Rebecca Ferguson knows her way around a blockbuster. In both the Mission: Impossible series and the Dune franchise, the Swedish actor brought layers to characters that could easily have been one note; she’ll reprise her role as the formidable Lady Jessica in Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming third installment of the latter, Dune: Part Three.
So it’s no wonder that Ferguson stands out even among the star-studded ensemble of her latest film, Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite. She stars as Captain Olivia Walker, who is tasked with leading the White House situation room as a nuclear attack unfolds. The gripping Netflix film, which opens in select theaters October 10 and on Netflix October 24, is told from the perspectives of characters played by Idris Elba, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Greta Lee, and Jason Clarke, among others.
But it’s Ferguson’s performance that sticks with you. Olivia isn’t just trying to maintain control in the situation room—she’s also worried about the fate of her family, including her young son. As she did in The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, Bigelow builds intensity through her detailed storytelling, focusing on the people behind an intense setting. “I know how intelligent she is, so I was quite nervous,” says Ferguson of the first time Bigelow reached out to her about the project. “But she took all of that away so quickly, and was this enormously curious, calm, and kind human being.”
Ferguson spoke with Vanity Fair about the surreal experience of watching the film at the Venice Film Festival, the terrifying possibility of nuclear war, and how she’s handling her anger at the state of the world right now.
Vanity Fair: What was it like seeing the film with an audience for the first time in Venice?
Rebecca Ferguson: It’s amazing sitting with an audience. I think the platform and the attention that comes with it is important for the film as well. And Venice is just gorgeous—but it’s another kind of crowd, and there’s no critique. There is something different seeing it with a normal audience. I might try one day to sneak in quietly and just sit with people, because that’s where reality kicks in—where people don’t have to force 400 minutes of applause that somehow qualifies and quantifies the value of your film.
It’s strange how the standing ovations have become so important in Venice.
Kathryn stood up and after two minutes, she said, “I think we’re good.” And I went, “I would salute you if you just walked now.” And I think everyone’s like, “No, no, no! We need to beat 16 minutes!” And at 13 she was like, “I’m done.” [Laughs] It’s a compliment, but it’s weird that it’s come to that.
Kathryn is known for the detail and accuracy in her filmmaking. As an actor, what did that require for you?
That was the entire pillar and fundamental for all of our characters. With this film, there’s no need to play around with fictional accuracy because it’s all there. So I was given [former senior director of the White House situation room] Larry Pfeiffer. He is basically the character that Jason Clarke plays. I got his number and Kathryn said, “Go to town, ask whatever you want. We just need it to be accurate.” Then it was down to me to gather as much information as I could. He was always there on set.
Did you find anything surprising about this world?
At the level of intensity that they work, like Larry said, “We’re quite boring. We are extremely trained. We train 400 times a year for international, national emergencies and threats. We know it’s in our backbone what to do when something happens.” They’re also the last people standing. It’s a military service, and I’m in awe of the people who manage to do this. We live in a world where the people in a situation room are more trained than the president, who has the power to press a button and send a nuke. He’s never briefed on what to do in an event.
How much of this character’s backstory did you fill in to play her?
She would’ve come from the military, because that’s what most of them would’ve done: married into military. There is a certain order of steps that they take. I wanted her at home to be natural and normal and a bit messy. I saw her as someone who, when she cooks, she doesn’t clean up—there’s a bit of sauce everywhere. She has food on her face. Then she steps into this extremely controlled and measured and powerful entity. I wanted the juxtaposition.
Olivia’s storyline is emotional—she’s in this war room but also worried about her own son’s safety. How did you tap into your own perspective as a mother for this role?
I was so trained that you do not break your façade. You never raise your voice. If you need to, you walk out of the room, you sort your shit out, you come back, and you do your job. So whilst we were doing these scenes, there were moments when I, as Rebecca, felt I’m feeling something in my throat. I’m actually feeling sad, and if I lean into this, I’m going to burst, start crying any second. So I would turn and leave my station, and then Kathryn would come back and go, “Where did you go?” And I said, “I just walked into the room. I had a moment.” Two seconds later, before we did the take, there was a camera in there. She grabbed it and they followed me in, and I decided to do the phone call in there.
The other time it happened was sitting and looking at my [character’s son’s] dinosaur toy—that wasn’t in the script. I thought, It’s the tiny little human thing that I can bring in sneakily. I leaned away from the camera, but I didn’t realize that there was another camera that grabbed the moment—it wasn’t planned.
The film feels especially timely at the moment, in this country.
It’s important that this is not referring to any form of active presidency in the world, and it’s not just referring to America. There is no one single baddie in this film. The baddie is the system and the structure, and then you can analyze and have your own opinion. But this is a question about nuclear war and nuclear weapons.
How are you handling the time we’re in now, where there’s so much to be concerned about politically and internationally?
I don’t read the news, and I don’t say that lightly. I don’t have Instagram because I didn’t like the way it was feeding me news—it felt filtered. If I read the news, I want to choose my outlet, and I wish to choose from every angle so that I get every perspective. I find people like Kathryn, she deep dives into it and she goes to people who she believes in to give her news and information. I find it hard to give time to that, and I feel like it would break me. I know what’s happening in the world, but I’m not well-versed enough to stand on the barricades to have the arguments. I wish I could, because I’m a person with very strong moral values and opinions. I know exactly where I stand. But I feel like right now, everything that I would say would be an empty platitude in comparison to how I actually feel. I find the world a very sad and horrendous place right now.
You’re not alone in those feelings.
It’s fucking horrific. I get angry. I get so angry about what is happening. I feel helpless, and I sit there going, “How are we not going in? How are we not helping? How is this happening? How can we let it happen?” That’s what I hear myself say all the time.
You’re keeping very busy at the moment. You’ll be heading back into production for Dune: Part Three soon?
I’m going to go and fly to Iceland in a couple of weeks, which I look forward to. I’ve never been to Iceland. I love the greed and the spice and the drugs and the egos and the maniacs and the worms. I love it.
You ground Lady Jessica in a way that’s unexpected, and makes her feel more three-dimensional.
When you work with someone like Denis, he wouldn’t expect you to watch a character just wither away. That’s just the way that he works. She’s incredible. I love her. I often talk about this in interviews and people say, “Oh, you’re playing another strong female character. That’s amazing. What is it like being a mom and also being this incredible woman?” And I think, Oh my God, take the vagina out of it! It’s so uninteresting. You’re minimizing me by just giving me the compliment that I’m a strong, powerful woman. You’ve already done a counterbalance of a compliment. It’s completely uninteresting. Same goes for Olivia: She’s a woman and she’s a mom, as are about five of the men in the room. They’re dads.
Right.
And she’s the boss. And to be honest, very few men get that question: “What is it like being a powerful man in society?” You don’t get that question.
What’s on your bucket list next?
I haven’t really gone into the world of indies. I mean the smaller budgets, non-controlled by big studios. I have that coming up next year, which I’m very excited about. It’s a really, really good film with really good people involved. Probably filming in Australia, which I look forward to. And then I have maybe a biopic that we’re looking into producing. Something that I don’t need the masses to see, but something that I can come home and think, I really went there.
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The post For Rebecca Ferguson, ‘A House of Dynamite’ Has Nothing on the Sorry State of the Real World appeared first on Vanity Fair.
