Amid the sacred stone partitions of the Sisterhood’s fortress-like headquarters on the planet Wallach IX, the acolytes of Mom Superior Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson) and Reverend Mom Tula Harkonnen (Olivia Williams) in “Dune: Prophecy” battle to make sense of the unusual happenings of their order as forces inner and exterior attempt to destroy their influential heritage.
Sister Jen is without doubt one of the foremost academy college students, who shows an uncanny stage of frequent sense, uncensored instinct, and outspokenness that may make her one of many frontrunners to say a management function ought to tragedy befall her stoic-but-flawed mentors, Valya and Tula.
Actress Faoileann Cunningham, who had a quick function in director Robert Eggers’ Viking saga “The Northman,” portrays this headstrong apprentice amid an unbelievable ensemble solid that allowed her to considerably stretch her vary in HBO/Max’s six-episode prequel miniseries. After being taken below Tula’s wing and entrusted to harbor harmful secrets and techniques with reference to Lila’s (Chloe Lea) resurrection and restoration, Sister Jen has come to the forefront of this outstanding sequence to say herself in myriad methods that may doubtless resonate into the newly-announced second season.
“It was very enjoyable,” Cunningham tells Area.com. “Clearly they’re difficult scenes however working with these guys was so enjoyable and we would clearly constructed up a great rapport throughout the entire sequence. To be trustworthy, typically these issues are simpler than the large set items the place there’s one million individuals on set for a day, so you possibly can simply connect with the opposite actor and do what you have to do. I actually loved it, and it was good that we shot these scenes in sequence which made it rather a lot simpler. Chloe and I are excellent buddies, and the identical with Olivia. So it was very joyful. Lots is occurring so you must reset and go, ‘Okay, I didn’t know that 5 seconds in the past.'”
The extraordinary sequences down within the bowels of the Sisterhood’s stronghold with Sister Lila possessed by the deceased Mom Raquella, who’s attempting to dissect causes for Kasha’s demise and uncover the supply of Desmond Hart’s powers, carried a method and tone harking back to outdated Common horror motion pictures akin to “The Bride of Frankenstein.”
“After we go into the cave Lila is in plenty of ache and is clearly grappling with the ancestors so I feel wrapping that up so far as we may doable go was our purpose within the most secure approach doable however actually pushing that with the stunt coordinators,” she notes. “The minute that door opens it is a hearth that is occurring. And within the following scenes, it was very nice as a result of we hadn’t seen in so lengthy that basically shut connection between Jen and Lila that was there within the early episodes. They have been head-to-head in bunk beds to one another in order that they have been at all times in a position to have these conversations. After that, it was simply actually connecting to what had gone earlier than and bringing it proper down to 2 buddies filling one another in on all the pieces.”
Cunningham admits to the complexity of Sister Jen’s journey in “Dune: Prophecy,” one thing that required her to inhabit the function with sides of her personal persona.
“I feel initially what I beloved about her was this jester high quality, setting individuals as much as fall or setting individuals up for questions they actually didn’t wish to reply, or enjoying with individuals’s personal notion of fact,” she explains. “That was enjoyable as a result of clearly as an actor you might change off what elements of these issues have been actually honest and what elements weren’t. However that form of runs proper as much as the tip of the season. We by no means actually know the place she sits when it comes to her loyalty, what she needs to get from this, who she trusts and who she doesn’t. And that is very interesting. I am additionally fairly a cerebral individual so it was good to try to discover elements of your self in there. That agency footedness and reactive nature, however equally each on a private stage and on a personality stage, maturing by the season into with the ability to maintain plenty of conflicting concepts.
“Once you’re on set with Olivia and Emily you have to run faster than you have ever run in your life, and likewise for the youthful solid. Each single individual is astonishingly gifted and extremely hardworking. It made me do my homework instances one million. There’s so many transferring elements to the story, you must turn into very refined in every second of what you are attempting to convey. It is all very very targeted work as a result of in any other case, I feel we might lose the viewers since there’s a lot happening. God solely is aware of the place Jen is headed, but it surely’s very thrilling.”
“Dune: Prophecy’s” six episodes are all now obtainable on HBO and streaming on Max.
