Dave Bautista Reveals Dune Acting Process Involves Denis Villeneuve’s Dreams

The actor says his whole performance is motivated by insecurity.

February 9, 2024, 6:11pm

Dave Bautista demonstrated just how ruthless and powerful Glossu Rabban Harkonnen could be in 2021’s Dune, but for Dune: Part Two, the character is slightly different from when we last saw him, and when he collaborated with director Denis Villeneuve, the filmmaker deferred to his dreams when trying to conjure advice for the performer. When the pair reconnected, Villeneuve had to share with Bautista how, even if Rabban is physically imposing, that ruthlessness comes from a place of insecurity, unleashing his rage any time he feels anyone else is more competent for a task than he is. Dune: Part Two lands in theaters on March 1st.

“With Rabban, in particular, it’s conversations with Denis. Our conversation on the second film was a little different from the first film.” Bautista shared with ComicBook.com about preparing for the role. “When I saw him on the first day, I went for a costume fitting and he came by to say hi. And I said, ‘Well, tell me about the character, it’s much more developed [in Part Two], who do you think — tell me more about him.’ And he said, ‘Well, let me dream about it tonight and I’ll tell you tomorrow.’ I got chills and I was so excited that he said that, that was like the best answer I’ve ever gotten.”

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He added, “Then, the next day, we started talking about him and we started talking about, ‘Remember, Rabban, the most important thing is he’s a coward, always think of him as a coward. He’s a coward and he’s insecure, and all that insecurity shows itself in other ways, in this rage and violence.’”

Thanks to his wrestling background, Bautista often brings a physicality to a role that other actors can’t always accomplish, which is especially heightened when comparing his approach to Rabban to actor Paul L. Smith’s more overtly cowardly take on the character in 1984’s Dune.

“So that was what I always thought: no matter what I did, he’s a coward, he’s insecure,” Bautista detailed. “He knows he’s not smart, he knows he’s missing something, he’s overly processing things because he can’t figure it out. He’s self-conscious about it, he’s insecure, because he thinks everybody else knows something he doesn’t, and how that comes out is through rage, because it’s the only thing he’s ever been good at.”

Dune: Part Two will explore the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, he endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.

The big-screen epic Dune: Part Two includes Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Léa Seydoux, with Stellan Skarsgård, Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem. Denis Villeneuve directed from a screenplay he co-wrote with Jon Spaihts based on Frank Herbert‘s iconic novel.