Timothée Chalamet Reflects on the End of ‘Dune,’ Calls the Finale the ‘Eeriest’ Movie in the Trilogy: ‘I Was More Intense on the Third One’
Timothée Chalamet has been quiet about “Dune: Part Three,” which opens in theaters this December. But while speaking with Matthew McConaughey at Variety and CNN’s town hall event at the University of Texas at Austin, Chalamet revealed some new details that have inspired his portrayal of Paul Atreides in Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi trilogy.
“What I think you see at the end of the second one, and across the third one, is yourself in ‘Interstellar’ and Heath Ledger in ‘The Dark Knight’ and Marlon Brando in ‘Apocalypse Now’ and stuff like that,” he said to McConaughey — before backtracking a bit. “Actually, wait, let me rephrase all of that! Hold up. I cannot put myself in that same boat,” he said, laughing. “Let’s just say, it’s these big movies where you could sneak in something. A curveball.”
Oscar Isaac, who played Paul’s father Leto Atreides in the first “Dune” film, was another inspiration to Chalamet. “He treated it in a Shakespearean way — to play it heightened and not really care about it being heightened,” Chalamet said. Watching Isaac encouraged him to take “more liberty than ever.” On the first “Dune” film, “I felt kind of thrown by the futurism,” Chalamet said. “I was coming off ‘Beautiful Boy’ and ‘Call Me by Your Name’ and movies that were a lot more naturalistic, and this was a huge movie, so I felt intimidated. But especially on this third one, all the great shit you see on screen is from freedom of movement and freedom of choice. And with Denis, we really had a good rhythm. It’s the eeriest one. It’s a big swing.”
Chalamet didn’t say much about the plot of the new film, but he did discuss the sci-fi technology. “On the first ‘Dune,’ we had an ornithopter sequence that I got a chance to do again in the third, but this time I was way more geared up,” he said. “On ‘Dune 3,’ as opposed to the first movie, I came out early and studied the control panel — all sorts of hieroglyphics and things that aren’t tethered to reality. I wanted to know what each button did, and invent a dynamic for myself with it.”
Chalamet felt that “the bat was red-hot” while filming “Dune: Part Three” after his roles in “Marty Supreme” and “A Complete Unknown,” which both earned him Oscar nominations for best actor. “I didn’t want to be complacent about a single moment. Everything was sacred, and it was my last time doing a ‘Dune’ film, so I really wanted to treat it as sacred. Because people can get complacent, but I was more intense on the third one. It felt like that was the natural momentum, so I wanted to push against that as hard as I could.”
“A CNN & Variety Town Hall Event: Timothée Chalamet and Matthew McConaughey” airs on Saturday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. on CNN and streams on the CNN app.
“What I think you see at the end of the second one, and across the third one, is yourself in ‘Interstellar’ and Heath Ledger in ‘The Dark Knight’ and Marlon Brando in ‘Apocalypse Now’ and stuff like that,” he said to McConaughey — before backtracking a bit. “Actually, wait, let me rephrase all of that! Hold up. I cannot put myself in that same boat,” he said, laughing. “Let’s just say, it’s these big movies where you could sneak in something. A curveball.”
Oscar Isaac, who played Paul’s father Leto Atreides in the first “Dune” film, was another inspiration to Chalamet. “He treated it in a Shakespearean way — to play it heightened and not really care about it being heightened,” Chalamet said. Watching Isaac encouraged him to take “more liberty than ever.” On the first “Dune” film, “I felt kind of thrown by the futurism,” Chalamet said. “I was coming off ‘Beautiful Boy’ and ‘Call Me by Your Name’ and movies that were a lot more naturalistic, and this was a huge movie, so I felt intimidated. But especially on this third one, all the great shit you see on screen is from freedom of movement and freedom of choice. And with Denis, we really had a good rhythm. It’s the eeriest one. It’s a big swing.”
Chalamet didn’t say much about the plot of the new film, but he did discuss the sci-fi technology. “On the first ‘Dune,’ we had an ornithopter sequence that I got a chance to do again in the third, but this time I was way more geared up,” he said. “On ‘Dune 3,’ as opposed to the first movie, I came out early and studied the control panel — all sorts of hieroglyphics and things that aren’t tethered to reality. I wanted to know what each button did, and invent a dynamic for myself with it.”
Chalamet felt that “the bat was red-hot” while filming “Dune: Part Three” after his roles in “Marty Supreme” and “A Complete Unknown,” which both earned him Oscar nominations for best actor. “I didn’t want to be complacent about a single moment. Everything was sacred, and it was my last time doing a ‘Dune’ film, so I really wanted to treat it as sacred. Because people can get complacent, but I was more intense on the third one. It felt like that was the natural momentum, so I wanted to push against that as hard as I could.”
“A CNN & Variety Town Hall Event: Timothée Chalamet and Matthew McConaughey” airs on Saturday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. on CNN and streams on the CNN app.