Dune 2’s Stellan Skarsgard Says Baron Harkonnen’s Massive Prosthetics Made His Performance Better

Dune: Part Two star Stellan Skarsgard is an actor we all know very well at this point–his career has been both prolific and varied, popping up in everything from mega-budgeted blockbusters like The Avengers to tiny art films like Nymphomaniac–as well as everything in between, like the Mama Mia movies. But these Dune flicks feature a particularly memorable role for Skaarsgard, because of the elaborate prosthetic suit he had to wear to portray the post-human, worm-like character. Imagine if Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars had begun his life as a regular human man and gradually altered himself into becoming a giant slug over time. That’s Baron Harkonnen!

“How do you do your job with 40 kilos of prosthetics on? It is tough, but the thing is that it hinders you in a way, but it also becomes something like the real fat it would have been that is also a hindrance. And you use the resistance of the costume to make him slower, to make him become more dangerous in a way,” Skarsgard told me.

It was all about establishing his powerful presence in a way that isn’t easily forgotten when the Baron is offscreen–he only appears in a few scenes, but all of them are among the most memorable in the film.

“You’re not interested in showing any psychological fine tuning in the action–what you want to do is to put a stamp on the screen. That means that you want him to have sort of a physical presence that when he comes in, he puts a stamp there, and that casts a shadow for the rest of the film” he said. “So you don’t have to put him in [lots of] scenes or anything. He just has to be that powerful. And to construct that character was fun.”

On top of that challenge, Skarsgard said he found working on Dune to be satisfying in another unique way as well.

“I’ve always been trying to make films in different fields all the time. When I’ve just made a big Hollywood movie, I go and make a small, independent film and back and forth–different material all the time. So it feels good,” Skarsgard said, before noting that Dune gives him the best of both options.

“When an auteur movie can be made for $150 million and have box office success, that’s something that makes me very happy.”

Dune: Part Two is in theaters now.