“Dune: Part Two” is almost in theaters, reviews have been ecstatic, and hype for the Denis Villeneuve film seems to be off the charts; it’s expected to be the first major blockbuster theatrical release of the year when it opens this weekend, March 1 (read our review here). We spoke to Rebecca Ferguson about her role as Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica in the movie, and while we’ll roll out that full interview ASAP, we did it briefly; at the end of our interview, I asked about her role in “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning.”
Spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen the film, but it’s almost eight months old at this point; Ferguson’s character, Ilsa Faust, a disavowed MI6 agent, is killed at the hands of the powerful terrorist Gabriel (Esai Morales) in a knife fight. The death was controversial to ‘M:I’ fans; some were disappointed by it, while others saw it as part of the film’s theme about the great costs of heroism in the “Mission Impossible” world (i.e., someone has to die for the stakes to feel meaningful).
I asked Ferguson about it briefly at the tail end of my interview with her, asking if it was a bittersweet end, and the actor made it sound like she herself exited the series and turned down the offer to appear in more films because of her schedule.
“I think for me, when they came to me with the offer, and I said I wasn’t interested, that was the result; it was very much what was planned in my schedule,” she explained.
“And how it was executed was very much, umm, an interpretation for everyone. I guess I [would] wish my husband would grieve me more than Ethan did,” she said with a wink, clacking her jaw to express a minor jab.
However, she quickly moved on from that little dig to praise the filmmakers.
“To be honest, with that said, cheekiness aside,” she continued. “I believe that Chris McQuarrie and Tom [Cruise] make fantastic films and they are always wanting to go in directions that are unexpected, and darker, and interesting.”
“So when the relationship came to a point where—there was not more to be done really with Ilsa,” she explained of her character’s arc. “And we have three picture deals in Hollywood, and when they come up, we as actors have the decision to say yes or no to a continued offer; they will make a good, something dramatic out of it, and all I can do is embrace it.”
“I hope people enjoyed it; I know a lot of people didn’t, and I know there’s a lot of articles out there, and I’m not the writer,” she added before I could ask a follow-up question to clarify. “I do my job, and I do it as well as I can, and I serve the character because I think Chris wrote a fantastic character. And I’m so honored and grateful that I got to play her.”
I was immediately wrapped up after that, but I did get a sense of mixed feelings about the whole thing, even if she didn’t quite say as much. One supposes there are several ways to interpret her comments. However, Ferguson was harsher in previous interviewers, was much less ambiguous, and said she wasn’t interested in going any further with the character, hence turning down more appearances in the franchise (arguably the same response, just a bit clearer).
“I’m entitled to my own opinion in this,” she told Entertainment Tonight last year. I want her to go rogue. I’m interested in the dark side. I don’t want a team member. It’s not interesting to me, and I felt like that’s where we were heading, and it also takes a lot of time to make ‘Mission.’”
Christopher McQuarrie, for his part, in the past called writing out the character of the franchise a “tough decision.” More from the interview soon. “Dune: Part Two” opens March 1