‘Dune: Prophecy’ interview: The Harkonnen redemption tour with Mark Addy and Edward Davis
The Mary Sue sat down briefly with Mark Addy, who plays Evgeny Harkonnen in Dune: Prophecy, along with his co-star Edward Davis, who plays Harrow Harkonnen. The actors provided us with an idea of what it’s like to step into such detailed new worlds and a significant understanding of the Harkonnen family line.
The Full Monty, The Flinstones, A Knight’s Tale, Game of Thrones, and now Dune: Prophecy. Mark Addy has contributed to numerous modern classics and cult hits. He’s been on stage in marvelous Shakespearian productions. Addy is one of those actors who pops up in American pop culture every once in a while to remind us what a true character actor looks like.
With Mark Addy’s experience and vast resume, it’s hard to resist asking about his incredible immersive talent of drawing audiences into his performances: “It’s our job to make whatever world we are creating believable, so whether that’s Langervale, Westeros, or Bedrock, you have to immerse yourself in it and believe. It’s different with fantasy because you’re dealing with things that aren’t every day and not necessarily historical either; it’s new stuff.”
“You treat it the same way as any other project, but you have to understand the concepts you are trying to sell to an audience in order to make them believable, I suppose, and you do that through immersing yourself in the books or reading or just asking questions of creators about what is it, how does this affect, why does it, whatever it may be, just so that you can make sense of the words that that you’re having to put across but for me there’s no difference between being Fred Flintstone, or being Robert Baratheon, they’re all you, you’re trying to make them a believable person in the world that they inhabit.”
Why are Dune’s Harkonnens so fascinating?
Dune: Prophecy makes audiences question how they feel about the Harkonnens because they realize there isn’t anyone they can trust in the Dune universe. The series is a compilation of every way to gaslight, gatekeep, and girlboss too close to the sun.
What a fun role to step into in Dune: the 10,000-year predecessors to Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. Alas, only one of these actors had the opportunity to truly subvert the audiences’ expectations of House Harkonnen, and that is Edward Davis. He explained:
“Yeah, it’s a nice thing to get to do because there’s an insurmountable challenge to humanize the Harkonnens because, in the films, they’re almost not human. [It’s also] nice to know that people are invested in a world; It’s both scary and enjoyable to be given that world to play inside. [I think the] throughline of Harkonnens in the films, this show, and in the books is it’s a mixture of selfishness and pride in the name Harkonnen even though Harkonnen is used as an insult–like a curse word [but] we kind of reclaim it, which I really like.”
“I find it interesting as well that the Harkonnens that we don’t like in Dune: Prophecy, we’re sort of told are the antagonists are Evgeny and Harrow, even though they’re, well, perhaps not so much Harrow, but they’re going about things in a lawful way. Evgeny wants to reclaim the Harkonnen name by selling whale fur. That’s totally fine. And yet, the characters we’re made to sympathize with more are the ones who’ve murdered multiple people, and I find that really great. It’s such a nice trick that this show plays on audiences and on Dune fans who will know, they’ll know what’s happening. I love it.”
You can now stream Dune: Prophecy season 1 on HBO Max to see how Mark Addy and Edward Davis humanize the Harkonnens alongside Emily Watson, who plays Valya Harkonnen, and Olivia Williams, who plays Tula Harkonnen. It’s not exactly a heartwarming, perfect family dynamic, but it certainly informs novice Dune fans just how far back their devious deeds go.
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