Rebecca brings her Mission Impossible spice to sci-fi Dune

THE mighty male stars Timothee Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem may all leave their mark on the desolate, desert landscape in the sciencefiction epic that is Dune. But it’s Rebecca Ferguson who dominates the movie.

She plays the complex Lady Jessica Atreides, described as ‘a spiritual concubine soldier of the female order of the Bene Gesserit’. That’s a mouthful, but suffice to say it’s a pivotal role. However when I started to raise the subject of how important it was for a woman to have a part that’s not window dressing, Ferguson cut me off in my prime.

‘I’m not being ironic,’ she sighed, ‘but I don’t go in with my genitals in my hand. I don’t sit there in a room thinking: “I’ve got a vagina”.’

Ferguson cited Isla Faust, the skilled operative she plays opposite Tom Cruise in the Mission Impossible franchise, as well as Jessica, in director Denis Villeneuve’s Dune.

‘I have been blessed to create these roles, in these big movies. But I don’t pat myself on the back and say “F*** me, Rebecca; you’ve really battled all those penises.”

‘I think Mission was very much ahead of its time for creating an equal to Tom’s Ethan Hunt. I felt that in both Mission and Dune, I have been given characters that serve a purpose, despite gender.’

She adds that in any case, Villeneuve’s vision was to heighten the roles of the women in the film, who also include Charlotte Rampling and Zendaya. ‘I was given the space to act freely, without thinking about my gender.’

I have some issues with the 155-minute film, and that’s not even including the fiendishly complicated plot.

Based on Frank Herbert’s novel, it tells the story of Paul ‘Muad’Dib’ Atreides (Chalamet), a possible messiah, bred by Jessica — who was herself part of a breeding programme to produce such an heir. It also chronicles the power struggle on the planet Arrakis, over control of a spice that fuels interstellar travel and psychic powers. And it ain’t a spice that you can rub on a chicken before it goes in the oven, that’s for sure.

Herbert’s novel has never been a holy grail for me. However, Villeneuve and his writers have made it much more ‘graspable and relatable’, to use Ferguson’s words, than David Lynch’s stonedout 1984 version. But man, it’s long! And so much sand!!

Still, even I can see it looks glorious on the big screen — and Ferguson provides more heat than the desert, particularly during her interactions with Chalamet, Isaac, Momoa (who’s great, by the way), and Bardem. I loved it when Lady Jessica leaned in and sniffed Bardem’s character Stilgar.

‘No one asked me to smell Javier — I did it in the moment,’ she told me, adding with a smile: ‘How long has he been in the desert, you know?’

SHE didn’t care to analyse her relationship with Chalamet, or at least not to reduce it to simply playing his mother. ‘I think Jessica’s far more than that. I got to go on a journey with a brilliant young actor,’ she said.

If the new Dune, which has its premiere in London on Monday, works at the box office, then Warner Bros will bankroll a sequel.

Meanwhile, Ferguson and her family have moved from their home in Sweden to London while she films Wool, a television adaptation of Hugh Howey’s dystopian novel about people living in an underground silo to protect themselves from a toxic environment.

She’s also a producer of the drama, which just started filming in a temporary studio built on the site of an old refrigerator depot in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.

It has very green credentials, Ferguson said proudly.

‘We’re recycling everything we can, and establishing food programmes locally.’

She arrived straight from the set of MI 7, which was shot here and across Europe for nearly a year during the pandemic.

Ferguson will start work on the eighth MI film once the yarn runs out on Wool.