You have to be a bit of an idiot to be an actor, according to the award-winning British actress Emily Watson, who will soon be seen in the long-awaited series "Dune: The Prophecy".
Watson made one of the most impressive film debuts when she played the lead role in Lars Von Trier's "Breaking the Waves" in 1996 at the age of 29. She was nominated for an Oscar for that role, and then again two years later for the role of cellist Jacqueline di Pre in the film "Hilary and Jackie".
She spoke to the British Guardian about that experience, but also about her role in "Dina".
"I was very, very inexperienced and I just went where I was told," Watson recalled of her first Oscar nomination.
"I don't think I've ever had an instinct for it; you either have it or you don't. I think I'm good at what I do because I'm an idiot. You have to be a bit of an idiot to be an actor," she said.
The journalist asked her in what way.
"Well, on some level, it's like being a little kid who believes in Santa Claus. Somewhere inside of me, or at least that's how I do it, I really believe it. Of course, it's not all my mind because I know that, say, my son needs shoes for school or something. But it allows you to indulge in something that's really quite silly. And I mean that in a positive way," she explained.
At the end of November, the series "Dina: The Prophecy", a prequel to Denis Villeneuve's films, will start airing. Set 10.000 years before the movies, Watson plays the leader of the Bene Geserit sisterhood, Valja Harkonnen.
"Over the course of the series, it's revealed that she and her family have a really troubled past. And that she's driven by revenge because she's been deeply hurt. But that role is recognizably human and, as a young woman, you root for her because she's determined and free. And 'Din'a is a very complex moral universe, where there are no clear good and bad characters, which I like. It's not about standing around in spandex and looking stupid," the actress said.
She also clarified what she meant in her earlier statement when she said that "Dina" is not like "Star Wars".
"Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love 'Star Wars.' I was just talking about the moral aspect: 'Star Wars' has very clear light and dark, which is good and bad. In that sense, it has innocence and purity. This is much less innocent ", she pointed out.
When asked if there will be another season of Dune: The Prophecy, Watson replied that we have to wait and see.
"I'm waiting for the next taxi. Will it be Dina or something else? I don't know...", she concluded.
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