On Tuesday evening, Charlotte Gainsbourg made a striking appearance on the red carpet at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art for the premiere of her new ballet series, Étoile. Effortlessly chic—much like her legendary parents, Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg—the British-French actress and singer wore a playful gold polka-dot Saint Laurent minidress with towering stilettos. As she posed for photographers, she tousled her brown hair with one hand while holding sunglasses and a clutch. “It’s easy to wear,” Gainsbourg told Vogue about her outfit. “It’s lovely, and the shoes don’t hurt!”
In Étoile, created by Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino—the Emmy-winning duo behind Gilmore Girls and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel—Gainsbourg immerses viewers in the ruthless world of ballet, where two prestigious companies in New York and Paris swap their top dancers for a year in a bid to revive their historic institutions.
Gainsbourg plays Geneviève, a sharp-tongued, no-nonsense French ballet director who wears high heels and will stop at nothing to reignite public passion for dance. The role marks her first foray into English-language comedy.
“People here see me only as a dramatic actress, but I’ve always sought out comedies whenever possible,” says Gainsbourg, best known in the U.S. for her intense roles in Lars von Trier films like Melancholia and Nymphomaniac. “I loved doing comedy in France. I’m not always serious—I like to have fun and laugh!”
Unsurprisingly, she relished the chance to play an audacious, larger-than-life character like Geneviève. “I loved masking my character’s melancholy with her high heels, then revealing her vulnerability when she’s alone,” Gainsbourg explains. “That duality was fun to explore—going to those extremes.”
She also delighted in delivering rapid-fire one-liners and dropping F-bombs from Étoile’s witty script. “Amy and Dan’s writing is hilarious. Once I grasped the rhythm and their word choices, I knew exactly what to aim for—and swearing as much as possible was a blast!”
Beyond her impeccable comedic timing, Gainsbourg also proved a natural at physical comedy. “She has this ethereal quality,” Sherman-Palladino says, “but we quickly realized she’s a brilliant physical comedian. Her face is so expressive, and she reacts to everything. Comedy can be intimidating, but she never faltered.”
Comedy runs in the family—her mother, Jane Birkin, starred in several comedies, from the 1969 romantic satire Slogan (her first film with Serge) to Alain Resnais’s 1997 dramedy Same Old Song.
“She always loved seeing me in comedies,” Gainsbourg says of her late mother. “She thought she wasn’t taken seriously as an actress because she did comedies and skipped the fancy award shows, but her films were brilliant. She was so funny. Even though she later moved to dramas, she appreciated the charm of comedy and was thrilled when I did it in France. I think she’d be happy with Étoile.”
Étoile premieres on Prime Video on April 24.