Damien Chazelle Danced on the Set of ‘La La Land’

Director Damien Chazelle danced on the set of La La Land.

Choreographer Mandy Moore got drafted in to work on the award-winning blockbuster by Chazelle and confessed she tapped him to be her dance partner for rehearsals but was disappointed not to have any video evidence.

She said: “I wish someone had videoed him dancing.”

Moore spent a lot of time on set before the lead actor and actress – Ryan Gosling (Sebastian) and Emma Stone (Mia) – started filming but she didn’t want to over-rehearse with them as Chazelle wanted the pair to “look like real human beings” when they moved rather than dancing professionals Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

She shared: “Damien wanted these people to look like real human beings; having real emotions, while they were moving. There’s no way that you could train someone to be Fred and Ginger in two months; or a year – or three years or four years. Fred and Ginger trained their whole lives to be who they were. [However,] references to how they [Fred and Ginger] moved as a couple are peppered throughout the film.”

Moore got plenty of time to work on the movie, revealing the opening number – which sees dancers perform surrounded by hundreds of cars on a freeway – was plotted down to a tee.

She told the Daily Mail newspaper: “The very beginnings of that egg was hatched on the back of a piece of paper. We drew cars and boxes on paper; and Damien drew in arrows to show me where the cameras would be. To randomly take a hundred cars and put dancers on them, there on the freeway, would have been a nightmare. We actually had only 30 dancers – and we had to be very smart about where we put them. The art department created a model of the freeway, and used those little Hot Wheels cars, so we could play around and face them the right way; and work out which way – and on which car – a dancer would be.”