Dune: Prophecy stars Emily Watson and Olivia Williams on avoiding "feminine hysteria"

In one scene, which Watson brands "terrifying", Tula encourages the young acolytes of the Sisterhood to delve into their subconscious and draw whatever vision appears in their mind – but, as they scrawl, faster and faster, they show physical signs of terror and she struggles to bring them back to consciousness.

Williams exclusively tells RadioTimes.com: "I had some very, very strong feelings about how that scene should unfold, because the depiction of hysteria in women is such a troubled area, that truth comes out of a form of feminine madness. I just didn't want to perpetuate that myth.

"But there are some elements that of the power of these women that is still sort of rooted in misconceptions about women. But women do still have to run power from a sequestered place away from men behind a veil. Still, women cannot come out front and centre and be president."

She explains: "I didn't want it to end up being like [Arthur Miller's play The Crucible]. I didn't want it to be women shaking and seeing the devil and it being some kind of hysteria. The word hysteria is based in the word for uterus – it's the same root of the word – and I wanted it to have a more muscular feel than a uterine one!"

Watson adds of the collaborative atmosphere on set: "When we've been doing this as long as we have, you've got a lot of experience around how to find your space and find your moment and find the way to live in all of that. Because everything's happening so quickly, and there's a billion things going on at any one moment, just to go, 'We are all together, in this together,' it was a really potent thing."

"Lots of people have asked us, 'Why have you never worked together before?'" she continues: "And, well, we would have, but rarely do you get a script that has two women in their 50s leading a show..."

"...Talking to each other!" Williams adds.

Watson explains that the sisters are the heart of the show are "from a truly, truly messed up background where they are full of trauma and vengeance and and with many, many dark secrets to keep close".

Williams continues: "All hidden behind a very handy veil so that you can't see what's going on. And [it's] the power of what you can do sequestered from men and convincing them that you can read their mind and tell when they're lying, which is a very powerful weapon."

"A key moment for me, is the fact that she has been kind of anointed by the previous head of the sisterhood," Watson says of Valya.

"She was a very vulnerable and damaged young woman, and this woman has gone, 'I see you. You're very powerful, you're very special, and you are the chosen one.' And that's very dangerous thing to do, because then you think that the end justifies the means, and lots of bad things happen."

As for the threat that the Sisterhood is facing? "It's an existential threat of destruction," Watson explains. "The point of it being that we don't know what we're facing. We can't work it out, we can't figure it out. And the figuring out of it will start to tear us apart."

Dune: Prophecy comes to Sky and NOW on Monday 18th November 2024.

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