Filmmaker Denis Villeneuve knew the storytelling success of Dune: Part Two hinged on the developing chemistry between stars Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya, as well as the antagonistic energy of Austin Butler, and worked carefully with the actors to ensure that those elements showed up onscreen.
Speaking during the Dune: Part Two panel along with screenwriter Jon Spaihts at Deadline Contenders Film event on Saturday, Villeneuve noted how the offscreen bond between Chalamet and Zendaya grew through the making of the first film and their promotional duties in a way that eventually provided a serendipitous payoff during the second installment.
“They met each other in Part One, briefly, and spontaneously they became friends,” Villeneuve explained of the pairing of the actors as they played the ultimately star-crossed lovers Paul Atreides and Chani throughout the lengthy arc of two films. “And as we did the promotional tour, their relationship became, let’s say, a deeper meaning – they’re close friends. And for me, it’s tremendous help, of course, because Jon and I had structured the whole story on their relationship through the birth of the love between Paul and Chani, then the struggle of this love with the pressure from the outside, from the politics, and then the break.”
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“All that, I need, so it was all about the chemistry between them – I had put all my chips on that,’ the filmmaker said. “And so it was crucial that to capture that on screen and bring that chemistry on camera.”
Villeneuve conducted a series of tests with both actors shortly after they were cast to ensure the chemistry would pop — “just to see,” he said. “We had Timothée and we had met Zendaya, we did some camera tests – not to test her skills, of course, she’s a tremendous actress – but at the time I needed to know her. I wanted to see how we could establish that [relationship] together and how ultimately it was feeling, and it was a fantastic experience.”
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The director also had high praise for Butler and the sinuous sexual charisma he brought to the villainous and deadly Feyd-Rautha.
“Austin did an incredible job, to go back in that sexy psychotic mode where it’s like a cross mix between Mick Jagger and a sociopathic killer, and he took tremendous pleasure going there,” said Villeneuve. “And it was like we did a rehearsal together about the movement, almost like a dancer, to find the character through movement. Because I don’t think Austin is a psychopath, so to reach that level, to go there, we had to experiment, do laboratories with movement.”
Villeneuve also revealed that it wasn’t necessarily his original intention to make a third Dune movie, but embraced the opportunity to use a third installment to follow Dune author Frank Herbert’s concerns when he wrote it that Paul’s journey was misperceived as a white savior narrative, rather than a commentary on the dangers of following a messiah.
“It’ll be a total different object,” he said. “I don’t see this as a trilogy, but yeah, I always felt that it’ll be a great idea to finish that story, to make sure that the idea is that Frank Herbert, his initial desires, will absolutely be fulfilled.”
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Check back Monday for the panel video.
The presenting sponsor for this year’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles is United for Business. Sponsors are Eyeptizer Eyewear, Final Draft + ScreenCraft, and partners are Four Seasons Maui, 11 Ravens and Robina Benson Design House.
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