"Dune: Part Two" Q&A With Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Austin Butler & Denis Villeneuve In NYC

Alright, thank you so much for coming out this evening. My name is Eric Davis. I'm thrilled to be here for this film. This is one of my favorite films of the year. You know, earlier this year, Steven Spielberg said of Dune and Dune Part 2 director, Denis Villeneuve, that he was one of the great world builders in cinema history. Which is high praise for Mr. Spielberg, but it's hard to disagree. When you watch a film like Dune, and especially Dune Part 2, it is just next level filmmaking, it is next level artistry, it is next level cinema, period. It is big, bold, beautiful, breathtaking, thought-provoking, thrilling entertainment, and when it comes to Dune Part 2, it is the most immersive cinematic experience that I have had in a theater this year. And I am thrilled that we have Denis and some of the cast here for a little conversation this evening. So let me bring them out now. Beginning with, as Fade Rotha, Austin Butler. As Johnny Zedek. As Paul Atreides, Timothee Chalamet. The co-writer, producer, and director of Dune and Dune Part 2, the great Denis Villeneuve. Thank you. Alright, we're going to dive in here. Denis, you know... With the introduction you gave, I mean, it's almost embarrassing. Somebody said, I wish we were musicians, at least you don't have to talk, you just play the guitar. You know, let's start, I mean, so many people said Dune was unadaptable. You know, and here we sit here now, after you've completed your big screen adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel. If you can go back to when you, the moment you decided to take this project on, what convinced you that you could execute these two films in this way, when so many people said, not that it couldn't be done, but that it couldn't be done right. Like, it couldn't be done this way. Well, it's just... Maybe I have something missing in me. I don't know, but it's just that there are, seriously, there's like... I was convinced that there was an angle to approach this novel, that it was doable. I was like, I had seen the movie in my mind as I was reading the book as a kid, and I was obsessed with those images. And I had not seen those images on screen yet, and I was convinced that someone else would do it for me. I tried it, and it was a very interesting movie. There were great things in it, but it was not the Dune I had dreamed about. And again, I was absolutely convinced that somebody else would do it, and nobody did it. I had an opportunity, and I felt ready. I've always done projects in my life trying to not do too much steps in between each project, each project prepping me for the next one in some ways. So that's how I feel, and I felt I was ready. Timothy, you've been on this journey with Denis for these two films, and in fact, this was your first time returning to a film set to play a character for a second time. I feel like in Dune, you kind of dip in your toes in the water getting to know Paul. In Dune Part II, you dive into the deep end, very much so. Can you talk about the journey and the challenges of playing Paul in the second film, and portraying a man who's kind of stuck between what he wants to do and what he needs to do? Yeah, I think the first movie is sort of laying the foundation for what's to come in the second movie. The first movie is very much a young man who's literally sheltered, living a royal lifestyle behind walls. And the second movie, as you said, is not only becoming a man, an adult, but also taking on a leadership role and not shying from destiny, even if it's a destiny you don't necessarily want to embrace in everything that comes with it. You know, losing those close to you, losing Chani. No spoilers, but I guess everybody just watched it. It's been out for like six months already. Chani's very much Paul's counterpart in this film. What I love about your performance in this film is that it's so expressive. You know, Chani's a warrior. She isn't afraid to stand up for what she believes and who she believes in. There's so many quiet moments in this film where everything you need to know about what she's going through is on her face and in her eyes. You know, talk about the conversations that maybe you had with Denis in terms of portraying the layers of Chani throughout these books. I know in the first one you were there for a hot minute, but this one is always... A real hot minute. Honestly, I felt incredibly grateful that I got the opportunity to come back and do it again and have more time with all these people because I did have such a beautiful time the first time around. It was literally a week of work and it was one of the best weeks ever. I felt so welcome and safe. I just got a taste of what it was like to work with Denis, to work with everyone. I was like, I want to do that again. We had a lot of fun. This time around, again, I think at the heart of it, there is a love story. And it was like, with all these massive, massive stakes, the amount of weight I think these characters are carrying, how do we make sure we still honor a love story and find that? And how are we going to find the time to do that? And I think something Denis talked about from the beginning was he would do this thing with glance passes and he was like, I just want you guys to look at each other in the scene from across the way. I might not use it, but I just have it. And it allowed for us to have these little key touch points in their relationship that you see it building, you see these little looks between them. You can really do so much, I think, and say so much with nothing at all. Sometimes words fail and words aren't enough. I don't know, I really enjoyed finding and building these things out just