'Dune' Cast On Making The Long Awaited Sci-Fi Adaptation! | Around the Table | Entertainment Weekly

i never worked on something this big it did feel like an indie film on steroids my job was to just do the best i could do but everybody was so wonderful we had dance parties you know we was having fun here we go this is the book that you know star wars was based on and this is why george lucas did star wars and all that goes away and you're in the middle of jordan on the sand being lifted up by a crane on an ornithopter and you're like this is just hello i'm cynthia arrivo and welcome to entertainment weeklies around the table with the cast of june i'm here in venice where you might hear the boats go by i'm joined with timothy chalamet rebecca ferguson zendaya javier bardem oscar isaac josh brolin sharon duncan brewster stellen skarsgard and dave bautista welcome their cruelty to my people is all i've known what's to become of our world first of all i just want to say that you have a beautiful beautiful film and you're all standing in it and i know that it must have taken a journey to get there so i guess the first question i want to ask is where do you meet this at the beginning what was your first meeting of june was it the book or was it the script and how did you feel for me it was uh it was the book i knew denise was starting to work on it there were guys here like josh that already worked with him and he was at the top of my list people i wanted to work with so i read about half the book before i had a meeting with him and then once i find out i had the meeting then i got through the rest of it and you know as i'm sure we'll all talk about there seem to be a million reasons to to want to do it most importantly to work with denise get to work on this book that has a crazy source material and a crazy devoted fan base but then to get to work with everyone here just a huge dream come true nice and and did you feel like your role was almost uh knitted for you in a way and and when you met the role at in in the film you felt like it was connected yeah yes and no thankfully i'm not on a jihad across the universe right but but i did feel you know a certain pressure taking this material on and but sometimes as we all know here you're feeling on set complete into the roll and once more i felt hugely lucky working with rebecca and oscar the most but then also with you know joshua zendaya came to and just a huge support from everyone i feel like we were all just trying to do as good a job as possible but it's easy with denise because he's so he's so uh joyous about his own work looking at josh because you two on set or something else that's the only reason he asked me there nothing to do with character he just wants me there as a buddy exactly that's moral support are you in this room and rebecca i'd love to know um i had i absolutely knew of june i hadn't read the book i was i was called up on my agent and said denny wants a meeting with you and i remember being really nervous thinking are we sure about this i'm not is this happening and i think he's such a someone i've really wanted to work with and i look i look up to his work in in many ways he just talked for an hour an hour and a half he explained the story because i didn't really know about it to depth in working with it and explained this character and i remember thinking you know he's asking me to play this sort of concubine and super hero woman and i remember thinking ugh i've done it before and then he started talking about the subtlety of character and and sort of the the beauty of the character choices and not only the grandiosity of this film and i thought i mean i'd be lucky to be a teapot in this film so um i threw myself into it and it just kept on going meeting people and this you know it was humblingly enormous have you played a lot of superhero concubines i played a lot of superhero concubines actually so it's my go-to yeah what is yours sam shame i've been having dreams about a girl or maracas i don't know what it means dreams make good stories but everything important happens when we're awake yeah you put on some muscle i did no what i loved about this particular project is all the connections that you make within this film father son mother son it just felt authentic and grounded and i wonder if that stems from the relationships you make on on set and what that was like well definitely felt like a family you know and it comes from the top that comes from the knee in the way that he his excitement and his camaraderie and uh his passion and i think the constant joking around and then suddenly getting very serious walking away in the middle of a sentence yeah exactly um but but yeah i think we got became a real tight-knit group and i know for us you know us three as well as a family worked so hard on that and on those scenes and knowing that that was kind of at the emotional core the this family that fractures dramatically that's what we were doing and then also in the shooting of it um it just we had such such a fun time i could not stop laughing together but you don't you don't you don't know if that's always going to work because we've all done movies where you had a really good time and then you see the movie and you're like you know what i mean so he has this great way of kind of elevating everybody and and and lifting morale but when it comes down to scenes there's something that shifts and he's he's very manipulative like that he does yeah you don't think so you don't think it's happening but he allows you he allows everybody to feel really uh collaborative and yet he has a very set vision i think