Dune: Prophecy star Jessica Barden talks playing young Valya Harkonnen, the eventual Mother Superior of the Bene Gesserit.
“I always felt like I wanted to make my version of Valya uncomplicated. Just, who is this person that you meet for the first time, who begins to provide context for an audience that thinks the Harkonnens are completely, irredeemably bad?” Barden tells SFX magazine in the new issue, which features Wicked on the cover and hits newsstands on November 1.
The series dives into the life of second Mother Superior of the Sisterhood Valya Harkonnen (Watson), the most consequential architect of the matriarchal order which will eventually come to be known as the Bene Gesserit.
After a massive war among the universe’s family Houses over the rise of destructive “thinking machines” (technology similar to AI and elevated computers), the Harkonnen House is on the losing end of the fight. They’re banished along with that tech, and young Valya (Barden) becomes consumed with restoring her family’s place in the universe. The spin-off show is set 10,000 years before the birth of Paul Atreides.
“It’s probably as close to an old-school HBO, indie movie version of Dune. It goes into the backstory of Valya a lot more,” she continues. “And that particular episode gave me context that the Valya I play needs to be completely grounded in the total authenticity of any young person, anywhere in the world who is like, ‘Fuck this, I won’t accept this. This is what I’m doing.’ It’s a mixture of blind excitement of having nothing to lose. Also, she’s maybe a psychopath. It’s like playing Ted Bundy, in a way.”
The cast includes Emily Warson as older Valya, Olivia Williams as Tula Harkonnen, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Aoife Hinds, Travis Fimmel, Jade Anouka, Chloe Lea, and Chris Mason.
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Dune: Prophecy releases on November 17. Read more in the latest issue of SFX magazine, which features Wicked on the cover and will be available from Friday, November 1.
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Fellow Ozians! Let us rejoicify at the announcement of our exclusive #WickedMovie issue, on sale from 1 November with two thrillifying covers to collect! pic.twitter.com/z8ywneNWdbOctober 28, 2024
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