Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for Dune: Prophecy Episode 4.It wouldn’t be aDuneTV series without some Harkonnens plotting and scheming their way into power — andthe latest episode ofDune: Prophecy, “Twice Born,“is proof of just how much plotting and scheming this house has always pursued in the name of authority, even if it leads tosome of their members' downfallalong the way. This week, Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson) reluctantly arranges a long-lost reunion with her uncle Evgeny (Mark Addy) as well as the current Baron Harkonnen, Harrow (Edward Davis), in order to position them as the new replacement for House Richese on the High Council. Valya’s desire isn’t completely selfish, though; she wants Harrow to accuse the Corrinos of Pruwet Richese’s murder, which will all but certainly put him in the crosshairs of the Emperor’s willing soldier, Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel).
The episode is full of major developments for House Harkonnen, including Harrow’s aborted attempt to point the finger at Javicco Corrino (Mark Strong) and the ultimate confrontation between Valya and Evgeny, which results in the older Harkonnen’s death when she denies him his respirator, letting him meet his ignominious end on the floor after falling out of his hoverchair. Ahead of the premiere of “Twice Born,” Collider had the chance to speak with Addy and Davis about inhabiting some ofDune: Prophecy’s scheming Harkonnens as well as break down the episode’s biggest moments for their characters. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, Addy reveals what he enjoyed about getting to play Evgeny Harkonnen across the years and how long the makeup process took to transform him into the older version, while Davis reflects on filming the big Landsraad scene and why it serves as a turning point for Harrow.
COLLIDER: Mark, you’re playing someone across two time periods, both Evgeny as we see him in the past and where you’re playing him this week at a much older age. What do you enjoy about getting to track the timeline of one character over two different points in time?
MARK ADDY: Yeah,it’s the first time I’ve had the opportunity to do that. I knew that Evgeny ends up in his hoverchair, but there’s 30 years between seeing him having dinner with the girls and Valya returning. The idea of his bitterness towards her festering away for 30 years — what does that make him, and how does that affect him — was all powerful fuel for an actor. The makeup is one thing, but what’s gone on inside this guy’s mind for three decades? He’s not let any of it go. In fact, it’s even worse when she returns. So, it was great to have the opportunity to show the progression of his nastiness.
You mentioned the makeup process. Does that really help you get a sense of who this man really is at this point in his life?
ADDY: Certainly, yeah, and it’s a long process.It was three-and-a-half, four hours in the makeup chair, which, when you start shooting at 8 in the morning, means it’s quite an early start. Luckily, it was only for a shortish number of days that I was playing Evgeny at 99. He was in his sprightly seventies for the earlier stuff. [Laughs] But when you’ve got all that on and contact lenses in and the like, you feel that. It’s a very strange look in the mirror, but it does help you feel like that character, and it really makes a big difference.
Edward Davis Explains Harrow Harkonnen’s Motivations in ‘Dune: Prophecy’
This version of House Harkonnen has fallen low compared to when we see them 10,000 years later by the events ofDune. They’ve really, as Evgeny says at one point, been digging themselves out of the shit. Edward, what do you feel like Harrow’s driving force is at the moment that we meet him? Is it his house, or do you think his goals are more selfish than that?
EDWARD DAVIS: Certainly his inner life is a selfish one, but I think when we first meet him,he’s doing as Evgeny has told him, and Evgeny’s plan for the Harkonnens is to regain their hold on society by selling whale fur, the only thing that they have any right over on their horrible planet of Lankiveil. And he’s doing that. That’s all he really knows how to do, and it’s only when Valya comes along and tells him that he’s the future of House Harkonnen — which I don’t think anyone’s told him before, although he may believe it. He doesn’t see himself as the man of the family.
[Valya] gives him a huge opportunity, maybe to her own detriment, and he takes it. But yeah, definitely,he starts to discover his own selfishness. He’s gifted this chance to get what he’s always wanted without maybe realizing that he’s always wanted it, and it’s intoxicating. He starts to act for himself for the first time, because he’s been his great-uncle’s live-in carer for most of his life, and finally, he’s given this chance to be the glamorous center of attention, and I think he loves it, despite what his haircut might suggest.
