Anya Taylor-Joy Bent Over Backwards To Make Her Dune Cameo Happen
This article contains spoilers for "Dune: Part Two."
Denis Villeneuve's "Dune: Part Two" takes a few departures from Frank Herbert's original novel, perhaps most notably in the omission of Alia Atreides. Alia is Paul's young sister, born while he and his mother Jessica had survived the Harkonnen massacre and were hiding out with the desert-dwelling Fremen. In the book, Alia grows to toddlerhood supernaturally fast and already possesses a spate of eerie Bene Gesserit mental powers. She's also the one who, as a toddler, knifed the evil Baron Harkonnen to death.
Villeneuve figured that shooting in the desert with a toddler would be difficult and uncomfortable for a young actor, so he transformed Alia into a more abstract character. Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) now has psychic conversations with the still-growing fetus inside her womb, while Paul (Timothée Chalamet) has a dreamlike vision of an adult Alia, seemingly contacting him from the future. The adult Alia was played by Anya Taylor-Joy. It's a wonder that Warner Bros.'s marketing department managed to keep Taylor-Joy's cameo a secret until opening day, especially given the star power on display in "Dune: Part Two."
According to Variety, Taylor-Joy was extremely keen to appear in "Dune: Part Two," as she was a huge fan of Villeneuve's other movies (she is particularly fond of "Arrival") but almost missed out because of a scheduling conflict. She was in Australia at the time acting in George Miller's "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" (due for release on May 24), and wouldn't be able to fly to Abu Dhabi to shoot her "Dune" scenes. Only through admitted begging and constantly hounding her agent — as well as a lucky fluke of good timing — was Taylor-Joy able to shoot her scenes ... in Namibia.
Taylor-Joy was busy being Furiosa
Taylor-Joy recalled getting in contact with Villeneuve and actually begging for a role in "Dune":
"Before I even sat down, he was like, 'I want you to be in 'Dune,' but you can't do it!' [...] I was like, 'Please?' I skipped all the stages of grief and went straight to begging. I was like, 'I can do this. I can be in Australia and Abu Dhabi at the same time.' He wanted me to be part of the universe. We kept in touch. I just had this feeling that it wasn't over."
And indeed it wasn't. Taylor-Joy saw to that. While on the set of "Furiosa," out in the deserts of Australia, she persistently called her agents asking for production updates on "Dune." She was hoping something might be delayed or come out ahead of schedule in such a way that she could sneak away from "Furiosa," film something for "Dune," and then return. Sadly, nothing manifested, and Taylor-Joy returned to Los Angeles at the end of "Furiosa."
But then, by some miracle, Villeneuve revealed that he had made a deal with Warner Bros. that if he finished "Dune" on time, he would be given a few extra days to arrange a scene with Taylor-Joy. The actor was already prepared. As Villeneuve wrote in an e-mail to Variety:
"Anya was Alia as soon as I met with her. [...] In fact, I realized after the fact, she has always been Alia. Anya feels out of this world, as though she belongs to some other dimension, one step into the dream."
Fitting, as Alia appears in a dream sequence.
Villeneuve found a way for Taylor-Joy to film her cameo
Rather than return to Jordan (where "Dune" was filmed), Villeneuve found a location in Namibia for Taylor-Joy's scenes. They used only a few camerapeople, although Villeneuve was present. It's unlikely that she shot opposite Chalamet, as he would likely have returned home as well. Regardless, she was able to be in "Dune." Of course, because Alia was a mysterious character, her presence in the movie had to remain a secret. Taylor-Joy recalled the secrecy:
"I told my husband and my parents. [...] and I took my mum. [...] [N]o one at the studio knew. My face had been blurred out. [...] I asked Denis to tell the cast beforehand. I said, 'I can't just show up. Please don't do that to me.'"
One might imagine that Villeneuve did indeed tell his actors before the premiere that they shared another famous co-star.
Taylor-Joy has not announced that she'll be appearing in future "Dune" movies, although fans of Frank Herbert's novels know that the adult Alia plays an important role in the saga moving forward. She appears in the follow-up "Dune Messiah" and has a rather dramatic arc in the third book, "Children of Dune." In that one, she becomes partially possessed by the soul of Baron Harkonnen and transforms into a horrible tyrant. It's a pretty wild story.
Given that a third "Dune" film is in development, it's looking likely that Taylor-Joy will be settled into her role for a while.