Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for the Dune: Prophecy Season 1 finale.
While Dune: Prophecy has been a story wrapped up in political maneuvering and manipulation so far — particularly from the group that will eventually be known as the Bene Gesserit by the time of Paul Atreides — the finale revolves around some drastic choices, many of which result in not every character making it out alive. After Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson) decides that Javicco Corrino (Mark Strong) has become too much of a weak link to be allowed to remain in power, she tasks his mistress, Sister Francesca (Tabu), with the responsibility of killing the emperor. Although flashbacks reveal that the Sisterhood orchestrated Francesca’s proximity to Javicco in the first place — and that he’s fallen in love with her due to her imprinting abilities — it turns out that killing the father of her son, Constantine (Josh Heuston), is easier said than done for Francesca, and once some harsh truths come to light between them, the only ending for the couple is one that ends in tragedy.
Ahead of the Dune: Prophecy finale (and before the announcement that the show had already been renewed for a second season), Collider had the opportunity to speak with Tabu via Zoom to discuss her character’s most pivotal moments in the episode. The acclaimed actress shares the story of her road to joining the show, how much she wanted to know about Francesca’s backstory through flashbacks (where the character is played by Charithra Chandran), and whether she believes Francesca ever truly loved Javicco. She also discusses the first scene she filmed for the show, which scene made her cry every time she read it in the script, her character’s tragic ending, and more.
Tabu Discusses Her Road To Joining ‘Dune: Prophecy’

Image via HBO

COLLIDER: How were you approached for the role of Francesca? What was the process behind getting this part?
TABU: I got an email saying, “Alison [Schapker] and Anna [Foerster] would love for you to be part of Dune, and this is the role,” and they sent me the script and the scenes. I was just so happy to read the scenes, because I knew this was an important part. I had the Zoom meet the next day, and they came with so much love and affection and respect and keenness to have me that it just made it so much easier for me to say, “Yes,” because I knew that these were good people and I wanted to do this role.
What sort of preparation do you do for a role like this, where the relationships are pre-established with so much weight and history? Does that change your process at all?
TABU: There is baggage and there is history and there are well-established facts and arcs of these characters, but what I am dealing with as an actor is what I’m handed, what I’m given as the script. What’s most important to me is the relationships, especially for my part, for Francesca. The most important part of her role in the story in the show is her relationship with the emperor and the relationship with her son. It had to work. If that did not work, then her presence… that is the reason why she is brought here, so that had better work. That was the only thing that was important to me, apart from the backstory, of course, but you don’t see her in between. For me, Javicco was important. For me, Constantine was important.
And it was important that our relationships looked believable. It was important that they had truth, and that I was giving nothing but the truth to these relationships, and emotion, and feeling. Because Francesca is all about feeling, she’s all about heart, and those are interesting things. We were having discussions about [it] before we started to film, and we were talking about imprinting, and that she is this person who can affect people’s molecular energy and impact them. The only comment I made was, “OK, so Francesca lives by her heart.” So this is what stuck with everyone, and this is what I kept as my belief internally. She lives from her heart, because if she doesn’t, then she’s not interesting, and her story with Javicco is not interesting. It’s fake. Her story with her son, it’s not real. And you want emotion. You want people to invest in your character. That is the only thing that I thought of.
Did Francesca Ever Really Love Javicco in ‘Dune: Prophecy’? Tabu Shares Her Take

Image via HBO

You mentioned the imprinting, which adds a layer of complication to the Francesca-Javicco relationship. What was your interpretation of that? Do you feel like she actually did grow to love him?
TABU: Yes, absolutely. She definitely loved the emperor. It comes and goes. It comes and goes because she’s not sure of herself, because he already has a wife, and they are supposed to put the princess on the throne and all that. And she is here to manipulate him. Her son cannot be the emperor, though, actually, he’s the natural heir to the throne. She holds a very powerful place in the Imperium. But when Javicco tells her, “Stay. Stay. Stay here with me,” she’s happy. You can see it, the way she goes and tells Valya, “He wants to give me Natalya’s place.” You know that she is happy and she’s hopeful. She wants to stay, and that is also why she was not going to carry out Valya’s command to kill him. So definitely, she loves him.
We do see Francesca in flashbacks as a younger character. How much did you try to learn about those earlier years in the Sisterhood and her relationship with Valya so that you could bring that to your scenes with Emily?
TABU: It was very important. I had the entire script. In between, when I was not shooting, I would read Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3 and 4. I could not have no connection with what is happening because that also forms the ground for me to perform or to interpret my own character’s journey and what has happened so that I can shape her in the present times. There was no way that I could not visit what has happened before I came into the picture, because those relationships are what the Bene Gesserit is made of. Valya’s relationship with Tula, Valya’s relationship with Kasha, and, most importantly, Francesca is the only person who knows Tula’s secret, you see? So all that information is important to have. It translates into your performance later.

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“Sisterhood above all.”

