revealing she was listening to the soundtrack when she was
preparing for her role as a singer in Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold
War. It was when that film headed to the Oscars in February
2019 that Kulig first met Chazelle – just four days before she
was due to give birth. Then, on her actual due date, she sung
live for the producers, with her husband waiting outside in the
car, with her suitcase, just in case a hospital dash was required
(thankfully, it wasn’t).
A month later – after giving birth to a boy – she started
preparing in Santa Monica, “with the baby in my hand”,
before spending three weeks in her native Poland with a music
coach. “It was a very special time.” Kulig, who studied at
drama school in Krakow after winning a Polish TV talent
contest when she was 15, had always wanted to learn jazz, but
it never happened for her. “So this TV series for me – it was
the best lesson.”
Chazelle was ideal as their band leader, she adds. “Damien
thinks all the time like a jazz musician. He was a drummer
[a^yli^gmabl^Zkerr^Zkllmn]rbg`cZss]knffbg`], and this style
of directing is all about the rhythm and the music.” It’s not
just about his camera style, though. “He knows how to get
emotion out of music, almost better than anyone I know,”
says Ballard. “And musical situations. He creates an emotional
response, I think.”
It’s not difficult to see why Chazelle was drawn to the show,
the characters or the music they play. “These people are making
art and trying to express themselves for reasons other than
money or fame,” he says. “That’s not what you go into jazzthese days to do and that’s why I’m particularly interested in
the artform. It attracts a certain kind of person, especially today
because they are devoting their whole life, hours every day of
sweat and toil, of practice and practice, and low paying gigs,
for something that may barely keep a roof over their head.”
Still, with jazz not the most mainstream musical genre
these days, will The Eddy be too niche for some? “When you
hear the songs in the show, they have incredible hooks, they
have incredible structure, but it’s not like somebody goes off
on a thirteen minute trombone solo that you can’t follow,”
answers Poul. “We have moments when they go freestyle and
have great solos, but they’re songs. I feel if we’ve done our job,
we’ve managed to take jazz and make it much more accessible
to a mainstream audience that might think they don’t like jazz
but will find out that they do.”
More importantly, it might inspire audiences to embrace
part-subtitled dramas with characters from very diverse
backgrounds. “I think that is one of the aims of the show,”
says Stenberg. “To create a comprehensive multicultural view
of the city, as opposed to one from a very white European
perspective.” Who knows? The musical form itself might even
experience a renaissance. “We’re trying to find the next
heartbeat for jazz,” says Ballard. “We want to inspire people
all over the world – that jazz is for you.” Chazelle smiles.
“I think it can offer us something to find some hope in.”THE EDDY IS AVAILABLE ON NETFLIX ON 8 MAY.Musically, Chazelle sent over a file of artists to listen to –
particularly Thelonious Monk, the American jazz pianist and
composer. “Listening to his music but also watching some
footage of him, just the way he rehearsed and the way he
worked with his band, was helpful to me,” says Holland.
There were outings to live Paris jazz clubs too – a city that
“never gave up on jazz ever,” remarks Ballard. And then there
were music lessons. Lots of them. “I’d never touched a piano
before the series,” says Holland.
The musical influences seeping into the show were eclectic;
on screen, we even see a North African-inspired group fronted
by French rapper Sopico. As for the songs, they became
integral to each episode. “The first question I would ask the
writer’s team was ‘What’s the emotional arc of the episode?’”
says Thorne. “The second question was, ‘What’s the song?’
We were always looking at the lyrics, listening to the songs,
feeding off them and just questioning, questioning,
questioning, why these songs belong to these episodes.”
When it came to recording the musical numbers, the only
way to do it was as jazz intended: live. “Who would try that?”
laughs Ballard. “But we tried it and we pulled it off. This is the
way real music gets made; this is the way people play music
and not playback with a touch of a button,
how much you have to sweat and give to
creating a great performance every single
night. It’s not about the records but about
you being in the room in that moment.”
With its mix of English, French and
other languages, and gritty backdrop that
even sees the club fall foul of some violent
debt collectors in the early episodes, The
Eddy may take some viewers aback. “A lot
of people will hear ‘Damien Chazelle’ and
expect this to be La La Land. But it’s not,”
says Holland. “It’s a totally different thing.
It’s going to surprise a lot of people. It’s not
a musical. It’s a drama that has some music
in it, and it’s about people’s relationships
with each other and with music.”WHISTLE FOR THE CHOIR
Of course, that didn’t stop some actors
gravitating towards the project. “I loved La La
Land, I saw it five times,” smiles Kulig,OUTOFTUNE
TheEddystars
AndréHolland
andAmandla
Stenbergas
fatherand
daughter
musicians
“DAMIEN KNOWS HOW TO GET EMOTION
OUT OF MUSIC, ALMOST BETTER THAN
ANYONE I KNOW” GLEN BALLARD
APRIL 2020 | TOTAL FILMTHE EDDY