When we were about casting Dune we had to make certain choices
were we going to go after certain names
to try and drawn an audience by virtue of their names
were we gonna go with unknowns
my instinct was always to go with great actors
and if they were unknowns so be it
the star the movie is Dune the story is the star
So I was insistent that we just find great actors for each of the roles
fortunately I was lucky to get a man like William Hurt
who wanted to play Duke Leto.
I went to London, I was looking around for Paul
I looked in New York, I looked in Los Angeles.
Almost by accident I found Alec Newman
and it was just like a stroke great luck
or maybe it was meant to be
maybe he was the Muad'dib just waiting to happen
but he is a terrific young actor out of England
who has taken on the challenge of a character
that has to go from being about 18 to about 22-23
who has to go from being a naive,
relatively naive young boy, young prince
to a mature desert hardened leader of men into battle
and the character arc that Alec it has gone through
is just extraordinary.
I also found Saskia Reeves in England
I saw an audition tape of hers where she did a half an hour monologue
I had looked far and wide for somebody to play Lady Jessica
who have the gravitas, who have the sensitivity,
would have the emotional warmth
and I saw this in this one half hour tape everything that I wanted
she was just it.
In the Czech Republic I have found phenomenal actors
they have a great theater tradition here
that has gone on for years and years and decades and decades
and their training's extraordinary.
Karel Dobrý who plays Doctor Kynes, phenomenally intense actor
Barbora Kodetová who is Chani. As far as I'm concerned after
seeing her there just couldn't be anybody else but Barbora for Chani.
Giancarlo Giannini came from Italy to play the Emperor
and the day he walked on the set in his wardrobe
just "I am the Emperor" that was all, that was all that was needed.
Julie Cox in London, phenomenal young actress
who has taken the character of Princess Iruan
and given it a life that isn't even really in the book
in in the book Iruan is a bit of a cipher
She's the chapter headings, but from them I gleamed a whole character
and Julie has made her come to life.
Umm, who else...
Ian McNeice lives in Los Angeles.
Ian McNeice came to me through our casting agent Molly Lopata
and he did one of the most outrageous auditions I have ever seen, were he
literally pulled a skullcap off his head in doing one of the scenes
and was just such a grotesque performance it was just magical
And he is the Baron. William Hurt told him the other day
that he was born to play this role
Uwe Ochsenknecht, big star in Germany
but a terrific actor, in his early twenties he played Bismarck
The entire life of Bismarck. I was introduced to him by our German partners
and the intensity that he brings to Stilgar
it just leaps off the screen.
[I guess finally we such touch on PH as well]
[who is such a character, how did he come to you?]
I was introduced to P.H. Moriarty by our producer David Kappes
who had worked with him on a previous film
and PH has had a rather checkered career
and began his acting career working with Bob Hoskins
on The Long Good Friday
and I met him almost as a courtesy to my friend David Kappes
but once I saw him, it was "whoa", this guy is Gurney Halleck
his has an eye that was damaged earlier in his life
which having added the scar that Gurney Halleck has
makes his face so expressive and so intense, at once
angry and sad, and he's just quite a character
[and finally Matt Keeslar there was fortuitous timing]
[how did he get involved?]
I'd seen Matt Keeslar in a couple of films
and I thought this is really an interesting young actor
but I didn't know too much about him.
My friend Wes Craven
did Scream 3 with him
and a thought he did a terrific job.
When it was suggested to me I thought "well this is gonna be..."
he is kind of an emerging young star, maybe he won't wanna come over
and do Dune in the Czech Republic for 4 months
but he wanted to do it right away
and we snatched him up and he's delightfully evil!