this was an obsession for him i don't think it was just another movie i think it was a real obsession yeah last night he was saying it's his most personal film even though it's this crazy sci-fi thing that for him it just feels like the closest to him i agree that there's something very personal in it there's a free song in it that feels like it's uh everyone has their own connection to it so you i think that's probably what we're getting um which is a really special thing i want to ask uh michelle and duncan brewster uh because we've known each other for a little while now um and she knew me when i was really young and i've seen how hard she's worked so far this is i know this is a big moment for you and i want to ask how that feels to be here in this moment for the people that know me in the uk um i've been around for a little while um i started as a kid and um i was mostly on stage so i was a job in actor really like opening the cupboard and looking to see what was inside you know praying that something would be in there so i've i've had the ups and downs as i'm sure you know we we've all been there but it's for me you know you wake up one day and your agent phones and tells you that didn't evil nerve said yes everything just changes um the opportunities change yeah the people want to dress you yeah it's just like i used to shop in primark you know i'm talking real talk so for those who don't know what primark is primark is like is it like our target yeah yeah yeah yeah it's it's what i can get in the sale in target so you know it's it's a whole different world for me but it's also a dream it's it's it's what the younger me wanted from from day darts so you just get to a point where you're about 30 something years old and you think ah it'll never happen so it's the dream and to be amongst such wonderful actors who are so generous and and nice it's just it's much more easier for me rather than to be thrown into a world where it's all you know just all on me it's it's nice to be part of an ensemble so thank you all for having me we are house of tradies there is no call we do not answer there is no faith that we betrayed smile gurney i am smiling the emperor asks us to bring peace to arrakis house atreides accepts i want to find out about some of your characters i want to find out about how you get into them whether it is the costume what is your your way in to the people you play how did you get in yeah how do you how do you do it it was for me well how did you get into that how do you break that costume the problem was getting out of it yeah i don't know i mean my my character is not a cat you i didn't didn't do any research on his background i didn't invent a bad childhood or anything his function is very clear i'm supposed to be frightening and it was it's i didn't do the role it was actually the prosthetics that did the role because it's it's the it was all about the visual and we we worked a lot about um how to make him look so that you could see it was a person and not just a monster it was a person but a horrible person but he's i'm barely in the movies so but i have to be a shadow all over the story so you have to notice so i mean we maybe we went over the top a little bit what i love that you also did though i remember when i first saw you in it you said that you wanted him to move very delicately even though he was this big scary guy we saw your costume test almost ballet like that he would move very delicate sensual yeah so you're lying then you said it had nothing to do with you [Laughter] do did everyone have an input in what they were wearing what their character looked like what what was that process like and they have ideas but you always discuss it yeah of course i mean you've got yeah you have to wear it and you also what what the costume says you don't have to say and then they have to be aware of that but i don't know if you have input or not i don't think we had input not so much no i didn't because i was there as a friend no but i again i think that his vision of it i mean so much work was done before we got there that it was like i think it was overwhelming too where you got there and they said you know tell us if you want to do anything else and then you suddenly see the most perfect digital pictures you've ever seen with that kind of backdrop and you're like no i'm good i'm good did you not add anything just for adding so i went yeah you need to face your fears come with me how did it feel to to step on set the first day what was that like it was awe-inspiring just because the sets were enormous they were practically built i think our first day was with charlotte rambling we were shooting the the gumja bar scene she's not here but she was she had these platforms so she was kind of floating around set huge respect for charlotte he's very nice yet she was very intimidating and she was so scary i just felt like struck by how enormous everything was and practically built too not on green screens and when you is this am i are we looking at cgi most of the time are we looking at real build sets real build sets well that affects the way you work i mean if you work with a green screen you don't have the help of the set correct but coming on to those sets the in in my case i mean the set was frightening in itself so i didn't have to do much it was great but it they're so beautiful and and what i find with this i mean sci-fi films often have a tendency to be slightly ridiculous because everybody's trying to be as inventive as possible in in coming up with gadgets that we don't have today but here it's it's very it's it's very sort of scaled down