It's the TV acting equivalent to Ginger Rogers dancing like Fred Astaire, only backwards and in high heels — delivering Amy Sherman-Palladino's whip-smart, high-velocity dialogue, when it's not your native tongue.

That was the imposing task faced by French actresses Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou de Laáge as they stepped into leading roles in Prime Video's Étoile, the latest series created by Sherman-Palladino and her husband, Dan Palladino, wrapping both their brains and tongues around lines that were often mystifying in their meaning at the same warp speed as Lorelai Gilmore and Midge Maisel.

Gainsbourg plays Geneviève Lavigne, the general director of the Parisian ballet who makes a deal with her Manhattan counterpart, Jack McMillan (Maisel’s Luke Kirby), to swap their leading talent to drive interest in both of their programs; de Laáge stars as Cheyenne Toussaint, the sublimely talented, politically fiery prima ballerina whose life is upended by the swap.