Rebecca Ferguson (Lady Jessica) read fan blogs to prepare for Dune

Dune is a very hard book to crack. When the star of Denis Villeneuve’s new movie adaptation was having trouble, she turned to the experts.

Well, Dune is officially delayed into next year, and 2020 got just a little darker, and it was already pretty dark. I was really looking forward to seeing Denis Villeneuve’s interpretation of Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi story, but I guess I can wait until October of 2021…

One of the things I like most about what I’ve seen of the movie is that it looks like it’s taking Herbert’s text seriously. Dune is a dense book, thick with themes of ecology and politics and predestination. It’s a lot, and some people have trouble finding a way in, including star Rebecca Ferguson.

Ferguson plays Lady Jessica, mother to lead character Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet). It’s a meaty role, but when she tried to read the book to better understand her character, Ferguson found a wall. “I found it so complex and difficult, I didn’t finish it,” she told Empire. “It was like doing a crossword puzzle: ‘What’s in the middle of a stone?’ and I’m going, ‘I don’t know — a hard f***ing material?’ and then it’s like the letters in the middle of the word. My mindset was not there.”

Frankly, I’m right there with her: I respect the craftsmanship of Dune, but I’ve always found it a hard story to warm up to, and I definitely don’t understand all of it. But unlike me, Ferguson had giant Dune nerds like Villeneuve and costar Oscar Isaac, who plays Jessica’s paramour the Duke Leto Atreides, to help her out. “[They’re like] Tweedledum and Tweedledee,” she said. “I eventually sat down with Denis and said, ‘I don’t get the book. Can you please explain it to me as if I’m a child?'”

And Ferguson didn’t stop her search for understanding there, carrying out most of it online. “I do a lot of research on fan pages … I link that together to what Denis and I do with what my thoughts are on the character from the page and what I got from the book. I do a big mixture of it all because I love finding the secrets within characters. I love giving you something new and different.”

As a fan site that writes about Dune sometimes, I approve of this method.

As for actually playing the role, Ferguson intends to bring humanity to a role that could come off as too remote and regal; as a member of the powerful Bene Gesserit order, Jessica has abilities and standing most don’t, but Villeneuve reminded her to bring things down to earth, telling her she was “too stoic” during a scene with Chalamet. “That’s one of the things I’m tired of a little with my characters; I love getting the strong female characters, but there is a vulnerability, as well, to me,” Ferguson said. “I always try to find this in all my characters. But I’m lacking [in expressing it] and Denis found it. He found those moments and said, ‘You can do it. You don’t have to walk like a queen: round your shoulders, slouch a bit more.'”

That all sounds pretty interesting! Now if only we didn’t have to wait a year to see it…

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h/t Syfy Wire