Your introduction in the show, the scene where you walk in — heads are turning, and you pull the veil back. It’s such a great way to introduce somebody who is so powerful, but also significant. Was that the first scene that you filmed for the show?
TABU: Not at all. Not at all. The shot where I get off of the spaceship was shot on the last day. That was the last shot of my entire work on Dune. And I’m so glad it was the last, because I gathered the entire crew for a photograph. I couldn’t have got such a big crew and all the other actors in one frame. I wanted that photograph. But that was not the first. My scene with Josh was on the first day. Speaking about the entrance shot, it is completely to Alison and Anna’s credit, to the way they have imagined this shot. They imagined it being like this from day one. They had thought and designed this entrance for me forever. You build up Francesca’s character because you’re the character that’s going to come and change a lot of things. She is going to do some really… shake everything [up], according to the audience, so she had to have that kind of entrance. I used to tell Alison, “This is the kind of entrance that a hero gets.”
About your scene with Josh, I did want to ask about Francesca and Constantine and her going to Javicco and telling him that their son needs a purpose. It is somewhat rooted in what Valya and the Sisterhood want, to maneuver him into that position. Do you think that their plan also aligns with Francesca’s own personal ambitions for her son?
TABU: I think so. Because no mother would want to see her son just wasting away his life. When the emperor is the father of your son, you want him to do something for your son. You want him to stop having this troubled relationship with your son. It really served her own personal aspirations for [him]. Definitely. That’s what makes the character of Francesca and her journey very, very interesting is that you don’t know if she’s doing this because Valya has asked her to do it or because she is doing it because she really wants to do it for her son. But I think she is doing it because she wants to see her son in a secure position. She has her own selfish motives for her son, and the fact that Valya wants it just helps her.
Tabu Explains That Heartbreaking Ending for Francesca and Javicco in the ‘Dune: Prophecy’ Finale

Image via HBO

Speaking of something that Valya wants and that Francesca clearly doesn’t, it’s Javicco to be killed. That conversation that you have with Mark has more weight to it just because Valya has just told Javicco that, leading up to this moment, he’s been manipulated into doing exactly what the Sisterhood wants. So that adds another layer of heartbreak and tragedy, especially because Francesca clearly does not want to kill the father of her son. How did you approach such a heavy scene for your character?
TABU: Yeah, it’s very heavy. It was heartbreaking, and every time I read it in the script, I cried, even when I was not shooting. The most wicked and evil thing any person can do is to tell someone that their lover has betrayed them and their lover does not actually love them, is only playing with them or manipulating them. It’s the worst thing that you can do to anybody, because intimacy and the relationship between lovers is the most vulnerable relationship, I feel. You can spend a lifetime trying to convince somebody that you were true, and you have not betrayed them. Especially with Javicco, because he found Francesca after so many years, he’s really liking this. He wants her to stay. And for Valya to come and…
I also think that Valya suspects that Francesca is not going to kill him. Valya is smart. When she gives her the Gom Jabbar, she sees the look on Francesca’s face. Valya knows Francesca, and she knows that it’s a very big risk for her to ask Francesca to do what she wants her to do. I think she goes and talks to the emperor in order to ruin Francesca’s plan because she knows that Francesca is not going to kill him.
It was so heartbreaking, even for me to stand there as an actor, to see that he’s so broken, and he’s so shocked, and she is more shattered than him in that whole moment to explain to him that what Valya is saying is not true. But she knows that he has all the reasons to believe Valya, because she’s actually come with the Gom Jabbar, but she’s kept it over there. He says, “But it was part of the plan,” and she’s trying to convince him. But he is in that pit of fury, rage, betrayal, all of that, and he’s not convinced. And that is the most tragic part of Francesca and Javicco. It was very sad to even do that scene.
Javicco obviously puts the knife into his own chest, but do you think Francesca would have rather died with him than been forced to live without him?
TABU: It’s the only way that their story could have ended. If she had lived on, then she would have lived only to confront Valya. There was no other purpose. It can only turn to that and become another chapter of vengeance from Francesca’s side. But if you talk about Corrino and Francesca’s story, this is the only way it could have ended. They couldn’t live together, but they died together. Or they would have escaped, and they would’ve gone off to some other planet. We just see them alive together, or we see them dying together. That’s how potent their love story is.
All episodes of Dune: Prophecy are available to stream on Max. Season 2 will premiere at a date yet to be announced.

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Set in the universe of Frank Herbert’s Dune series, this sci-fi epic follows the political and spiritual struggles on the desert planet of Arrakis. As factions vie for control of the prized spice melange, a prophesied hero emerges, challenging the balance of power and the fate of the galaxy.

Release Date

November 17, 2024

Cast

Emily Watson
, Olivia Williams
, Jodhi May
, Travis Fimmel
, Mark Strong
, Jade Anouka
, Chris Mason
, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina
, Shalom Brune-Franklin
, Faoileann Cunningham
, Aoife Hinds
, Chloe Lea
, Josh Heuston
, Edward Davis
, Tabu
, Yerin Ha

Main Genre

Sci-Fi

Seasons

1

Writers

Diane Ademu-John
, Kevin J. Anderson
, Brian Herbert
, Frank Herbert

Directors

Anna Foerster

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Watch on Max