As her many online fans have noticed, Rebecca Ferguson is playful, eccentric, sometimes very candid, can turn on a dime, and does not suffer fools. Interviewing her can be like riding a wild bull, a bit unpredictable and disarming, and I found that to be very much the case with my latest interview with her about “Dune: Part Two” (read our review here). The actress, if nothing else, is quite frank and sometimes even blunt about her opinions.
Yesterday, we rolled out an excerpt from our more extended interview where Ferguson admitted that she was the one that left the “Mission Impossible” franchise after ‘Dead Reckoning,’ after a three-picture deal concluded, suggesting her character was killed off after the filmmakers knew she wouldn’t be coming back.
“So when the relationship came to a point where—there was not more to be done really with Ilsa,” she said of the character’s arc. “And they will make a good, something dramatic out of [a character’s ending], and all I can do is embrace it.”
Perhaps in perfectly forthright Ferguson form, when asked that she would presumably return for “Dune Messiah,” the third film in the ‘Dune’ saga that Villeneuve intends to direct, though maybe not right away, she said, yes, but maybe, and it depends on the script. Ferguson stressed she thinks Villeneuve is “exquisite” and brilliant and possibly couldn’t even turn in a bad idea if he tried, she admitted for her—as she suggested with her’ Mission Impossible’ character and why she decided not to return to the franchise—it’s always all about the script.
“I mean, I do,” she said about her interest in returning for more ‘Dune’ films, “But there’s never just [an immediate] yes or a no. I’m very much what’s on the page; the story needs to be there, and there needs to be reason.”
“But it’s Denis. Denis wouldn’t write something that I wouldn’t want to be in. I love him. I think he is exquisite; he’s exquisite as a director; I think he is so creative,” she continued. “I think he is so smart, and especially when he talks about how the world is going and the way the studio lies and the creative freedom that is gradually taken away from us. I know what he wants, which means I believe in him.”
“So if it came [to a sequel], of course, I’d want to [be in it], but also, I want to take my character into a place that’s interesting to me. There’s always the balance. If you’re going to dedicate your four months to something, it needs to be worth it, right?”
Denis Villeneuve is currently writing “Dune: Messiah” with co-screenwriter Jon Spaihts and recently said it was “almost finished.”
But in our interview with Villeneuve, where he confirmed rumors of him directing “Sicario 3” were untrue, the filmmaker would not commit to helming “Dune: Messiah” next and suggested he may need a beat first to “dream” a little more about it.
“Once the [new] movie is out, I intend to go back into the snow and dream a little bit to see if I’m going back to Arrakis right away or if I’m taking a detour just for mental sanity, to take a little distance and get rejuvenated,” he told The Playlist.
In the meantime, maybe look at your draft one more time and make sure Ferguson’s part is up to snuff before you send it to her. “Dune: Part Two” opens on March 1. More from these interviews soon.
