The six-hour “Children of Dune” miniseries airs on the SciFi Channel Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at 9 p.m. You all know who Robogeek is!
Greetings, citizens! ROBOGEEK
here with a treat for your weekend.
I had the pleasure of catching up with my dear friend Daniela Amavia
(pronounced "ah-mah-VEE-ah") Friday, and we thought it would be fun to
do a
little Q&A for AICN readers and fellow DUNE fans.
Daniela plays the tortured Princess Alia in SciFi Channel's epic
three-part mini-series FRANK
HERBERT'S
CHILDREN OF DUNE, which premieres this Sunday at 9pm (8pm CST).
It's
based on the second and third DUNE books, DUNE MESSIAH (night one) and
CHILDREN OF DUNE (nights two and three). And it's Daniela's first big
U.S.
project (though she came tantalizingly close to being Elektra in
DAREDEVIL,
as chronicled on AICN here and here).
Having seen CHILDREN OF DUNE, I can whole-heartedly attest that
it's
strikingly better than the original DUNE mini-series, which I (and a
lot of
you) had problems with. It's obvious the filmmakers learned many
valuable
lessons, and have improved things across the board. In particular,
it's
visually stunning; shot in 24p HD by Arthur Reinhart (who succeeds Emmy
winner Vittorio Storaro), CHILDREN is absolutely beautiful and
sometimes
breathtaking. The effects are also considerably more impressive; the
worm
capture sequence is a stand-out, and the stagy backdrops have been
replaced
with crisp, often seamless compositing. Brian Tyler's brilliant score
is
nothing short of magnificent (and an exciting leap forward from his
ingenious SIX-STRING SAMURAI score). There is a lot of beauty to
behold
here, particularly in the film's smaller, more intimate moments, where
director Greg Yaitanes gets some lovely work from his cast (among which
James McAvoy is a particular stand-out in a star-making turn as Leto
II).
Overall it's an impressive and satisfying achievement.
Granted, I realize there's a lot of bitter resentment directed at
SciFi
Channel right now for canceling one of my all-time favorite shows, the
absolutely brilliant FARSCAPE...
and
for very likely screwing up BATTLESTAR GALACTICA by "reimagining" it
(instead of following through with Tom DeSanto's inspired revival of
the
series, which held so much promise). Believe me, I share your pain
like
nobody's business. But CHILDREN OF DUNE has nothing to do with any of
that,
and represents what I'd like to see SciFi Channel aspire to do more of
--
thoughtful, passionate science-fiction made by people who obviously
care
deeply, and couldn't care less about appealing to the lowest common
denominator (cough-Scare-Tactics, cough-Dream-Team). CHILDREN may not
be
perfect, but it's sincere, full of conviction -- and well worth tuning
in
for.
If you're new to DUNE, I recommend the online "video prologue" and other
resources at www.scifi.com/dune/
prior to watching the mini-series -- and you can also watch the
original
mini-series Sunday from 3-9pm (2-8pm CST). But by all means, if you
haven't
read the books, please do so at your earliest opportunity. They
represent
some of the greatest science-fiction literature ever written.
Also, please note the CHILDREN OF DUNE Charity Auction
to
benefit Reading Is Fundamental online
at http://members.ebay.com/a
boutme/scifichannel/
(And if any of you have been wondering what I've been up to lately,
feel
free to visit me at robogeek.com!)
Now, on with the Q&A...
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW!
ROBOGEEK: Alia has a tremendous arc in the story, and required you to hit so many specific beats -- loyal sister, estranged daughter, Imperial Regent, religious leader, pre-born visionary, possessed abomination, lover, fanatic, dictator, etc. What did you draw on for these, and what were the most challenging and rewarding to play?
DANIELA: First of all I felt it was SUCH a blessing to get an arc like this! There are very few stories that offer this kind of fun challenge for an actress and I basically tried to just jump in. Frank Herbert is a master in creating these multi-layered and very flawed characters who are utterly human but also deal with extraordinary, "larger-then-life" circumstances.
Greg Yaitanes, who is a really wonderful director, said something very inspiring to me when I first started working on this. He said "Underneath it all, she's a lonely girl, desperate to be loved." And [screenwriter] John Harrison said that she was truly tragic and given the chance could have been a great Queen. Those two statements were sort of the "key" to understanding her for me.
You also need to know that I only had something like three weeks to prepare, which put me into a total panic at first and then I just accepted that and hunkered down. Besides being that lonely daughter and sister and wife, she is also a great fighter and a fanatic, two things I have never approached before. I decided that it was very important to show that she does not see herself as a victim and that she will NOT go down without a fight, because she believes that what she is doing is the best for her people. Like all fanatics she does horrible things with the best intentions -- which makes her really scary.
I had the most fun playing the "possessed" part; there is a scene with the Baron (played by Ian McNiece) that I loved doing. It's the first time I accept him "inside of me" and Greg shot it as an almost sexual thing and that was amazing to do.
I also loved shooting the mother/daughter scenes with Lady Jessica (played by the stunning Alice Krige). I guess every girl has issues with that and it was fun to draw on that. The most challenging scenes for me were the "state" scenes, where lots of information gets exchanged, information that I had to really work hard on to make it "mine".