it's very pure it's and it's a it's an a universe that you've never seen before and you really feel you're in it the relationship between your characters here what is that like to cultivate what was that like to to create well i i i didn't really get much time to hang out with everybody i was literally in and out and i i was you know coming into something obviously you see this all-star cast of people that i i very much admire and have all wanted to work with and so stepping inside i was like okay you know we're doing this this is happening you know i got to be on my a game but the energy that was like i think that everybody kind of can attest to is even though i was there for such a brief period i felt such a welcomeness and a warmth i think like again from denny from all of you i i just felt um like i was already a part of a family from there i mean there wasn't you know there wasn't much trying to get warm because it was already warm when i got there my job was to just do the best i could do but everybody was so wonderful we had dance parties you know we was having fun here we go yeah of mr javier dancing so it was it was it was a beautiful experience no it's wonderful and it's on my wall i should have brought it actually um no but it was it was a beautiful experience so there wasn't much having to figure that part out i think we all just clicked pretty pretty quickly you know and i was able to do hopefully my best work because i was surrounded by such incredible people that you makes you want to elevate and do your best work and and in an environment where you feel that you can so my planet arrakis is so beautiful when the sun is low rolling over the sands you can see spice in the air the outsiders ravage our lands in front of our eyes there is obviously the the relationships that happen between every single one of you and i i this relationship is is an interesting one what how and what how would you describe it what is it is it does it feel like a son father does it feel like a what is this i think robon uh holds the barren to godlike status i think he wants nothing but approval from him and he is willing i think he's already kind of a cruel sadistic being but i think that uh he's willing to go even further to please his uncle and uh through obtaining power and greed in the name of the baron you know our power and spice the name of the bear then i wonder if there's like a a parallel between paul and your character here well i mean i i guess in in that there is a want to to please the the father figure i i wonder if that and to step into it and to step into those shoes yeah listen i would love i would love to be batista i don't think i don't think it's happening anytime soon also don't kill me for saying it but i grew up watching batista every friday night at home so this is like a huge deal even just to be i was listening to your entrance music this morning man trying to get fired up i'm not even kidding it's so weird like it's so weird like there's a reason i'm sitting here being quiet and it's because i'm in awe of everybody here and i'm not saying that you know just you know to be that guy but like for me to step on a set with denny and with all these talented people it's like it's a dream come true for me because i i left a career in professional wrestling you know take a chance of myself because i fell in love with acting and it took me forever to get a job and so when someone like denise calls me and says hey i really want you to play this part like that validates those decisions that validates the sacrifice and kind of the chance i took on myself so this is why i'm kind of sitting here just kind of listening i i congratulate you for for all of the work i mean i watched um call me by your name on the way over to film doom and was like blown away by how talented this kid is and he came in to meet me and he was doing my entrance and i was like literally i could do i could do right now like this is crazy like so anyway my point is i'm very honored to be here um be a part of this film and if i could just top that off it's crazy to hear dave say that because i felt like i was stepping into you know josh and dave's environment because they had already worked with denis on blade runner on sicario but that's a good feeling when you feel like actors have worked with people prior and the love that you guys had for him clearly on set and josh and didn't even a whole nother level you guys were all over each other but literally literally all over each other and so who is the who who is newest to denis and meeting him on there was it first times and second time first time first time what was that like what is that like on the lunch and uh he offered me the role and i was as everybody else blown away by the fact that he was so direct like there is this role that i knew of because i read the book many years ago funnily enough stillgar which is a play the role i play is like i felt the same way that i felt when i read the lord of the rings and i i read aragorn is that role that you want to play when you are a kid so when he asked me to play that role i was absolutely in shock being an evil enough and knowing that he's gonna do something very unique with it so i was i was the first timer with him but uh he made me feel very very much like part of the group i'm part of the project immediately by his warmth and his commitment and uh and then i went to the desert and i met all these amazing people some of them because of some others i just met here because i work with them we worked together many years ago with the great milos foreman uh god bless him it was like an independent