in glances and in moments between these two people who I think are ultimately, I don't know, bound together, but constantly trying to figure it out and then debating whether this is the right thing to do or not. And kind of always trying to do the right thing by themselves, but by, I think, the greater good, you know, whether it be Paul, whether it be Changi, they're always internally divided. And I think sometimes words aren't enough to express that. Sometimes it's said through other things. So I appreciated the space to find those moments together. Thanks. We haven't done press with this movie in a long time, so we're like, we're rusty. We ramble, and it's not the most eloquent. I'm so sorry. But thank you. No, everything was great. You know, Austin, you've described this role as delicious, which I love because when I watch it, I'm like, you are eating the whole meal here, man. But, you know, he is maniacal, he's a madman, he's psychotic, but you find a way, no, but you find a way, it's easy to go over the top with a role like that. It's easy to kind of glance into, like, camp zone. But you find a way to ground him in, like, a vulnerability, and maybe it's a sexual vulnerability like they say in this film, but you find a way to kind of ground him so that way he is intimidating and scary and not over the top, even though his actions are over the top. And I'm curious, like, as you were getting ready to take on this role, was there something you watched or something you read or something that he said that were just clicked and you're like, I know exactly how to play it? I mean, it really, it all started with those conversations between myself and Damien, and you talked about primally, and I started looking at animals and started thinking about how animals can do incredibly violent things, but they're, you know, apart from that, they're the bad guy. And so it was just finding certain keys in. You know, one that Denis told me that I'd never talked about, that love was testing the knife on that girl in the first scene. And Denis said, it's like you're testing a pen, I think. It's like that's how much you care. And just that image, then you just imagine that you're testing a pen on somebody. And little things like that so that it's not, because I need to know how sharp this knife is. So things like that to where I wasn't viewing, and that's when it became fun, you know, where it would end somebody else's life, but you see it as you're doing it like you're killing a mosquito or something. And so it's just finding those ways into where it wasn't me seeing him as evil. And that's when it became very fun. I mean, it was really just so fun in the beginning part because we didn't know how he would speak or move. How is he like a swashbuckler? Does he move very gracefully? And as we talked more and more, it became more like a train moving forward, this brutish. And then what was really cool to see was the stronger that Faye became and the stronger that Paul was in that fight. It was all the training that we did with the knife. It was the dad there filming the whole thing. I'll talk about that scene in a minute. But first, you know, Timothy said something earlier this year to me where he was talking about what it's like to film, you know, do an indie cartoon. And he said that you bring this indie sensibility to big moviemaking. And so I'm curious about that and how you take, like, you know, the spontaneity, the intimacy, the bold risk-taking of an indie film and you fold it into this big-budget blockbuster moviemaking shot entirely on IMAX. Can you speak to that a little bit? Um, yes. It's a... I'm paid for that. I mean... To create around the camera a safe space for my friends. And as a director, I can say, look at them, I'm the luckiest one. I mean, I have the chance to work with fantastic artists and I'm trying to create a safe space around the camera like I was doing when I had a smaller crew. I try to keep that spirit, that indie spirit on set, which is to protect intimacy. And I love to work in silence and work with a single camera. It's the way I work and I try to bring that into... So it's more like you have that unit around it. It's bigger, there's more space between my car and the camera. I have to walk more people around, but I'm shielded from that. I'm focusing just around the camera, so... Sorry, my answer is not very interesting. Typically, maybe you could speak to it too in terms of what's that like for you on set? You've been in indie film, you've been in blockbusters. What is that experience like on a daily set? How is it so different? This feels like a big indie film. I was talking about it with Denis today, in the interim between when we did press for this and in this moment, I guess. I had gone back and watched Sicario and Prisoners. I was blown away that he has that dual sensibility. You could speak to it and the film professors could speak to it way better than I could. But when you're on this huge movie like Dune, I feel like Denis somehow has this superpower where he's taking care of these massive set pieces and concepts that are way above our skill level. And otherwise, when it comes time to do an intimate scene between Paul and Chani or the scene with Christopher Walken and I at the end, there's a real indie sensibility in that you try different things, you see what works, obviously within the world of Dune and fitting the tone. And also, I think it speaks to Denis' passion when I say an indie sensibility that it's not like a dance and he's in his car going home right away. He's living and breathing it. It's part of the gift of shooting these things in Hungary and all over the world where we did, you're not in New York or L.A. In other words, you're really sequestering the environment that you're