ROBOGEEK: CHILDREN OF DUNE is fundamentally about family politics, and Alia's relationship with her estranged mother and Paul's twins are at the center of this. There's a beautiful moment when you're first reunited with Lady Jessica, where your face lights up like a little girl... and then hardens with jealousy when you think she's more interested in the twins. And one of the best scenes in the film is your "I love you / I hate you" conversation with her, when we see just how abandoned and lost Alia really is. How did you approach those particular scenes and relationships, and what was your experience working with those actors?
DANIELA: I was very lucky to get to work with so many gracious actors, willing to rehearse after hours and willing to try things out. I find it very hard to discuss scenes with other actors, I much prefer to just "do" and see where it takes us and Alice was totally game, so we spent a few afternoons with Greg, in his apartment, where we just played around and through that developed a strong bond that left us free to just experience whatever was happening to us when we were shooting.
James McAvoy is a great actor and even though we never had time to rehearse together all I needed to do was look into his eyes and it was all there. He helped so much when we were shooting my suicide, which we had to shoot from many different angles and every time the camera rolled, there was James, off-camera, giving it his all.
We all agreed that this was basically a "three kings" story, with the first part telling the fall of Paul, the second part telling the rise and slow fall of Alia and the third the rise of Leto. It was such a rollercoaster shooting this in such short a time that without us all sticking together and sticking up for each other it might have been impossible.
The "I love you / I hate you" scene was very important to Greg and he pushed us very hard to experience the pain and I think that was fantastic, although I can tell you, after shooting that scene for a few hours there was a definite need on Alice's and my part to get a beer and take a deep breath... it's a sad and scary place to be in. But in the end, that is the stuff we actors live for!
ROBOGEEK: While CHILDREN has many hugely epic, operatic moments, it is arguably most successful in its more quiet, intimate scenes. On many levels, it's a tragic love story. Alia's relationship with the Ghola Duncan (Edward Atterton -- who played Sydney's doomed fianc頩n the ALIAS pilot, btw) is particularly intriguing and touching; in a way he's a ghost, while you're possessed by ghosts. And it is through him that Alia's loneliness and yearning for love are expressed, as well as the seeds of her downfall. How did you approach this dimension of the character and story, and your scenes with Atterton?
DANIELA: Did you LOOK at Edward? It was really easy to play that part of being in love with him, he is such a strong and protective person, although it is a complicated relationship as well. Greg thought that besides a husband/ wife relationship it is also the relationship of a drug addict and her enabler, sort of a "dance of death." There is a scene that was cut that was really helpful to us and maybe it will be on the DVD, it's a scene where Duncan and Alia make love and at the end she whispers in his ear "this is the only place I feel safe". That's what Duncan is to her, her one and only friend, the one she believes will always be there for her and that's why the betrayal she feels when she realizes that he too has turned against her is heartbreaking.
ROBOGEEK: What were the biggest, most profound lessons you learned from this experience? How has it changed you both personally, and in terms of your craft?
DANIELA: On a personal level it made it very clear to me that love is more important than anything else and that to deny love or be denied love is the biggest tragedy of them all. I think that is very important to remember as you go through life. I don't know if the experience has changed me, but it certainly has reminded me of that fact. In terms of my craft it has shown me that it is worth taking huge risks and even though you will never please everybody as an actor, who cares? All that we have as a responsibility is be true to the story and true to the character and all the validation you need is one person being touched by it.
ROBOGEEK: Having never done something on this scale before, what was it like to first step foot on the soundstages in Prague? At what moment were you first really confronted by the scale of this production?
DANIELA: Oh my God, that was terrifying and scary and fun, all at once! I think the production designer and his team did such a fabulous job of building a world that was real and fantastical at the same time, and it helped so much to look around you and really see the throne-room and really see Alia's strange and dark room. There was not a lot of imagination required to believe that this was where we live and work and love and dream.
I remember one day Jessica Brooks (who plays Ghanima), with whom I became very close, and I walked into the throne room for the wedding/suicide scene and there were hundreds of extras in amazing uniforms and costumes and flowers everywhere and musicians practicing and we just looked at each other and started laughing, it was that overwhelming. I think if you go with the story and don't expect a simple, linear story that explains everything immediately, you can go on a great ride, which is what we all definitely were on.
ROBOGEEK: So here you are -- after being fairly well known in Germany but blissfully anonymous in the U.S. -- about to make your first big splash in America. How surreal is it to see your face plastered all over the place on billboards, ads, TV spots, etc.? What is like to be churned through the whole media exposure machine?
DANIELA: I wish I could pretend to be totally cool about it, but when I saw the billboard for the first time I started crying. It suddenly became real, this was really done and it's about to go out there and on a strange level I felt that I really had to say good-bye to Alia, which was very hard, as she is such a great character and I feel that even if you played her for the rest of your life you would always find new, amazing things about her. Greg and I have given in to our total dork-dom and have been driving around, taking pictures of the billboards. As a matter of fact James, Alec, Greg and I will meet tomorrow to pose in front of some of them, just to have mementos of this moment in time. Does it get any geekier then that? But I think it's great to celebrate your inner geek and admit that this has been a fantastical ride. Who needs cynicism? Come with us and enjoy!
