Stellan Skarsgård

BARON VLADIMIR HARKONNEN

Denis has said that one of the reasons he cast you as the Baron is that he finds you scary on screen – did you take that as a compliment?

Well, it’s not a compliment if he’s only seen me in Mamma Mia, but I’m very grateful he thought I could be scary enough to play the Baron.

How do you relate to a character like the Baron?

The Baron has a function that is very clear as the threat to the hero, Paul Atreides and his family. There’s no need or room to try making a psychologically complex character of him. In the film he’s 100 per cent evil.

How did the prosthetics and body suit help you find the character?

I would say that the prosthetics is the character. It’s all in his appearance and my job is not to stand in the way and let the frightening visuals work.

The Baron is so large he can’t even walk. Was it a challenge to convey the character’s power while remaining largely static?

Not at all, still is powerful and the threat is contained but felt. The lion makes no unnecessary moves while the antelope never rests.

One of the more striking moments in the trailer sees the Baron emerge from a very sticky looking bath – what was it like to lie in?

I never quite understood what the recipe for the goo was but it was a black, oily liquid with rather high viscosity. Not pleasant to get in your eyes and definitely nothing you’d like to drown in.

Most of the time you’re sharing the screen with Dave Bautista’s Beast Rabban and David Dastmalchian’s Piter De Vries. How did they feed into your performance as the Baron?

I had a lot of fun hanging with them but when we rolled I, as the Baron, had to see them as expendable serfs. I hope we some day can meet on the screen in more normal relations.

Did you and Denis talk about what’s to come for the Baron?

What the continuation for the Baron will be is already written in Frank Herbert’s book but how Denis will express it I don’t know yet. I’m of course somewhat divided to the possibility of doing Part Two; I’d love to be on Denis’ set again and watch him work but I’m not sure I can find any pleasure in getting into that body again or being submerged in that sticky liquid.