And though her sister’s cunning is worn more freely on her sleeve, Tula is hardly blameless.
PERRI NEMIROFF: I wanted to start with a big, broad question about finding your characters.
Did you have that with these characters, and if so, when?
Image via HBO
EMILY WATSON: That’s a good question.
WILLIAMS: I know, its annoying, isn’t it?
WATSON: Yes, I have to say, I feel similarly.
Image via HBO Max
As an older woman, Valya has learned to control that and channel it and use it.
But it’s there.
It’s firing everything.
Image via Max
She is the one who can really deliver that.
It’s a recruiting tool, and it’s very powerful.
It’s one heck of a reveal at the end of Episode 4.
So, yeah, she raised the bar.
When we had a scene together, I had to play every complexity.
He said to me, Ducky, your subtext is showing.
Image via HBO
I could not show my subtext with Chloe because she was so clever she would read it likethat.
I have so many things to follow up on.
WATSON: That’s a very good question.
TV series set in the ‘Dune’ universe which centers on the lives of the Bene Gesserit.
She’s an absolute legend.
So, that was a very powerful thing.
Anyway, I don’t know.
So, the deathbed scene is a confirmation of that, but I think it’s already been planted.
I did want to follow up on Theo’s power a little bit as well.
All of those things make her a perfect victim, really, of my ambition and recruitment.
It’s a pretty powerful tool.
But actually, what prophecy is in their universe is manipulation.
We’re going to sow seeds that then look like they’re great, inspiring events.
WILLIAMS: Dont tell them it isnt real!
[Laughs]
WATSON: It’s controlling the narrative.
That’s what prophecy is.
WILLIAMS: I’m very bad at reading scripts.
I was in a movie once calledThe Sixth Sense, and I remember watching it like, Hesdead?
What happens in Episode 6, I literally was going back through, going, What?
Hang on a goddamn minute!
I’m very gullible, very easy to surprise.
It all came as a shock.
Just because she cries a lot.
you’re able to cry and kill someone in the same heartbeat.
Look out for the quiet ones.
How do they carry these kills with them?
Or is it a matter of, I did what I did, and just moving on?
WATSON: For Valya, yes.
I think it was necessary.
Anybody who threatens the mission needs to go.
The fact that it’s fueled by vengeance and family vendetta is beside the point.
But Valya is really a shock.
She just does what is necessary, and any other considerations arepfft.
WATSON: Valya is more honest, I think.
Do you know what I mean?
That’s a more important thing.
No, of course I do because Id carry that guilt with me forever!
I just canceled myself.
WILLIAMS: Fear is a very, very loaded word in this show.
It’s like they’re tracing gut bacteria to depression.
It’s like this fear that runs through them all is infectious.
And that’s what we have to get past.
WATSON: I think the very first few days we had with the all the girls in the Sisterhood.
There was a tent by the side of the set where we all gathered and it was so overwhelming.
It was like having my teenagers friends over.
Just an overwhelming sense of excitement and joy, and that has really lasted.
We look out for each other, and it’s a really nice thing to be able to do.
WILLIAMS: We had a great makeup bus on this.
I think that’s a very good litmus test for it’s going to go.
I will say huge congratulations on Episodes 1 through 4.
I’m just dying to see more right now.
I don’t trust anyone.
WILLIAMS: No, don’t.
NewDune: Prophecyepisodes hit HBO Max every Sunday.