Harrow is tapped to be the Baron to raise the accusations against Corrino, and the meeting Valya sets up for him really seems to be trying to play on his sense of wanting to be important. Do you think that he has a feeling that he might be a political pawn, or is he more blinded by having his ego catered to?
DAVIS: At this stage, it seems to the audience that perhaps he doesn’t know what Valya is doing, and he doesn’t know he is a pawn, and maybe he discovers that later, or maybe he does know. The prize of status is so great thateven if he’s being used as a pawn, he’ll take it, because they just don’t have any input in the court. I think he believes in himself just enough to know that he will survive being manipulated into place, and perhaps he’ll be able to do some manipulating himself on the way, but he discovers that through the course of the show.
‘Dune: Prophecy’s Emma Canning Reveals What Shocked Her Most About Tula’s “Grotesque” Mission
The actress also talks about playing a younger version of Olivia Williams and why Tula’s plan grows beyond her control.
Mark, we’ve already touched on you playing your character at two different points, but you’re also bouncing off of different actors within those scenes. What did you get to enjoy about getting to play off of both Jessica [Barden] and Emily [Watson]’s interpretations of the character?
ADDY: It’s interesting, because it is the same character, but two different actresses playing her in different ways. Over 30 years, she has become a little less hotheaded and more cunning and able to suppress that… whether it’s fury or whether it’s grievance, whatever it is, it can be hidden. So yeah, it’s intriguing. To Evgeny, of course, it’s the same person, and he holds the same bitterness towards her for what he perceives she’s done to the Harkonnens, and that has festered. So, when she turns up again, he’s right back where he was with her all those years ago, butthey’re both so terrific at playing the part. It’s Valya both times.
Edward, the Landsraad is, obviously, a prime opportunity for the Harkonnens to rub shoulders with other members of the High Council. What is it like filming those big ensemble scenes, especially one that ends as dramatically as this one does?
DAVIS: I don’t remember how many days, but definitely more than one, and, of course, the scene has so many different elements as well. It’s not just a political scene, it’s a stunt scene. It’s a VFX scene. Everything is happening. You do just have to strip it down to what’s happening, human to human, and I actually find those huge scenes great fun to do, partly because they’re a chance to just see everyone. Obviously,the story of that scene could be an episode in itself. There’s the trepidation with which Harrow arrives, and of course, he’s got Valya as his Truthsayer at this point, and she’s of huge status within the Truthsaying world, but she’s also a Harkonnen like him, and he knows that the eyes on him are looking at them from a certain viewpoint.
And then, of course, he has to [make] the accusation, but there’s this moment in that scene where everything twists for him. Everything turns when he’s explaining the rules of kanly, and he’s interrupted by the speaker, and he’s mocked for being a Harkonnen, which is of course no fault of his own, and he’s mocked for his family’s proximity to vendettas and to murder and to genocide, and he can’t take it anymore. That’s the turning point for him, where he decides that he may be about to do something terrifying, but it has to be done, because he can’t bear being under the foot of other people any longer.He doesn’t want to be mocked anymore. It was such a rich scene to film.
Mark, in the final scene between Evgeny and Valya, they have a big confrontation where it feels like 30 years of them getting everything off of their chests. Years of tension and resentment and anger and everything that you can possibly think of comes to a head in this moment. Up to Evgeny’s last breath, literally, he is calling Valya out directly for her role in events. Do you think that he goes to his end really believing anything that she says in her own defense?
ADDY: No. I think he believes he is speaking the truth about her and her behavior, and in fact, her behavior in that scene proves him to be right.She denies him the thing that would keep him alive— not in a very passive way, but she is willing to allow her uncle to die in front of her on the floor. [Sighs] Harkonnens.
New episodes ofDune: Prophecypremiere every Sunday on HBO and Max.
Dune: Prophecy
Set in the universe of Frank Herbert’s Dune series, this sci-fi epic follows the political and spiritual struggles on the desert planet of Arrakis. As factions vie for control of the prized spice melange, a prophesied hero emerges, challenging the balance of power and the fate of the galaxy.
