Amandla Stenberg Avoided The 'Angsty Teenage Girl' Tropes For The Eddy

Legacies run through The Eddy, Netflix's new Parisian jazz drama. Its protagonist, Elliot (Moonlight and High Flying Bird star André Holland), has left New York to run a club in the City of Lights — an act already loaded with generational meaning — as well as is navigating the complex relationship he has with his estranged daughter, Julie, played by Amandla Stenberg. These twin dynamics set up the series, so it makes sense that they were top of mind at MTV News's visit to the set of the show earlier this year.


"Frankly, as a Black man, I feel a sense of responsibility to prepare ensure that I'm representing our culture in the correct way. That's something I habitually feel very strongly about," Holland mentioned. "Particularly in this setting, the storybook of Black artists moving to Paris is already political, and as soon as you set that up, it already hearkens back to days gone by. So I just aspire to prepare ensure that we're telling the story in a really culturally sensitive way."


That story wouldn't be complete without the music, and The Eddy — which sees La La Land maestro Damien Chazelle as both executive producer and director of its first two episodes — noticed its musical north stars in Glen Ballard and Randy Kerber. "I think that he attempted to bring jazz back inside the center of American popular song," executive producer Alan Poul mentioned about Ballard.


That's only where the story starts. Below, find all of the highlights we learned while being on set while in the creation of The Eddy — which premiered on May 8 — and catch the show streaming on Netflix right now.

• 
  
  Stenberg sought to prepare her teenage character, Julie, free of clichés.
  
  
  Courtesy Netflix
  
  
  
  "I'm playing a rebellious 16-year-old girl. I think her in particular, there's probably more suggestions around what's going on in her head and what she thinks and how she's doing certain things," Stenberg mentioned. "I sort of feel like it's my responsibility to make sure that any time playing a teenager, especially one who has a lot of issues or challenges — I think it feels key to me that I never fall into the trope of an angsty teenage girl and I attempt to ground it in something that feels real to me and something I've observed or either experienced, because it might be really easy to fall into archetypes."
  
  
  
  
  



• 
  
  Stenberg and Holland preserved their complex dynamic on the set.
  
  
  Courtesy Netflix
  
  
  
  "They have sort of a tumultuous relationship, and some days it sort of bums me out because I sort of hope to go out with André, get dinner and stuff," Stenberg mentioned. However we've actually just sort of been letting whichever we can read on the set sort of of course settle, and sort of building our relationship together through that. At a certain point, it gets weird attempt to kick it with your estranged father — we can't really go out for a drink, you know?"
  
  
  "We never discussed about it," Holland added. "We never mentioned, 'Hey, don't converse with me, I don't aspire to be hanging out.' Nevertheless we both understand that OK, we'll just give each other some space, and I think that's helped us. Although she's dope. I've learned a lot from her, and I hope she plans to mention the same about me."
  
  
  
  
  



• 
  
  Holland's character pays homage to a lineage of Black American artists exploring the artistry of Paris.
  
  
  Courtesy Netflix
  
  
  
  certainly there really is a history of all these people — Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison and Miles Davis — coming over here in search of something, and I think [Elliot] comes for a similar reason, in search of something and for me that's his identity," Holland mentioned. "In my imagination, he is a guy who's played everything that he's been told to play all of his life, and as a result he's been rewarded for it, however he's left some segment of himself beyond. So to me, this series is about him attempting to reconnect with his own roots, through his daughter. And she's in a place where she needs that cultural connection. She is a product of a biracial relationship, so I think she's been separated from her Blackness, and thus I'm interested in that journey, and I hope that something that Residents of the United States, particularly Black Residents of the United States will have the ability to understand."
  
  
  
  
  



• 
  
  The Eddy musical group might even head out on a real-world tour — once it's safe to do so.
  
  
  Courtesy Netflix
  
  
  
  "They can't wait. That's how much they love it," Ballard mentioned. "They just aspire to play this music for anybody that would listen. And I think there'll be a lot of people interested. It's a magic experience to sit close to them and hear them do it. I mean, I get chills every time it happens, and they're my main go to musical group ever. They're that good. And it's sort of a fantasy for me to have that level of musicianship. They can play all these songs."