Anya Taylor-Joy (Furiosa) appears in Denis Villeneuve's Dune 2 as Alia Atreides, the sister of Paul (Timothée Chalamet). She only appears in a handful of visions, but getting her onboard was a tall task.
In a new profile from Variety, Taylor-Joy and Villeneuve recalled getting her in the film. However, the biggest issue was that Taylor-Joy was busy filming Furiosa at the time.
“Before I even sat down, he [Villeneuve] was like, ‘I want you to be in Dune, but you can't do it!'” Taylor-Joy recalled. “I was like, ‘Please??' I skipped all the stages of grief and went straight to begging I was like, ‘I can do this. I can be in Australia and Abu Dhabi at the same time.' He wanted me to be part of the universe. We kept in touch. I just had this feeling that it wasn't over.”
A deal she couldn't refuse
It didn't appear likely that Taylor-Joy could make her way into the film. But against all odds, she still found a way to make it work. Variety details how during the filming of Furiosa, Taylor-Joy would ask her agents about Dune. She was alerted that the filming had already commenced.
On the day she returned to Los Angeles from Australia, Taylor-Joy got a call from Villeneuve. He had a solution in mind.
“He said, ‘I made a deal with the studio: If I was on budget and on time, I could do this,'” Taylor-Joy revealed.
The deal referred to Taylor-Joy's small role in Dune 2. For Villeneuve, casting her was a no-brainer. That's who he envisioned when thinking about Alia.
“Anya was Alia as soon as I met with her,” Villeneuve told Variety in an email. “In fact, I realized after the fact, she has always been Alia. Anya feels out of this world, as though she belongs to some other dimension, one step into the dream.”
Keeping a sandworm-sized secret
Somehow, Taylor-Joy was able to keep her Dune 2 cameo a secret. The only people that she told were her husband and parents. She even said that Villeneuve himself kept the cameo a secret — “no one at the studio knew. My face had been blurred out [of early cuts of the film].”
Ultimately, Taylor-Joy maintained the secret until Dune 2's London premiere. She did ask Villeneuve to fill in the rest of the cast, though. “I asked Denis to tell the cast beforehand,” she said. “I said, ‘I can't just show up. Please don't do that to me.”
Looking at the future
Anya Taylor-Joy is hopeful for more time on Arrakis after being in Dune 2. When asked if she will return to the Dune series, Taylor-Joy replied, “I hope so.”
Denis Villeneuve also weighed in on the matter. He called the experience of shooting with Taylor-Joy “magical” and looks forward to working with her again.
“Shooting with Anya in Africa was nothing short of magical,” he told Variety. “Her generosity, candor, and passion truly moved me. I can't wait to go back [to] Arrakis with her. ”
Coming up, Anya Taylor-Joy will star in George Miller's Furiosa. The film is a prequel spin-off of Mad Max: Fury Road. She stars in the film alongside Chris Hemsworth.
Dune 2 was a massive hit for Warner Bros. It grossed over $700 million worldwide at the box office. Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Austin Butler, Josh Brolin, and Stellan Skarsgård star in the film.
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