Prophecy’s Emma Canning Reveals What Shocked Her Most About Tula’s “Grotesque” Mission

Editor’s observe: The under interview accommodates spoilers for Dune: Prophecy Episode 3.Though HBO’s Dune: Prophecy takes place 10,000 years earlier than the beginning of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), most of the acquainted touchstones followers have come to acknowledge from Denis Villeneuve‘s big-screen diversifications of Frank Herbert‘s universe are nonetheless alive and effectively. The planet of Arrakis is changing into a battleground for management over spice. The mysterious and highly effective Sisterhood is asserting itself as an influential drive in politics and society alike, and evolving into the sect that can finally be often known as the Bene Gesserit. Nonetheless, the Imperium’s greatest feud between the homes of Atreides and Harkonnen continues to be alive and effectively, as this week’s episode reveals.

We have been afforded flashbacks into the lives of the youthful Valya Harkonnen (Jessica Barden) and her sister Tula (Emma Canning) earlier than, however “Sisterhood Above All” seems to have a double that means. The previous unveils not solely Valya’s journey to changing into a Reverend Mom by way of the Agony ritual, however simply how far Tula is prepared to go to actual revenge on her sister’s behalf. Forward of the episode’s premiere, Collider had the chance to talk with Canning about being forged because the youthful model of Tula Harkonnen and the “grotesque” mission her character carries out in opposition to Home Atreides to avenge her brother, Griffin. Over the course of the interview, which you’ll learn under, Canning discusses her course of in making ready to play a youthful model of Olivia Williams, how these scenes set within the current helped her outline the character, why Tula’s relationship with the ill-fated Orry Atreides (Milo Callaghan) was at all times meant to be an actual love story, and extra.

COLLIDER: How did you first hear about this venture and this function?

EMMA CANNING: I taped for the early model of the present, and as most tapes go, it passes you by, and then you definitely don’t actually give it some thought once more if no matter they’re doing goes effectively. That was summer season, after which the following summer season, I auditioned. I acquired a tape by way of for Dune: Prophecy, and it was to play Younger Tula. Casting did say that it was to play younger Olivia Williams. Earlier than I put a tape down, I needed to hearken to a few of her interviews, however in looking out, I then noticed a younger headshot of her, and I used to be like, “Oh!” The audition course of, as a result of it is so prime secret and confidential, the scenes you bought are dummy sides, mainly, so I did not actually know something.

I did a very great Zoom audition with Anna [Foerster], our first director. She had me doing loopy issues. “Earlier than the scene, I need you to scream with as a lot rage as you’ve got ever felt.” It was very releasing, simply seeing, “Can they push me on this route?” As a result of the stakes of the story are so excessive that you just actually must be certain in regards to the actors you are working with when it comes to reaching over these heights, for need of a greater phrase. Then I used to be provided the function, after which I discovered. Alison [Schapker], our producer, referred to as, and was actually beneficiant along with her time and talked me by way of the entire arc of the present after which, inside it, Tula’s arc, which was all information to me. So, I got here off that Zoom name fairly rattled, truthfully.

Emma Canning Explains Why It Was Extra Releasing to Play the Youthful Tula

Was it extra intimidating to play a youthful model of a personality that another person is taking part in, or was there extra freedom concerned since you’re serving to outline who this character is early on?

CANNING: I’d agree there was a freedom, as a result of there’s that 30-year hole, and I felt Olivia had the tougher job as a result of she needed to interpret and modify it for herself and for the character, how the occasions that I simply get to form of play and exist inside then are metabolized after the aftershocks of that and what these issues would do to an individual. So, there’s form of a depth to the work she needed to do, which I believe is more difficult. She was extremely beneficiant with how she spoke about Tula with me, but in addition, I did not really feel surveilled. She actually trusted that I might carry that a part of the story.

I truly discovered it very helpful to have her as a… I hold utilizing the phrase form. I am Irish, so I am not working in my pure accent, and Olivia was, so it gave me an precise, particular voice to do. Additionally, by way of watching dailies, simply from observing the work she was doing, she gave me a tone, and she or he gave me a form to see how I match inside that simply by being a special particular person and being a special age that is going to look barely totally different.

On this episode, we flash again to this actually pivotal occasion that occurs to the Harkonnens and the way that evokes Valya to make a very decisive transfer. She’s a personality who, from the start, is pushed by ambition. She needs to revive her home. She’s warning everybody in opposition to complacency. With Tula, by comparability, we do not know what is going on on in her head in these early scenes. What did you latch onto for her as a driving drive, or do you assume she does not actually know what her drive is at that time?

CANNING: That is truly the place I discover having the flash-forward scenes very helpful, as a result of I acquired to listen to these tiny snippets of how Valya and Tula speak about themselves as youthful ladies. There’s that great scene in Episode 2 the place they speak about every acolyte. They’re speaking about Lila, and Valya calls her just a little lamb misplaced within the woods, and Tula says, “Not too dissimilar to me at that age.” I latched onto that picture and that notion. What was that to really occupy, to then have Tula assume again on and actually relate to that picture of herself? Then I used the opposite idiom of a wolf in sheep’s clothes. It was actually helpful to play with in my thoughts. “When am I just a little lamb, and when am I truly a wolf in sheep’s clothes?” And I might swap line by line and in scenes.