shooting in with the family that we've created. I don't know if that answers it. There's a couple of sequences I'd love to touch on. There's so many amazing sequences in this film I'd love to break down with you. But Denis, when Paul rides the sandworm for the first time, you have a scene like that on paper. You don't strike me as a man that's scared of a scene, but on paper, is that an intimidating scene in terms of how am I going to figure out how to shoot this? You know where it's like I have to create the weed. I mean, it was described in the book, but in the book, you have to fill the gap between the words. You don't want to bring the thing like that in the images. I have to develop a lot of techniques. For example, in one of the storyboards, I explained to the crew how to shoot that. I didn't want to make any compromises. But you know what? The key is to surround yourself with the best, fantastic people around me, They are like tremendous artists that helped me to bring my dream to life. Of course, it's scary, but we had the right technique to do it. The key for Denis is to use natural light. We used natural light as much as possible, every time we could, and Greg was a strong believer in this too. We didn't compromise on this. You know, Zendaya, both you and Timothy write the same way in this film. They're seeing that scene on paper, they're filming it, and then they're seeing the final product. What surprised you the most about filming those scenes with the same way? I think, to be honest, one thing that I was always so enamored by and with is the set pieces. I think being able to be in these massive, beautiful sets with such detail. I remember going in one of the first days into the siege, and all the little inscriptions that are on the walls. They tell the story. There's so much detail, and it's so delicious, if you will. But it is. It really makes you feel like you're in this universe, this world. It takes away a lot of the acting, really, because the only thing I have to really not think about is, oh, this is so cool, and be like, yeah, I live here. I have to not be so surprised and shocked and in awe of it. But it is really quite magical, I think, like you said, surrounding yourself with these incredible people, but everything from the costumes to the set pieces. You feel like you are so deeply in this world. To me, every day that we got to do these massive sequences in these places, I felt very lucky to be surrounded by this artistry from head to toe. These people that are, I think, just as important to the development of the character of Chani as I am. It changes the way you walk. It changes the way you talk. It changes the way you feel. I think being in love with that and also just the amount of preparation, like the storyboard, being able to come into Denny's tent and he's like, okay, so this is what we're doing. You know what I mean? There's such, again, care and detail and structure. You're like, okay, I know what I'm doing. I have a mission. I gotta look cool. You know what the shot's gonna be. That is so important. I think the team that is around us that is working so hard and cares so deeply about what they're creating makes our job that much more special and easy. We're gonna come to the audience for a couple of questions, but I'd just love to dive into that, the duel scene, that finale, because all three of you were in it. It is a phenomenal sequence. Austin, I wanna start with you. There's the choreography of that fight, but there's also sort of the performance of it. I mean, you're in front of a group of people. Talk about filming that scene. In a way, did it feel like live theater because you had all these people watching? Absolutely. Live theater in front of many of your favorite actors in the world, many of your favorite filmmakers. There was a huge amount of respect. I think we've kind of talked with respect so much that it imbues you with quite a lot of focus and energy. We'd done so much preparation beforehand on that that when the time came, it was like a racehorse when they finally released the gates and we could let all that energy out. It was an incredible experience. Timothy worked so hard. It was so cool to get to work with someone who was such a hard worker. I love that. There's an energy in that fight where you can tell like you're just kind of being let loose and there's that energy. I mean, from your perspective, what was that? I was just thinking, why was I shaking my head? He said, I worked hard and I shook my head. Why am I disagreeing? You're not. I feel like I agree with everything Austin said about acting in front of these heavyweights and present heavyweights and past legends or current legends and rare to have an action sequence in 2024 that's practical, almost entirely practically shot. In fact, I think it was. And it has great narrative stakes within the story and with clear beats within the fight, which is thanks to our fight coordinator, Roger Yuan, where you feel Chani tied in or you feel Princess Ruan tied in. So it's not just two guys whaling on each other. And I'm proud of it too. I think it speaks to Denis and Austin that there are genuine tremendous stakes in that fight. In other words, it doesn't follow this cliche where you're like, okay, well, this character's been central from the first movie to the second movie. He's probably going to win this fight. You somehow believe, oh, he might get his ass kicked when he takes two stabs to the gut, you know, the chest. So yeah, this is such a tremendous group effort. We get to sit up here and get to shine in some way. But I wish everyone could see it. You get a sense of it in the credits how much of a village goes into this, how many people work hard, you know, and give it their all. Zendaya, you know, what's so