I can finally say I spent Halloween night in conversation with critically acclaimed and award-winning English actresses Emily Watson and Olivia Williams who play the formidable sisters Valya and Tula Harkonnen in the series “Dune: Prophecy.”
After so much strife and struggle peppered by inevitable ruthlessness, the pair have found themselves at the top leadership ranks of the Bene Gesserit order and exert significant political influence in the world of Dune.
“Dune: Prophecy” takes place in the Dune universe 10,000 years before the arrival of Paul Atreides.
The two women have actually known each other since the ’90s when Olivia recalls, “We were at the Royal Shakespeare Company when we were whippersnappers. We first met sitting on the grass outside a pub called the Dirty Duck in Stratford on Avon and then we had a strange middle period where we met in the bar of the Four Seasons in Los Angeles, when we were making separate big movies, then here we are, finally together in the same room, in the same TV show. It’s great. Couldn’t have predicted it.”
After receiving the news about landing their lead roles in the series, Olivia says, “Emily had the brilliant idea of meeting at the National Portrait Gallery in London where there are the great portraits of the Tudor Dynasty from our British history — Elizabeth the First, her sister, Bloody Mary, and her cousin Mary Queen of Scots and that strange mixture of loving family and inherited grudges that end in beheadings and betrayals, tactical marriages to kings or emperors from other countries and religions to try and gain dominance seemed to have a huge relevance for the we were undertaking.”
Emily Watson and Olivia Williams are the formidable Valya and Tula Harkonnen in ‘Dune: Prophecy’ CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/ATTILA SZVACSEK
Emily adds, “And also finding a human way into this story, because the Dune universe is so massive and a bit overwhelming, but actually, in the middle of this is a very, very messed up family with a traumatic past, and you know two very powerful young women who are trying to escape from that and channeling this rage and this energy into this project of the sisterhood, which is very powerful and quite dangerous. But they feel as many kinds of religious institutions do, not that it’s particularly religious as such, but those kind of ‘cult leadership’ situations — people feel utterly righteous and that the end justifies the means, and they feel very empowered by it, and mayhem usually ensues.”
To which Olivia quipped, “and it does.”
I also asked them to elaborate on the dynamic of the relationship between the sisters. Just because Valya is older and is Mother Superior of the order, does this necessarily mean she automatically dominates?
Olivia jumped in and asked me, “Do you have a sister?” When I said no, she said, “Okay, let me explain. I’m a younger sister, right? And the big sisters, you know, you forget that a year or two years or three years is a lot when you’re little and you, the little sister can never be as clever or as grown up or as dexterous or as strong as the big sister and that stays with you. The grudge never dies, I don’t think.”
For her part, Emily elaborates, “These sisters have many secrets, many deep dark secrets that bind them. They have to stick together. They have to always be a step ahead of everybody else. Both of them have very different skills and different ways of dealing with the world, but they make a really good team, I think.”
“We’re sort of trying to overcome an act of very humiliating, traumatic banishment of our family. An injustice, a lie that has been told about who we are, and that fuels rage. It’s like a force that drives us through.”
To underscore the contrast between the two sisters, Olivia reminds us, “Everybody expresses anger differently. You know I think the two sisters have very different ways of dealing with resentment. One is all sound and fury, and the other one is like — look out for the quiet one.”
Find out more about Valya’s quest to transform the diminished perception of House Harkonnen and what “the quiet one” is capable of in “Dune: Prophecy” on the recently launched Max platform.
The six episode series, “Dune: Prophecy,” debuted on November 18 in the Philippines on the newly launched Max. Each new episode airs on Monday.
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