The Swedish actress defies expectations as Lady Jessica in Denis Villeneuve’s new adaptation of the classic sci-fi novel.
Dunehas been many things to many people.
“I needed to know I could get out.”
Rebecca Ferguson.Chia Bella James/Warner Bros.
Tight, enclosed spaces aren’t the only thing Ferguson is afraid of these days.
She also worries about being typecast.
Now 38, Ferguson made her acting debut on a Swedish soap opera at age 16.
Timothee Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson in ‘Dune’.Chiabella James/Warner Bros.
American audiences were finally paying attention.
Since then, new opportunitiesand offershave just kept coming.
And I thought, how the hell do I get out of that?
It’s lovely, but I also find vulnerability really strong.
I find fear very interesting."
Mae uses those assumptions like weapons against anyone foolish enough to underestimate or pigeonhole her.
Every part of this unveiling and debunking of stereotypes was deeply contemplated by Rebecca and myself."
There’s also room for laughterat least off camera.
“Ilsa exists in a permanent state of icy poise.
Rebecca can be that if she chooses but seems way more comfortable giggling like a loon.”
The more time that Ferguson spent with it, the more she saw what made Jessica unique.
She has to push him into emotional, spiritual, and physical extremities.
It’s so beyond what I’ve experienced as a mother."
A mother of two, Ferguson took her teen son to seeDuneshortly before her EW interview in August.
The playful duo spent the entire film nudging each other every time something extreme happened.
“I love the fighting we do inMission,” Ferguson says.
The fighting inDuneis for necessity.
So everything is at such different levels than what I’m used to."
Still,Dune’s massive, out-of-this-world scale does necessitate some technological wizardry.
“I hadn’t really seen how big it was compared to us.
I stop and turn around, and I look at this huge thing approaching.
And Denis is like, ‘What are you looking at?’
I went to point to the sandworm and he goes, ‘Well, it’s bigger than that!
I was like, ‘There?’
He was like, ‘Higher!’
I was like, ‘There?’
Then I was like, ‘Oh,nowI get it!'”
So Ferguson steeled herself for one more fear to confront… and conquer.
A version of this story appears in the October issue ofEntertainment Weekly, on newsstands beginning Sept. 17.
