Christopher Walken on ‘Dune: Part Two’: “Everything about it was attractive”
One of the most notable features of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two is the presence of Christopher Walken, who stars as Shaddam IV, the Padishah Emperor of the Known Universe.
His inclusion as the primary villain in the science fiction epic comes after four years of not acting in movies, a hiatus that he only broke to feature in the TV series The Outlaws and Severance. His break from feature-lengths followed a trio of films in 2020, The War with Grandpa, Percy and Wild Mountain Thyme.
According to Walken, he decided to make his comeback in Dune: Part Two due to his love of the first instalment and the broader work of director Villeneuve, who gained acclaim for his 2016 sci-fi film, Arrival.
Walken told Vanity Fair: “I had, of course, seen the first ‘Dune’ a number of times. I loved it, and I admired [Villeneuve’s] movies. ‘Arrival,’ I thought, was wonderful.”
He continued: “And to be with all those terrific actors —Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin, Timothée Chalamet, Florence Pugh and Stellan Skarsgård—and to go to Budapest, which is a beautiful city. And of course, that’s what I do for a living. It was only, I think, three weeks. So, everything about it was attractive.”
Notably, Dune: Part Two sees Walken finally star in a Hollywood sci-fi epic, which comes decades after he auditioned for the role of Han Solo in George Lucas’ Star Wars, alongside a teenage Jodie Foster as Princess Leia. Famously, the role of Solo went to Harrison Ford, with a 19-year-old Carrie Fisher becoming Leia.
“I think it was for Han Solo,” Walken also recalled. “Yes, I auditioned for it. And if I’m not mistaken, my partner in the audition was — I think this is true — it was Jodie Foster … I think we did a screen test. I’m not sure we did a scene. Maybe we just sat in front of, in those days, those old videotape cameras … I did audition for ‘Star Wars,’ but so did about 500 other actors. It was lots of people doing that.”
In a four-and-a-half-star review of Dune: Part Two, Far Out wrote: “Dune simply has to be seen on the big screen to be truly experienced; any lesser viewing negates its Lawrence of Arabia-indebted cinematography, captivating action sequences and a score of a stultifying, almost deafening quality.”
Watch the trailer for Dune: Part Two below.
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