‘Dune: Prophecy’ interview: Emma Canning on playing the younger Tula and the Atreides
Dune: Prophecy is claiming the minds of viewers across the globe, and The Mary Sue had the privilege of sitting down with actress Emma Canning, who plays the younger Sister Tula to Olivia Williams’ Mother Tula Harkonnen. As the younger counterpart, Canning was tasked with mimicking Williams and contributing to the larger picture of the Harkonnen story progression.
“We got to talk, myself and Olivia, about Tula, the family, and her place within it. And Olivia is the youngest child, so she was able to speak to what it is to be the youngest sibling in a larger family. So, that was interesting and insightful in a way that I hadn’t expected– just kind of, it was very happenstance, you know, that, that’s just her lived experience. I’m the eldest, and I have a younger brother. So, quite a different dynamic.”
Although it wasn’t just Olivia Williams’ perspective that gave Emma Canning her youngest sibling energy, it was the younger Sister Valya’s actress, Jessica Barden, who inspired Canning on set.
“You know, Jessica Barden is this incredible actor. She’s had an amazing career and is having an amazing career. You know, she’s so experienced; she’s worked kind of all over the place with so many different people. So that element of just like, I really admire you as a person. And at the end of the day, I will defer to you for the answer to this question on set or, or like, just, yeah, just small, small things that really then informed, I think how I as Emma look to her. It was very easy then for me to just kind of transfer that deference into the, into our work together.”
As for nailing her Olivia Williams impression, Canning admitted to looking through the scenes Williams had filmed before Canning was set to join the production. Lucky for her, there’s also a trove of media to catch Williams’ ticks.
“I had been listening to podcasts of her speaking because I’m Irish, she’s obviously English, and we’re speaking with an English accent. So it was really useful to have a very specific accent and voice to listen to and then watch the dailies of her and just observe, you know–what did I notice? What was her tempo? Her physicality. […] And I let that be something I return to if I felt a little lost or unsure when I was filming. I just think back to watching that footage and pick a specific thing that I remember noticing. And that kind of anchored me.”
Once upon a time, newly legendary actress Zendaya said in an interview with BBC Radio 1 that Dune director Denis Villeneuve told her to do “some sci-fi shit” as advice for her performance in the films. Alas, Emma Canning considered her character’s role in Dune: Prophecy much more human compared to the grander schemes unfolding outside her storyline.
“I think I was lucky in that I didn’t have too much jargon– It was all very human, you know, the scenes or the relationships I was having. So it was quite grounded, and I think probably the most sci-fi element from my kind of experience of this job was the stakes, you know, they’re really high, and they’re not very, you know, grounded in our day-to-day. So, just understanding that you know, in the world of Dune, you would avenge your brother, and you would actually want to avenge him even further and kill more than just one person. And kind of letting that be very true and just like a fact of my life.”
Emma Canning’s character, the younger Sister Tula, plays a significant role in Sister Valya’s plan to deal with the history of injustices dealt to their family, the Harkonnens, by the Atreides family. Dune: Prophecy episode 3 was the high hitter for Canning’s performance in the series, where she did the most heavy lifting. The weight of that deed hovers over the younger and the older Tula, and the significance of Tula’s time with the Atreides family continues to affect the storyline in later episodes.
Finally, we asked Emma Canning about Dune’s use of music. Hans Zimmer created an iconic eerie hum, chant, and serenade with his score for the Dune films. So, was there a specific song that helped Canning get into Tula’s head?
“100% there was a song, and because I don’t search out music, it’s not something like, how do you search for the song you need? [It’s] very Harry Potter, ‘the wand chooses the Wizard.’ So I listen to music lots anyway. And, I was listening to this song by a band called Flight, who I had listened to their previous work before, and I think Florence Pugh–Dune connection here–had done a video on YouTube with them singing a new song of theirs called “Tough Love.” And in the, in the actual release, it’s an artist called Laura Marling who sings that part and whatever it was about, both the lyrics, but also the just the sonic kind of tone of it really helped me tap into this feeling of loving something or someone. It being only difficult but being love and that was a song that I listened to sort of as an anchor, and you know, if between a setup, I just needed to take some space or just needed to kind of, I think refocus myself. I’d listen to it.”
Be sure to check out Dune: Prophecy streaming on Max. Emma Canning is a marvel in her role as Sister Tula, and the show was recently renewed for a second season.
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