movie with lots of money behind yeah like the way you know i i remember working in on on on the desert like trying things uh improvising uh trying that way this way camera on the on the shoulder and and of course he was like this gigantic monster of a movie but you feel like okay we are we are experimenting things that's that's pretty cool god in heaven get everything with guns off the ground go this is an extermination they're picking my family off one by one let's fight back demons [Music] it it feels like it sounds like that this epic movie that everyone was a part of was gave you the opportunity to to key into the most pure part of your acting because it like you say you felt like a an independent movie and i wonder if that's everyone's experience here that you were able to jump in uh as though you were on a stage or in the theater or in an independent movie so you could really key into the the purest part of your your acting skills i wonder if that's what it is because you work with actors that you've seen or you've not really those you've worked with but you've seen there's always a discomfort there's always a you want to because you always feel like the worst actor on the set always you're like i'm going to be found out because these people are the real people and then you kind of get through that moment and and the directors he sets that tone you know what i mean and then then you start to play and that's why he was saying that it feels like an independent film because you didn't feel there was no response i didn't feel i don't think a lot of these people felt the responsibility of hey so many people are gonna see this this is so important this is the book that you know star wars was based on and this is why george lucas did star wars and all that goes away and you're in the middle of jordan on the sand being lifted up by a crane on an ornithopter and you're like this is just weird like this is fun this is the fun and then you go and promote it and then it becomes something else but that little blood you know that little bubble that you live in for four months is a special special place i felt very um sort of to to include the whole costume choices and and i feel when i had that conversation with with denny that he had such a clear vision of what he wanted to create but as we said about the acting there was so much space to to offer up option or find ideas and i never felt claustrophobic and locked in in a way that was sort of decided pre-decided so it was it was this magical um mixture of freedom but within wars of security that's what i felt with him and also we all have different techniques to how we work and i've never met a director who can so wonderfully embrace everyone's individuality and know exactly what to give each and every one at a certain moment for me anyway i like we would work in separate ways but he could bring us together and he could also give us exactly sort of the energy he's lucky not to be here probably under the chair blushing right now it did feel like an indie film on steroids and uh i got it like i never worked on something this big and as josh and rebecca put so beautifully also maybe because his creative team is coming from other movies to patrice and some of the heads of departments donald moat they had a hair makeup department so you kind of feel like you're stepping into a family and like when javier and zendaya came it just felt like uh like uh punches of uh of energy yeah it was all downhill no it was like punches of energy and and great great spirits and once more not just i don't want to seem like we're much actors blowing smoke up each other's eyes and people at home will frown but like just but just just to be there with a with javier and and see you know see you and denise basically find the character the voice and do it in a really intimate way not in a way where the it felt like you're doing huge shots but that was just so cool to see no no part of the brain felt like oh this is some big budget big film sacrifice i felt like wow denis who made polytechnic and snd and movies like that got this huge budget to do this crazy thing and uh we all got we're lucky enough to be a part of it dad what if i'm not the future of house of tradies a great man doesn't seek to lead he's called to it but if your answer is no you'll still be the only thing i ever needed you to be my son i wouldn't ask a couple of specifics about this the film i want to ask about the spice what that represents to each and every one of you what you think it might be what it and what the if if there was a desired effect in real life if this spice actually existed in real life what would you want the design effect to be we all got together and did an ayahuasca trip before we started i wish i've done that i guess i'll start with the doctor here i i feel like um you know it's the fairy dust for me if if if we could if the world could be a better place right now if i could take that spice and just sprinkle it everywhere it would just somehow inspire all the inhabitants on this planet to just think a little bit more about what we're doing to our planet and respect what it is it comes of time it's of the earth it's of a long gone millions of years ago it's it's a byproduct of recycling life without the spice and the sandworm they you can't have one without the other and i feel really strongly that we're in a position right now where we're on this earth and we co-exist it's we're sitting here with the grass the trees the water is just there but we owe it to each other to just keep this thing flowing in the correct way and it's up to us right now so if i could