that come together and make the transition into the make-believe just seamless. I couldn't believe how fun and transported I felt that first day on set. I just was looking around the street. I was looking at the props. I was looking at the matchbooks. Everything was there to make us feel enmeshed in this make-believe. I thought, "Oh, these people really like to raise the bar and everybody in every department is trying to land on the same island together." That really made an impression. It made me say a little prayer that I would be invited back in some capacity. It took no groveling. I just had to pay a certain piper in the ether.
Sherman-Palladino: Now he's just trying to figure out how to get away from us.
Palladino: Now he's calling that agent saying, "Wait, was it a lifetime thing? Is there fine print that I did not read?"
Kirby: It all felt very seamless. Working in that space and environment was really enjoyable, Early on in my education, I was given the mantra of just do it and show up, and I found myself in a track with Amy and Dan that made sense. So to be invited now into this new adventure, it's great.
Dan and Amy, did you always have Luke in mind for ?
Sherman-Palladino: Yes. We wanted to put him front and center because he's so great and he can do so much. Lenny was such a great character, but Lenny comes with his own confinement because it's a real person and there was a real end to Lenny and there was a real sad track that he went down. So we couldn't take so many liberties with him and expand him out into everything that Luke can do. We had to stay in the Lenny wheelhouse. So what we wanted to do is make sure that we put him A number one on that call sheet, put him front and center, and tried to write something for him that let him paint with all of the colors in his very strange toolbox. We're just big Kirby fans, and he's got all the stuff that we look for. He's a great actor. He's got that training and that grounding, but he's got a very specific quirk and he can be funny and he's not afraid of being a d--k and he's not afraid of f--king up. There's some actors that have this and some actors that don't. Some actors, you just innately love them even if they're doing something completely stupid on screen. And that's a gift. To get a leading man handed to you who can do all that, it means as writers, you can write him anything and you can let the story go anywhere you want the story to go because you don't have to worry, (a) that he can't handle it or (b) that he's not going to take it one or two steps beyond even where you thought it was going to go. And that's the greatest kind of gift for a writer.
Luke, what was your response when you got the pitch?
Kirby: Does this mean I have to come in in the morning? [Laughs.] I was really thrilled. I was thrilled more than anything because I felt so sad to say goodbye when Maisel wrapped. I felt like I'd gotten a good taste of the experience with them, a really enriching one, but I felt like I missed out on the daily grind especially with Amy and Dan and with the crew and just being more involved in the conversation. And so to know that we were going to try to venture out into a new experiment together was really just very exciting. And given the themes of the show and the subject matter, the dance world is something that's always been very attractive to me and has a lot of appeal and just felt ripe for picking away at the imagination. I knew already that it was going to mean trying to raise the bar and do something new and different and dynamic.
And what about dance lessons?
Kirby: I took a little. Jack's not a dancer, I'm sure Jack made efforts to see if he had any talent. Jack certainly is not known in his family as the one with any degree or modicum of talent, but I wanted to know about the language of ballet specifically. And I thought what better way than to take ballet lessons. It did help me understand how a person who lives in that world observes a dancer's body, observes elegance, grace, the things that they're looking for in natural talents and also in a dancer's dedication and determination. In that way, it was very insightful. And I'm here to announce that I'm going to retire from acting because my dance teacher told me that I had a body made for ballet and it's not too late.
Dan and Amy, knowing Luke as well as you do, how much are you able to write to him? How much of Jack's quirks come from Luke?
Kirby: Can I just say, there is a line where Crispin [Shamblee, played by Simon Callow] says to Jack, 'You were always crying,' and he remembers me crying in my striped overalls. My mother called me after watching the episode and she said, 'How did they know?' I don't know that you talked to anybody, but I feel like they were pulling from some kind of memory that lingers in the air.
Palladino: You get to know people. We don't tend to pick a lot of like specifics from people's lives like we did make him a runner that's unusual for us because Luke is a runner but unconsciously you get to know people and you build their quarks in naturally. That's what we always try to do with every actor that we work with, just get to know them as soon as possible and kind of get to know what they can do.
Sherman-Palladino: We're vampires. We just leech and hover and hide behind coffin lids.
Kirby: Yes, and my neck is always at the ready.
Luke, what have you learned working with Dan and Amy besides talking fast?
Kirby: It asserts some things that I thought I was discovering early on in doing this work for a living. I had a teacher a long, long time ago, when I was studying Shakespeare, who said, 'You don't do the text, the text does you.' It's very simple advice, but it landed in that regard, but it's carried on, and it has carried on into working with Amy and Dan. When writing is as good as theirs is, it's a really good idea, I think, to get out of your own way. Having a kind of faith in the words can really bring you into new worlds that you don't expect. Their writing is very, very nuanced. I think it's to be deeply felt.
Sherman-Palladino: So basically he's saying we're as good as Shakespeare.
Kirby: I didn't say that. But I'll say it.
Palladino: Now I have to Google Shakespeare to see who this guy is.
So I've read in a few interviews that Luke wants a cape. Can we get a commitment from you, Amy and Dan, that he can get a cape in his next role?
Sherman-Palladino: Yes, sure, whatever you want.
Kirby: Thank you. Wow, look at that. It's just that easy! I was so jealous of Tony [Shalhoub]'s cape. Not a short cape, by the way — it's got to have some length to it, you know.
Sherman-Palladino: A full cape — yeah, yeah, we get it.
This article and video are presented by Prime Video.
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