Rebecca Ferguson, who plays Lady Jessica Atreides in Dune, has been speaking about physical locations and sets on science fiction movies and action movies and TV shows and how they can help inform her performance, but also allowing herself to give in and trust the director and post-production crew.
Ferguson has been very busy recently, filming Dune 2, Mission Impossible 7 and 8 back-to-back, as well as an upcoming Apple TV show called Silo. In a recent interview with YouTuber Jake’s Takes, she was asked about what a set or shooting location can do for an actor; “I think what has given me the most was Abu Dhabi [filming Dune]. Running on the sand dunes, feeling so small on these incredible hills, just ongoing sand. How small we are compared to Mother Nature, I love it.”
“I am going to say that [Dune] Part Two is better than Part One. And that’s me saying it without seeing it. I’m saying that based on what I’ve read, what I’ve seen, and what I’ve filmed. I think it’s going to be better.”
Ferguson was also asked about the most blind faith she’s had to show on a set, and she responded; “Mission Impossible with Tom Cruise and Chris McQuarrie, because you have no script, you don’t know what you’re working with. But you’re working with two men who are such incredible storytellers, and they’ve found a formula. You have to learn in those situations to trust that they know what they’re doing, because everything they’ve gone thus far is fucking incredible, right?”
Ferguson concluded; “You have to be prepared, be in shape, then you arrive on set and Chris says ‘you’re going to run in this scene’ and if you ask ‘am I running towards something or away from something?’ he’ll say ‘we’re probably going to do both, it depends on how we cut it in the edit.’ So it’s trust, but it’s not hard to trust them.”
If you want to brush up on House Atreides and House Harkonnen before Dune 2 comes out, we’ve got you covered.