There is a line that you’ve got on this episode that did not stick out to me till I rewatched it, realizing what occurs on the finish. You say that true energy cannot at all times be considered from the surface, and that is such an awesome summation of who Tula is on this episode. We underestimate her, different characters underestimate her, to your level, primarily based on how she presents herself. Whereas she’s not as outwardly assertive as her sister is, or perhaps as outwardly assured, she’s nonetheless a risk, and she or he nonetheless has expertise that she will be able to wield.

CANNING: That may be a main ability of hers, to let different individuals make waves and simply journey these quietly. For those who consider geese flying, she’s utilizing the slipstream. She’s not taking the brunt. I believe it’s totally intelligent and a really energy-efficient form of coaching. She does not must be checked out. Lots of people, they need to be seen, they usually need to be heard. [Tula] has, by circumstance, been molded in a manner that she’s not had that, so she’s realized easy methods to survive with out that, and in addition to outlive inside that.

Emma Canning Discusses ‘Dune: Prophecy’s Star-Crossed Love Story

I’d like to know your response to studying the bloodbath scene as a result of, as viewers, we’re lulled into a way of pondering that it is a Tula who has left her household and is making an attempt to begin over. As we quickly discover out, that is not the case. She’s actually been tapped to be on this revenge mission for her household, for her sister.

CANNING: I used to be instructed the arc of this story by Alison earlier than. She needed to not solely give me a heads-up, however actually flesh out and virtually inform me the story from Tula’s standpoint, so I’d attain that time and already know that I used to be on a mission. As a viewer, you are impulsively dropped in there. I by no means had the expertise of it being a shock or having to do the double take or the turnaround.

One thing that I discovered attention-grabbing about studying the script as a complete is that there are plenty of big occasions and actions within the script, stabbing included, and if you learn these, you are studying dialogue, and, particularly as an actor, that is actually what you are holding on to and the stuff you need to be taught, but in addition the stuff to dissect and perceive. Usually, you possibly can simply form of go these stage instructions by as a result of generally they don’t seem to be that helpful. It may be too illustrative, however there are plenty of stage instructions like “Tula stabs Orry” or “The entire Atreides lie lifeless on the bottom,” that, upon studying, you form of brush by way of. Then, upon taking part in, you understand they’re scenes in themselves and main occasions in themselves, and that was an enormous shock, residing these.

Tula’s response to injecting Orry is attention-grabbing. Once you discover out that this was her mission, you may count on that, within the second, she’s extra chilly or eliminated, however she’s crying over him. I needed to ask about taking part in the actually complicated feelings of that scene, as a result of it does really feel like she had a level of feeling, even realizing what she needed to perform. How did you need to stability that necessity of finishing up what she knew she wanted to do versus this perhaps being somebody that she actually did have emotions for in the long run?

CANNING: In prep, Richard Lewis, our superb director of Episode 3, and Alison talked about this dynamic, they usually gave me such a present of their certainty that this was a love story and that it needed to be a love story. They needed this to rival Romeo and Juliet — two warring households, and it is a love that should not occur and that can’t be. There’s another choice the place she does not get connected to Orry, and that is all calculated, and I believe, ideally, that is what [Tula] needed it to be, however it is a big lesson within the complexity of humanity and being stunned by individuals. Orry and the Atreides hold stunning Tula in ways in which I believe all of us perceive as we develop up, having prejudice or preconceptions, and with out coming head to head with them, there isn’t any strategy to query that.

She goes off on this mission with the plan to focus on Orry. That’s what she and Valya have agreed — a watch for a watch. Griffin was our brightest gentle, Orry is the Atreides’ brightest gentle. She finds this independence and braveness, and this plan morphs into one thing way more grotesque. It turns into a bloodbath. It simply all grows legs, and she will be able to’t management how she feels. She does not have any sounding board. The inside turmoil is immense. So, these tears, there was a lot wrapped up in that.

The final scene between Tula and Valya, the place Valya undergoes the Agony after which Tula makes the choice to affix her sister within the Sisterhood — a part of it looks like she’s committing herself extra to her sister over being a Harkonnen. How does that change her shifting ahead and in the end decide the place she finally ends up?

CANNING: That call is so spurred on by heartbreak, but in addition utter self-loathing. Valya is the one one, together with Tula, who sees this as a noble factor that she did. I do not assume Tula sees it that manner. I believe she has plenty of deep regrets about it. So, the truth that Valya is providing this constructive impression of herself is type of a lifeline. Her household, which we see on this episode after the bloodbath, are form of like, “What has she finished? You have been the candy little one. That is terrible.” So, she will be able to’t escape it at house, she will be able to’t escape it by herself. It is all she will be able to consider.

Then Valya comes house and thru simply being with Valya, Tula finds an escape and takes that to the following diploma and really needs a bodily escape. “Sure. Let’s depart. I by no means need to take into consideration this place or these occasions or these individuals, my household, who I believed I used to be doing this for. I need to depart that self behind. I desire a clear break.” She’s labored so arduous to realize Valya’s approval, and that is form of all she’s left with. She will be able to’t let Valya depart, or she has to depart along with her.

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