For the below-the-line team of Prime Video‘s ballet series Étoile, most of whom had worked with creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino on their prior hit series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, creating the show was an undertaking shaped by both creative triumphs and major challenges.
From its earliest stages, the production navigated a landscape shaped by disruption — with the dual strikes of 2023 making for an unusual shooting schedule, and preparations for the 2024 Olympics complicating location shooting for the show, which moves between Paris and New York City.
“There were whole streets where the sidewalks were fenced off,” recalled cinematographer M. David Mullen of shooting in Paris, “and scaffolding in front of every monument.” Alongside Mullen and other members of the team at the Deadline Studio at Prime Experience, production designer Bill Groom echoed the strain: “If we couldn’t shoot everything on location in Paris, we should be fired. But we couldn’t.” Ultimately, many Parisian interiors — including a grand studio modeled after the Palais Garnier — were built from scratch, allowing the crew to assert control over key environments.
For Mullen, the show’s dual settings posed another creative puzzle. “Paris is inherently beautiful,” he noted, “but New York required us to really find the look.” Lincoln Center became a key reference, grounding the show’s modernist New York visuals in contrast to the gilded opulence of Paris.
Watch the conversation here, and scroll down for a gallery from the event.
Simultaneously shooting the first four episodes across two continents without a pilot only heightened the sense of leaping into the unknown. “We had no idea what the sound of the show was going to be,” admitted music supervisor Robin Urdang, who highlighted her close collaboration with choreographer Marguerite Derricks, sharing, “Anything I [pitched musically], Marguerite had to really feel.”
Cindy Tolan at the Deadline Hollywood Portrait Studio at Prime Experience 2025 on May 09, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Anthony Avellano for Deadline
Patricia Regan, Kimberley Spiteri and Marguerite Derricks at the Deadline Hollywood Portrait Studio at Prime Experience 2025 on May 09, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Anthony Avellano for Deadline
Anne Davison at the Deadline Hollywood Portrait Studio at Prime Experience 2025 on May 09, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Anthony Avellano for Deadline
Robin Urdang at the Deadline Hollywood Portrait Studio at Prime Experience 2025 on May 09, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Anthony Avellano for Deadline
Bill Groom and M. David Mullen at the Deadline Hollywood Portrait Studio at Prime Experience 2025 on May 09, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Anthony Avellano for Deadline
Fortunately, necessary synergy was there for Derricks, both with Urdang and with casting directors Cindy Tolan and Anne Davison, who “saw 2,700 people” for roles over the course of a year, per Tolan. For Davison, part of the joy of the opportunity with Étoile was the fact that professional dancers like Taïs Vinolo would get the chance to demonstrate their chops on screen for the first time. It’s “a testament to Amy and Dan,” Tolan observed, that the show manages to balance so many distinct voices within “a cohesive whole.”
Hair and makeup departments also rose to the occasion on Étoile, leaning into Amy Sherman-Palladino’s instincts as to the visual thumbprint for each character, while precisely matching dance doubles to lead actors. Patricia Regan headed the makeup department, with Kimberley Spiteri overseeing hair.
For all team members, success was found in leaning into chaos. In the end, as Derricks put it: “With all the obstacles, all the marbles that came rolling under our feet, we got it done. And it’s beautiful.”