sprinkle the spice like fairy dust it would be to share the love and to respect the planet that we live on i i guess for my character the spice uh represents the greed of uh the people human beings that are trying to destroy my environment the environment by mine i mean the one that i i'm supposed to take it take care of and uh so it's it's a precious treasure that is bringing a lot of misery and he wants to fight against that by protecting his people and making sure that at least the environment that he lives in is protected and so the spice is kind of a dangerous thing for him and and because everybody goes there to dig in and take it out it's like oil it's like the oil and we know that that brings a lot of fighting fighting and destruction and and i think stillgar is the is the man who wants to put an end to that which is not easy as we know zenday you look pensive yeah they're giving such beautiful hands and i'm like we're all supposed to there's there's no wrong answer right so follow this i love this fairy dust concept it really is um uh i i thought that was a really beautiful way to put it um but yeah i think you know character wise i think i'm i'm a friend you know and i think it starts off kind of explaining you know they're so used to this oppressive rule um and this um violation of their planet and of their resources and and of neglect and disregard for the people who live there who actually respect and care for their planet because that's the only way that again as you said it's like this cycle and one doesn't live without the other and i think that that's as you were saying a very timely timely thing i mean we all have to look out for each other and care for each other because we're all stuck here on this planet together and i think there is something to that you know of having that that respect for for one another and for humanity and for people um who look like you and don't look like you um and having a bigger sense of empathy you know as we carry out our lives and i think we have a beautiful job of storytelling where we're able to slip into other people's lives and hopefully um help others have greater empathy for lives that they don't live and so i feel like that is our as our gift as actors is being able to to tell other stories that aren't our own and so um yeah if there's anything that you know you know i hope comes from this or the spice or whatever what have you but it's that greater sense of empathy and humanity um so i completely agree with you well that was a crap oh god leave some for us i think paul sees a lot of the working order the institutional order on arrakis is corrupt the spice has a deteriorative effect on the sort of patchwork of communities there obviously to the fremen who are being destroyed but then when paul is a spice vision it's almost like having a free lapse where he didn't purposefully get high and and to put it that way and uh and these visions that he has are not only disturbing but are coming true to some sense and i like how zendaya and sharon put it that i think the spice not to speak from frank herbert's perspective but it kind of serves as a metaphor on our planet for oil or you know the sort of a corrupt greed that has literally robbed us of our earth or maybe our time on earth or our kids time on earth and once more without being high fellowship this movie can serve as a metaphor for that that empathy should come first empathy for our environment and with environmental justice comes racial justice and all sorts of justice and uh that's nothing to be cynical about and something to fight for even when you're talking about a big hollywood movie like this i don't know how this has gone so well i have no idea i was thinking i think for jessica because she belong belongs to this sisterhood the banana jesuit there is this enormous entity of of everything that she needs to think about you know it's plotting and and creating the universe it's strategically manipulating um the outcome of the world you know that is kind of what we do and i think her vision of this spice is isn't that of a personal connection it's it's there it needs to be controlled sadly enough we get thrown into a possibility of of taking charge and i guess with that comes greatness and also disaster so i think for my character is a constant juggle of maintaining order and safety and she's also on her own journey you know so she's so filled with all these emotions it's just putting another catastrophe and another consequence life this mother earth that we we can't fight that she can fight many things but not this i think she would have rather stayed home to be honest and trained him in in that environment well yeah i mean what frank herbert was doing so incredibly was telling as you said about human politics the story of the clash of cultures throughout history on earth and so what he what i think is so brilliant about spice is that you know from our from the atreides perspective it is uh the source of power right he who controls the spice controls the universe so it is oil it is this precious resource at the same time it's also like the monolith in 2001 you know it's the thing that it can be just a tool for power like oil like water like anything but it's also a tool for higher consciousness for this incredible evolution in humanity that's allowed for the benedict has allowed for time travel has allowed for interstellar travel so it's this resource that is so precious but can be used just as a simple tool for bludgeoning other people for dominating other people for controlling other people or for unlocking all of the mystery and the power of the human