Emily Watson and Olivia Williams team up for Dune prequel series: NPR

Women and how they wield power are at the center of HBO’s new series Dune: Prophecya prequel to the epic that Frank Herbert first envisioned in the 1960s.

The six-episode season, which debuts Sunday on Max, tells the origin story of the matriarchal order later known as the Bene Gesserit, 10,000 years before the rise of messianic figure Paul Atreides. “We like to call it 10,000 BC — before (Timothee) Chalamet,” jokes Emily Watson, who plays the group’s leader, Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen.

“We are part of this sisterhood that is trying to lead humanity on the right path.” The Oscar nominee spoke with NPR’s Michel Martin during a recent visit to New York with other members of the cast and crew.

Power from the shadows

A few decades before the time period of the series, in what is known in the Dune universe as Butlerian jihadhumans barely triumphed over “thinking machines” – computers and other artificial intelligence.

The members of the order – from leaders to the young acolytes they train – advise leaders of the so-called great houses or dynastic seats of power. They pull the strings of power from the shadows and literally whisper in the ears of the men who have apparent power. They do it discreetly, veiled and dressed in black, while communicating with each other through hand signals.

“As we know from our politics in the UK, and maybe you feel maybe in your politics, sometimes it’s not the person on the podium but the shady characters to one side that you have to watch out for,” said the SAG Awards nominee . Olivia Williams, who plays Valya’s sister, Reverend Tula Harkonnen.

The two sisters grow the Order through subtlety and mystery in the fledgling Imperium while battling a powerful, terrifying new enemy.

“These women were created by a man in the 60s. And the things that make them scary to men are the same old things: women, to be scary, are in a convent, they seem to be on a or otherwise chaste.. . It’s like what do women do when men aren’t around?” Williams said.

“Part of the sisterhood is that they have to maintain this mystery that scares men. Because when you look at the Imperial Council, it’s still a bunch of guys. And that if we’re going to be isolated in a monastery-style enclave in order to get men to to fear us, then that is what we will do as Harkonnen sisters.”

The women of the sisterhood wield superpowers that allow them to tell if someone is telling the truth. They can also control their bodies on a cellular level to communicate with their ancestors.

“Truth is like a currency. And whoever controls that narrative controls the power in the universe,” Watson said. “And it’s ultimately about… Dune equivalent to oil is spice, and whoever controls the spice controls the universe.”

Decades old friendship

It’s fitting that Watson and Williams are cast as sisters. They have known each other for decades, dating back to when they first joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in Britain, but they had never worked together until now. Williams reflected on how much has changed in her field since she got her first start.

“All those years ago, drama schools took 10 men to two to three women every year to reflect the proportion of casting when you went out into the industry,” she said, sitting with Watson. “And just on the sheer numbers, how amazing is it to have two — forgive me Emily if you object to that term — middle-aged women playing the lead roles and getting the great lines and the great costumes and the stories on a big HBO Max TV show.”

One of the ways the Harkonnen sisters attempt to gain power is through a carefully calibrated breeding program. Williams sees parallels with Germany during the Nazi regime and the run-up to World War II.

“Their motives are horribly set in the world of eugenics, as it was horribly when it was dealt with in the 1930s in a lot of scientific societies around the world, and I don’t look forward to it coming back into vogue for 10,000 years , she said.

“But it’s an interesting study that over the many, many centuries we’re talking about, it’s still a preoccupation of people. It’s really depressing, but I think it’s probably true.”

The Harkonnen sisters may not be ideal female role models, but the complexity of the characters is what Watson calls “a really tasty dish” for an actor. She and Williams drew some of their inspiration from the bloodier chapters of British royal history.

They visited the National Portrait Gallery in London to see portraits of Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots to try to “get a sense of what the deeply powerful, paranoid complex, born of violence” character might be, said Watson.

Williams ponders more sensible and palatable female protagonists. “What’s interesting to me is seeing women who are well and healthily integrated into society and can still be smart and powerful,” she said. “That would be an interesting project.”

The broadcast version of this story was produced by Claire Murashima.