Jessica Barden on Sci-Fi Rebellion and Resilience

Jessica Barden has a knack for portraying women on the edge—of society, of sanity, or simply their limits. From the nihilistic teenager in The End of the F**ing World to her more understated indie roles (including a gritty standout performance as an industrious American scrapper in Nicole Rieger’s Holler), the English actor’s performances carry an emotional rawness that feels singularly her own. Now, she is bringing that same signature intensity to Dune: Prophecy, HBO’s new hit prequel to Denis Villeneuve’s critically acclaimed Dune films—and a fittingly ambitious expansion of Frank Herbert’s epic universe.

Set ten thousand years before Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides begins his rise to power, Dune: Prophecy explores the origins of the Bene Gesserit, the enigmatic pseudo-religious sisterhood which steers interstellar politics and guides bloodlines through a potent blend of ruthless behind-the-scenes politicking and selective breeding of the nobility. Barden plays Valya, an intractable young woman cunningly carving out her niche in a neo-feudal empire predicated on economic oligarchy and an archaic rejection of computerized technology. Within this reality wherein survival often requires submission, Valya’s recalcitrance and implacable maneuvering lead her to the position of Mother Superior, matriarch of the Sisterhood. Barden, in her portrayal of Valya’s younger self, charts her character’s arc from teenage outcast to arcane authority, swapping screentime with her co-star Emily Watson, who plays the older Valya in riveting fashion.

Steeped in the dense lore and political complexity of this sprawling sci-fi saga—the Dune universe spans tens of thousands of years and features drug-addicted interstellar navigators, genetic prescience, galactic jihads, and a human-sandworm mutant God Emperor, among other novelties—Barden brings a calculated, emotional immediacy to her role, grounding the fantastical in the deeply personal. Stepping into the intricate world of Dune meant diving headfirst into a franchise with a devoted following and an elaborate mythology. “I was familiar with it in probably the same way as millions of other people, where I’d seen the movies and thought they were just the coolest thing ever,” she admits. As a mother of one (and currently expecting her second child), her time for immersing herself in Herbert’s novels was limited. “No, I didn’t read any of the Dune books. Bro, I don’t have time. I’m a working mom. I’ve got to do the school run, I’ve got to pack lunches,” she laughs. “I did some Googling.”

Instead of poring over the text, Barden leaned on the show’s writers and creators to distill the lore into digestible pieces. “The main thing that I did was I just asked questions. We had so many writers who were always available. I can’t speak highly enough of Alison [Schapker], the showrunner, she’s cut from a different cloth. [She’s an] impeccable person,” the actor asserts with undiluted admiration. “Our directors were amazing—Richard [J. Lewis] and Anna [Foerster], the writers, and Beth [Padden]—these people were just Dune encyclopedias, I didn’t need to read it.”

What makes Valya’s successes particularly striking is its contrast with the traditional Dune narrative arc, laden with tragedy, uncertainty, and loss at an unfathomable scale. “Paul Atreides doesn’t win,” Barden points out in reference to the overarching narrative of the Dune novels. “He constantly gets knocked down, faces betrayal, and loses people he loves. But Valya does [win]. You can’t touch her.” In Barden’s view, this is indicative of the unique position her character occupies in the franchise. “The whole point is that she’s this sore thumb that sticks out in the universe,” she says, her Yorkshire accent punctuating her words with characteristic candor. Not only is Valya a sore thumb within her universe, but also within her exiled and downtrodden family, the Harkonnens. “She’s obviously quite rebellious and very different from the rest of her family,” Barden declares. Their infamous brutality is notably absent in the onset of the show, following their excommunication from the annals of power, and Valya is unilaterally resolved to shed their timidity in her pursuit of the reins of power.

A defining element of Valya’s character is her invention of the Voice—a technique employed by the Bene Gesserit to exert mental control over others. In the universe, sisters intricately modify the tones in their voices to subconsciously direct others into action—including suicide. “[Valya] is like, ‘Yeah, I'm going to run the universe. I'm going to avenge my family and don't care. I have this thing and I can make people do whatever I want,’” Barden contends. “I wanted it to be this very young person, kind of ‘fuck you’ thing, where I think a lot of young people would genuinely be like, ‘I can do that.’ I didn’t want to think about it a lot.” For her broader performance, she and Watson worked closely with Jerome Butler, Barden’s dialect coach from her lead role as Bestie in American Horror Stories. In that role, she also played a brutally manipulative outsider, but from a completely different angle. Her task in AHS was to embody a physically isolated and congenitally disabled online “friend” (at one point, her character convinces the protagonist to dress up as a stillborn baby and subsequently break her own arm); unlike Bestie, Valya’s manipulation is not senselessly rooted in humor but in pure guile, and in service of political machination. “[For AHS,] his references were not like, ‘Let’s listen to somebody talking,’” Barden says. “It was like, ‘I’m really interested in what happens to people when they’ve had PTSD and their voice shuts down.’” After discussing with Schapker and Watson, Butler was brought on to assist in developing both Valyas’ individual approaches to the character.

Although Dune: Prophecy naturally centers on women—their ambitions, alliances, and struggles—Barden never felt the series sought to take a stance on feminism or gender at large. “It never stood out like, ‘This is all women, let’s talk about it,’” she says. “It just felt natural.” Yet, the impact of working on a project led by women was undeniable. “[In most projects,] there’s always a scene where you’re like, ‘I could’ve said that line, but the guys said everything.’ That didn’t happen this time,” she recalls. “It was such a different experience to have everyone’s voices heard equally. Everyone really excelled, I love all of those girls. They’re amazing.”

Having filmed in Central Europe, the series takes full advantage of its natural surroundings to create a universe that feels both alien and grounded. For Barden, this involved shooting on set at Budapest’s Origo Studios—also utilized for the films—as well as going on location in Slovakia to film scenes on the Harkonnen homeworld. One of her most memorable moments involved a rigorous ritual agony scene on the edge of a sheer cliff in Slovakia—without a safety harness. “A lot of my physicality in that scene was dictated by health and safety—because I was genuinely on the edge of a cliff,” she recalls. “Transmuting the poison and being in agony, I couldn’t go beyond a certain point.” One particularly striking location was a remote village transformed into a snow-covered, borderline pre-industrialist hinterland. “The village she walks through—it wasn’t built for the show,” Barden marvels. “It was basically affordable housing for artists at the border of Slovakia and they lived in these huts made of rock. They blitzed it in paper snow for a week, and then it did really snow! That was genuinely there. They did not build that.”

Through all of the novelty and adventure of filming, the timing of Dune: Prophecy was significant for Barden as she navigated life as a mother while diving into the demanding role. Now well into the third trimester with her second child—she announced her pregnancy at New York Comic Con in the early stages of the Prophecy press run—she reflects on the whirlwind six weeks she spent filming. “I filmed it really fast. I went in and just did six weeks, every day. It was above any of my expectations,” she says. “This has been an amazing job. Hands down, one of my favorite jobs ever.” Above all else, she has found a particular joy in embodying Valya. “I loved playing this character, I still miss playing her. It’s incredible to play somebody who doesn’t give a fuck. Obviously, it’s something which I feel like me and Emily have done so many times, but this one’s different because she’s within that world as well. To just play somebody who wins is incredible—to play somebody who gets to actually avenge and win, and is smarter and better and more powerful than anybody else. It’s beyond amazing.”

Dune: Propechy continues on Sundays on HBO.