On stage at New York Comic Con, actress Jessica Barden shared a little secret from behind the scenes of Dune: Prophecy that she worried audiences wouldn’t get to see on screen. “The footwear was Nike Airs,” Barden laughed. “My first day on set they gave me these shoes and I was like, Whoa, the Dune space dudes wear Nike Airs footwear.”
But not all Bene Gesserit shoes are created equal. Both Chloe Lea (who plays Sister Lila) and Jade Anouka (Sister Theodosia) were decidedly not as comfortable in their footwear.
“We were in the most uncomfortable shoes,” Lea said in a press roundtable ahead of the premiere. “Flat — like, rock-hard on the bottom. […] Maybe Jess got to wear Nikes, and I’m kind of jealous of that.”
You could chalk it up to different needs for different eras of Bene Gesserit. Barden plays young Valya Harkonnen, when she was in her early days with the Sisterhood. Sisters Lila and Theodosia appear some 30 years later, when the Sisterhood is a little more built up and being run by Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen.
“Maybe 30 years ago they had different shoes. But when we were there, it was basically black pieces of cardboard,” Anouka said. “[But] cardboard with beautifully intricate designs on top!”
It’s not like the Bene Gesserit have ever claimed to be an egalitarian wonderland. Look no further than the highest ranks: Both Emily Watson and Olivia Williams (who play the older versions of Mother Superior Valya and Reverend Mother Tula Harkonnen, respectively) stress that they had great shoes on set. “They’re sort of like properly orthopedic trainers disguised as Bene Gesserit shoes,” Watson said.
Williams went a step further, crediting Watson with getting them — Oofos, if you must know — incorporated into the costuming for Valya and Tula, something she jokes she should get a cut of the company for promoting. “We looked forward to getting into our shoes.”
It is a little bit life mirroring art: One of Williams’ favorite moments on set was learning the prana-bindu alongside the younger girls. As she recalls: “There’s a moment when it’s chaos, and a bit like watching a bad production of A Chorus Line, and then there’s a moment when you all move as one; a beautiful, kind of unconscious energy in the room as we began to move as a cast,” Williams recalls. “And then: the absolute admiration as our characters got to stand and watch while they had to do it while being pelted by rain and wind and hailstones.
“So it was probably a moment that united them. And we watched.”
For Anouka, at least, the edict was clear, understood, and, ultimately, quite funny to her: “Sisterhood above all. You don’t need arches in your feet.”
Dune: Prophecy premieres on Sunday, Nov. 17, at 9 p.m. EST.
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