mind uh and i think that's he it's an incredible invention that he made i mean what everything's been said i mean it's it's i think for me what came up was the fact that when it was written in the 60s it's very similar to now because we're looking for we're bombarded by culture we're looking for higher consciousness we're looking for a different perspective the spice is able to provide that and instead you it becomes an industrial commodity so you destroy the very thing that can help you it seems pretty apropos to now we have all the possibilities in the world we have all the technology we have everything at our disposal and yet it's the most chaotic time which is why covet in any positive kind of perspective on it has kind of brought people back to what's most important to me in this 18 months and there's i mean it feels like there's a direct correlation so the movie is as timely now i think as the book was in the 60s for someone who was going to struggle with this answer you've done very very well i will say yes making it all up but it's that i think that's half of the battle you make every everyone has their own interpretation of what this is and what what we feel from it and every single one is valid um and i want to hear your answer and hear your answer as well but i think we're all on the same page you see what i'm saying i think we're all speaking from the same yeah yeah different pages same volume yeah it feels like that and everybody that i know not that it's a lot who's seen the movie has gotten something completely different from it yeah which is wonderful you know it's also the worm poop the what it's the worm poop it's also the one person [Laughter] have nothing to add to this everything that everybody has said is deeper than anything i've ever said in my life [Laughter] but i think uh you know i like the way oscar put it i think it's a tool i think it's a tool to obtain power and i think it's uh the bigger thing is who controls that tool i think if evil controls that tools they're going to send out a ripple wave of uh you know of evil and i think and that's kind of the struggle that's good versus evil you know obtaining the power to control that that tool you know i don't think i think it's more than even just the spice i think the spice is really just it's a tool to obtain power yeah i really shouldn't say anything sure i mean this is this is are you asking me if you should say something i'm asking you to say something can i just skip this one it's so so was it well i guess i can say from my character's perspective he's i mean he's a he's what you would say a denier of global warming in my character uh and so he just sees the power uh and the sort of the short term financial benefits of this drug that means it's written by it's it's such a funny when you read the book you see you see this this stoned hippie who has read machiavelli right it's all there on the page and and i his relationship to to to spice to drugs was was probably he i think he had a lot of fun but he also saw that it could be dangerous if anything happens will you protect paul with my life only together can we stand a chance it's time if you were to ask well when people see this film what is the one thing you want them to take away from it when they see it this this this conversation conversation community yeah from many voices like one bigger feeling you know because there are so many different perspectives and all of them you can i think there's something that's in some ways even terrifying that you can relate to those even the darker ones even the more villainous sides people that watch the movie can really key in on totally different things so it's not just trying to say one thing or say that this is the one right point of view that out of the collective voices feeling feeling like one cohesive yeah one cohesiveness yeah i feel like that's a good place to end but it was a pretty good place to end um i want to say thank you for spending time with me i'm new at this interviewing thing thank you i had them but i was just i i wanted to sort of feel it out and everyone has beautiful answers to to give and and you're all really connected and i felt really connected when i was watching this movie you have something really special i hope you have an amazing journey with this uh once again this has been entertainment weeklies around the table with the cast of june thank you for joining me and make sure you check out june on october 22nd it's wonderful

Channel: Entertainment Weekly

Views: 591,796

Keywords: dune, dune 2021, dune movie, denis villeneuve, denis villeneuve interview, denis villeneuve dune, dune [remake], timothee chalamet, timothee chalamet dune, timothee chalamet dune interview, timothee chalamet dune press, jason momoa, josh brolin, dave bautista, dune review, dune cast, hbo max, oscar isaac, dune explained, dune movie 2021, dune movie 1984, dune movie explained, dune movie interview, rebecca ferguson, rebecca ferguson interview

Id: dE4xJQrYIYw

Length: 36min 4sec (2164 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 15 2021

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[u/Rosytintedflash]

Intelligent cast. I particularly enjoyed Sharon here- she seems very wise and sincere. Also, the thought of Batista watching CMBYN is cracking me up for some reason... it's such a great movie but I doubt it's his cup of tea. I always recommend it for anyone who really wants to see how talented Timothee really is, though, and why those of us who had seen it never doubted how he'd perform in Dune.

[u/AdGlittering7614]

They all must be exhausted from all these interviews