Dune 2 stars Zendaya and Florence Pugh talk female empowerment in the sci-fi sequel: "There's huge power there"
Mar. 1, 2024Exclusive | The actors discuss the importance of telling different women’s stories in the new movie
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However, whilst there are plenty of women on-screen, that’s not really what matters. Crucially they are all well-developed and complicated, are the ones driving the story forward, and each character is different from the other. For Zendaya herself, that’s what is important when it comes to female representation on-screen.
She told GamesRadar+: “For me, female empowerment looks like characters that don’t all look or feel the same. Characters that are complicated, that you can hate, that you can love, that you can disagree with, that you can feel complicated feelings for. And I think that’s what strong characters are, something that you can dig your teeth into, be confused by their decisions, and talk about it later. You wonder: ‘Who’s the bad guy? Who’s the good guy? Whose side are we on? Is there any such thing?’ That to me, those are powerful characters. And I feel incredibly lucky to be in a film that shows many, many, many, many, many different versions of what that looks like. "
Continuing, Pugh emphasizes that she is also excited about her character’s potential future. Whilst Dune 3 is yet to be officially given the green light, Villeneuve has made it no secret that he hopes it happens - in fact, thescreenplay is almost finished. That movie would adapt Herbert’s novel Dune: Messiah in which Pugh’s character Irulan returns - and it seems she is already looking forward to stepping into the princess' shoes once again. She concluded: “I love how it ends on a dot, dot, dot. I love how there’s potential for a future. I love how in the tiny amount of time that we had looking at each other [Irulan and Zendaya’s character Chani], it already says and tells so much. And it makes you question, what’s going to happen next? It’s a great gift.”
Dune: Part Two is in theaters worldwide now. For more, check out the rest of our coverage on the movie:
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As Entertainment Editor at GamesRadar, I oversee all the online content for Total Film and SFX magazine. Previously I’ve worked for the BBC, Zavvi, UNILAD, Yahoo, Digital Spy and more.
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