brilliant about your performance in that, I feel like there's a stretch at that end of the film where you don't have a line. And it's incredible. It's like everything that you're going through, the most devastating part of her story in this film, you don't have a line. And so it's all on the face, which I think is incredible. And as well as that last shot. So I'd love to kind of get, you know, how you prepared for that scene. And also that last shot. Did you know that that was going to be the last shot of the film? And just kind of, because that last shot, the whole weight of the story is in your face. And I think it's a phenomenal final shot of the film. So just talk about preparing for that. I was quite nervous about that because it was written and I was like, shit. I better deliver here. But yeah, I mean, I think what's difficult about the character of Chani in general is that she's a warrior, right? She's literally not allowed to cry. I mean, crying is, you know, you don't waste your water on the dead. You don't waste your water on water. It's too precious to cry. So it's like, okay, well, how do I, how do I emote then? Like, how do I give the feeling that she's heartbroken but yet I'm not allowed to, like, do the thing you would do is cry. So I think it was just about like, you know, it's like that feeling of like, you feel it and you're just like pushing it down, pushing it down and choking it down. You won't let yourself feel, which I think any human at some point has done. Like, you just start like, no, I'm good. I'm good. And I know I did that many, many times in life. Like, I'm good, you know? So I just had to kind of pull that out. And also it was like, I think it was like one of the last shots of, like for me at all. So I think it was my final day. So I was already like super emotional anyway because it was, you know, we were wrapping up and it was, I just was so grateful for the experience and it was like all kind of hidden at the same time anyway. So I kind of had to use that. But, but yeah, I mean, I also jokingly, but truthfully, when I was a kid, I, my first acting performance was as a silkworm in James and the Giant Peach. And I had no lines. Okay. So really that prepared me. Okay. There's no such thing. Small parts. Okay. But yeah, I mean, jokingly, but, but it is true. I think it came back to the thing of like, you know, there's so much that can be said and done. And so I'm grateful for the space that, you know, Denny allowed for, for those moments to happen. No, it is incredible. Even though you don't have any lines, the whole audience is with you in that scene. It's what we call cinema. I mean, watching someone experience something without words, the words are horrible. From another medium, for me, it's like, I love to shoot, sorry to interrupt you. No, no, no, no. To see someone listening. I think for me, it's fascinating to shoot someone who's listening to somebody else, to see the impact of the words, or the action, or something. There's something very cinematic about that. And I was really excited to have that point of view, give love at the end, to shine the eyes. Very good. Any questions? Yeah, something I want to say. I would like, before you start the question, I would like to pay homage to you guys. Because something that I never mentioned in any Q&As or press or whatever, is the amount of pressure that Greg Fraser and I put on their shoulders. In different ways. I mean, like Austin, at the beginning, when he does the fight, at the beginning, the gladiator fight, we put him in a box to emulate the arena that was outside, working with that. It was like 50 degrees Celsius or something like that. We cooked alive in that box. And because I wanted a specific light, and we did it gracefully. The same for Zendaya and Timothy, who were working in the desert, doing that love scene at a specific time of the day. We had to do that scene many times at different angles, different positions, on different days, many days, to shoot that scene at a specific time. Because Greg and I, we didn't want to compromise on the light. But that means you have to work with incredibly talented actors that will be able to put themselves back into the zone, the emotional zone. Like the opening scene was shot at something like 12 or 14 different locations. So I'm just saying, I just want to say thank you. Thank you. It's crazy what you've done. It's crazy. Okay, questions. Yes, sir. For the name, how did you manage to not get overwhelmed through every stage as you were writing and storyboarding and shooting? How did you handle that pressure? The question is, how did you manage to not be overwhelmed throughout this entire process? I don't allow myself to be overwhelmed. Because if I get overwhelmed, the boat will sink. As a director, that's part of the job, to deal with the pressure. So the key is to sleep well. I developed through the years a capacity to disconnect. I'm serious. You have to sleep well. On a movie like that, it's like have good hours and feel fresh every morning and be prepared. I don't know which director said, never take a camera if you don't know what you are about to say with that camera. You have to be well prepared. That's the key. Otherwise, you'll be crushed. Let's go. I think it's good. This question can be for anybody. The film is such a potent warning against what happens whenever you become so involved in a sense of self-feeling like you are set above or chosen. Obviously, by doing your own talents, you have each gained a certain level of following, for lack of a better term. I'm not trying to accuse anyone of having a messianic complex, but I'm curious if the film gives any of you a lens through which to evaluate what it means to have fame, attract fandoms. Thank you. What was the point of