Luke Kirby On Jack Being Nourished by the Art of Ballet for ‘Étoile’

The art of ballet is coursing through Jack McMillan’s veins, but not because he dances as the title character in The Nutcracker nor has he ever broken a toe from a strenuous week of rehearsal. Jack is an arbitrator of good taste, because his family has been steeped in the performing arts decade after decade. Becoming the director of the New York Metropolitan Ballet is almost a birthright, but unlike those who demand to have a balcony named after them, Jack McMillan has the passion to back it up. For Étoile, Luke Kirby arms Mr. McMillian with an intellectual bravado and a love of dance you so ardently that you would want him to lead you into the battlefield in the precious pursuit of protecting creation.

Ballet would survive if no one came to see it, because it feels so classic and artistically sustainable. Surely there are cave drawings of ballet dancings twirling, right? At the beginning of Amy Sherman-Palladino’s new comedy series, two ballet houses are losing audiences to COVID fears and the brainrot known as TikTok. When Charlotte Gainsbourg’s Genvieve, director of the Paris equivalent, suggests a talent swap, Jack is so anxious to keep control that he suggests that it was his idea. Ballet, after all, is about transforming remarkable control into rapturous beauty, and Jack has a bit of a problem with letting go.

“The limits are where I say they are, because I make them. I am the limits,” he declares after a row with his new French superstar, Cheyenne Toussaint. At every turn, a new problem rises. When those problems are resolved, someone from France flies in to complain about the costumes or how they are being treated. We hear Kirby ratchet up Jack’s pulse, as he tries to gain control of the swirling chaos time and time again.

When you watch Luke Kirby, as Jack, watch ballet, you understand how it nourishes him. He is witnessing pure power, grace, and strength, and we wonder if Jack is hoping he gains more confidence by osmosis. Maybe it will flutter through the air and penetrate his skin. He and I speak about the calming bond between Jack and his troubled colleague, Nicholas, before we determine who would answer a cease and desist from the Trump administration if they came after the New York Metropolitan Ballet.

Luke Kirby allows us to see inspiration glimmer in his eyes, and we witness him fall in love with that intimacy time and time again through the course of Étoile‘s eight episodes. He may not be on stage this time (not wielding a mic as Lenny Bruce either), but he knows what’s at stake, and he knows that truth first comes from the stage.

Étoile is streaming now on Prime Video.