Jessica Barden: Sometimes you got to have a sad girl running the world
I spoke with the actress behind young Valya Harkonnen on Dune: Prophecy
Jessica Barden joins the international press junket via Zoom. We're a few weeks into Dune: Prophecy's run on MAX, and it's finally safe to talk about spoilers. Last week saw the Harkonnen sisters put their grand plans into motion for the first time. The results were nothing short of devastating, and it's clear that whatever the future holds for them, it won't be pretty.
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Barden plays the young Valya. Her counterpart, Emily Watson, rules in the present. Watching them on screen feels like a magic trick. You know they're not the same person, yet Barden and Watson move and behave with such synchronicity that it's not hard to imagine.
Yet according to Barden, the two didn't spend long agreeing to mannerisms or motivations.
"We both were on the same page right from the start," Barden says. "We had the most straightforward job, as Valya is the main character both in the show and the book. It was very easy as our instincts were aligned from the start."
Another hurdle was the tight production schedule. Dune: Prophecy is a giant beast that can't stop once it gets going. Multiple locations shoot at once, and there's no downtime like there would be on a film shoot.
Continue Barden: "I think we met only once before we filmed. But it was alright since we both have a lot of experience in moving really fast - as you have to on TV. Luckily we were so well looked after by the production!"
Dune: Prophecy, set ten thousand years before the films, deals with inevitability, destiny, and the enormity of time. The ripples in the stream that form mighty rivers. At its heart is Valya, the tragic figure of House Harkonnen, who is shunned by her family and a cold, unfeeling universe. In her grief, she seeks power to set things right and changes the course of history in the process.
I ask Barden how she sees Valya. After all, this is not a clear-cut case of villain or hero.
Barden considers her character for a moment. "Valya is one of those people who you can't pin down. Her life is really sad. She's a really sad person."
It's a story felt throughout history of women who achieve great things, yet still struggle to find acceptance in a patriarchal world that sees them as a threat.
"Emily and Olivia spoke a lot about the girls as Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary; people on the same trajectory, who gain great power but can't enjoy their life because they can't risk connection to anyone or anything," Barden agrees.
Valya's tragedy is that a small amount of kindness could have changed her. I wonder if there's anything anyone could have said or done that would have steered Valya in a different direction. A happier life away from these hardships.
Barden nods: "We had that conversation all the time."
"Her [Valya's] parents were so mad as well, but they couldn't vocalize it. So they envy her instead. Because she keeps up this fight that everyone has run out of. I always kept that in mind. That it's a very normal thing. It's omnipresent in human life. There's always a family member who says "I don't accept this", and sometimes there's someone who says they'll help. But Valya doesn't get that until the sisterhood, and it's this dangerous, competitive world instead."
Barden stops for a moment and considers her character.
"But I don't think I'd say anything to her. Her path and life are her purpose in the universe. If she didn't do all that, who knows what would happen? The universe would be so boring."
She flashes a devilish smile: "Sometimes you just gotta have a sad girl running the world. It makes for good TV!"
Dune: Prophecy is streaming now on MAX.