relation to the movie in the question? I think there was one, but now I'm not remembering. Paul's arc is very much a warning against what can happen whenever you can get high on your own supply, for lack of a better term. If I start answering, you guys can answer too, though. I'll do that. Just give me a little hint. That moment with Gergen. You have all of this. My life is definitely not like that. Not yet. I don't know. Honestly, it's not a dodge. I couldn't answer that from a subjective point of view. I could say, from an objective point of view, I would almost disagree with the notion that that's as prevalent a phenomenon now. I feel like maybe before the internet, maybe in the 40s or the 60s, or when this book was written in the 60s, you had cultural personality. People weren't so accessible. Their ideas or their messaging or their music or their films carried first as opposed to a public persona, if that makes any sense. I would almost, the way I would, I don't know if it's as relevant now, save for a few, I don't know, maybe actual political leaders. That's good. Come on, Zeke, get in there. I guess to what you're saying, I feel like often I am not cut out for that part of it. I do love my job. I'm so grateful. I love doing the work. I love being on the set. I do love moments like this, don't get me wrong, but I am terrified of that part of it often. I was a shy kid, always have been, and so this part isn't natural. That is a huge reason why fashion became important to me because it became like armor to pretend to go out and do the job. I don't know if I either can fully relate, but I understand. I definitely understand what you're saying and I think that's what's terrifying to me. I would like to be a person and people to see me as that first. I don't necessarily know if I want or can handle all of that. Some people that's part of it. They enjoy the power of what comes with it. I don't know if that's for me. One more. Yes. If you want to sit. Sorry. I genuinely don't have anything to add to that. He has said it. I was a shy kid as well. That's why I got into fashion. That's all I can say about that. Hi everyone. Thank you so much for being here and for sharing space with us. I just had a really quick question. It might be silly. In the world of Dune there's this language and I don't know if it's made up. Obviously it's their home language for the people. I'm curious as actors and as a director, is this language written as gibberish in the script or are there certain keywords that the actors are taught? And then if it is made up language, what is your cue as an actor to continue on with the scene? Great question. We hired for part one and part two a guy that specializes in creating new languages, David Peterson, that actually created checkups. We had clues in the book. There were words and he extended the language and he created a real syntax with real vocabulary and a real way to pronounce. So they went to Shakhovsa school actually. He translated the part of the script that I wrote in Shakhovsa. These words he was explaining to them how to pronounce. There was a diet coach on set to check the pronunciation. It went to a point where he became mad when I had a great shot and then Fabien was coming and said, actually you don't pronounce it exactly correct. They took it so seriously. So seriously. It was beautiful. It was really moving for me how much all the cast... Many times I hope you have that anecdote where Fabien would give me a note and I would go, wait, this is made up. And whoever they come up with, I think it was Fabien's partner, but I was reading somewhere in the New Yorker that he actually has made languages for House of the Dragon and another contemporary, sort of the go-to linguist who comes up with languages for projects. I will say too, I don't know if this is true for you, but I did feel like when I was speaking at Shakhovsa I felt more like sometimes speaking as Chani but in English felt more foreign than speaking the language. Sometimes it felt more natural to speak in this language, in Chakhovsa. Because I almost felt like when we were doing our scenes, a lot of the thing that we were trying to figure out was how do these kids flirt? How does a space warrior fall in love for the first time? What is that conversation like? And honestly it was difficult to try to figure out how she would speak to him. Whereas in Chakhovsa I felt like I didn't have to think about those things in those moments with Suella, who's amazing, who plays Shishakli. It just feels like it's coming out of her. Whereas in English, I almost think probably for her too, she's having to focus a bit more. It's beautiful what they created and I felt very lucky to have set their creation, I think. It helped a lot. Yeah, and it was precise to a point where even if for instance, Cheney's character says at one point to Javier Bardem's character, she said you're crazy. But that's not exactly what she says in Chakhovsa. In Chakhovsa, the character says you're drinking sand. Because a Fremen, a Fremen that would drink sand is insane. So it's all that was inside, embedded, hidden in the language itself, a beautiful poetry. And that, I think, the amount of work. Yeah, they took that very seriously. Also, just last bit, just in regards to the script, it was in English. There was a translation in italics. And that whole big speech, that Chakhovsa speech that Paul has sort of declaring himself, we shot that in English. We shot it in different ways. Chakhovsa is what landed in the movie. And I was secretly hoping on the day that it was going to land in the movie, that I'd spend six months memorizing it. But, yeah. That's incredible. Ladies and gentlemen, remember this was Dune Part 2. Thank you. Thank you, my favorite. Thank you so much.