Life as a Harkonnen 10,000 years before her rise to monstrous power is not for the faint of heart – just ask Mark Addy and Edward Davis.

Episode 4 of Dune: Prophecy spends much of its time in the Harkonnen family home in Salusa Secundus, and it’s a bitter place. Addy plays the family patriarch – and Valya’s (Emily Watson) uncle – Evgeny, and Davis is the younger Harkonnen Harrow, who has higher ambitions for himself and his family. The pair told TheWrap that a lot of emphasis was placed on creating a piercingly cold environment for the episode to underscore the animosity between Evgeny and Valya.

“It’s a very dark feeling,” Addy said. “They wanted it to feel like a cold place. You have to stay by the fire if you want any semblance of warmth. A place where the cold would penetrate to your bones. This is also reflected in the characters. The way they treat each other and everyone else – it’s not a hospitable place at all.”

Davis added that the coldness and distrust come to the fore with Valya’s return to her life. He claimed there wasn’t much hope for Harrow to trust Valya after years of living with Evgeny, who stirred up a lot of animosity.

“She abandoned these two men for so long that I can’t imagine Harrow ever really getting to know her,” Davis said. “All he had was Evgeny whispering in his ear that she was the devil. So, yes, there is a lot of cold in the apartment in every way. The food we had to eat didn’t help either. Hodgepodge of smoked fish and stuff – first bite tasty, 20 bites later not so much.”

Valya’s sudden reappearance in the couple’s life is a moment of opportunity for Harrow. As Davis puts it, Harrow has a personal drive to not only rescue House Harkonnen from the shameful hole it has been in for the past few decades, but also to be the one to do it. He sees this opportunity through Valya – unfortunately Valya is also playing Harrow for her own games.

“It’s only when Valya shows up and manipulates him into this position of influence and into the High Council that he gets a glimpse of true power,” Davis said. If that is no longer possible because of what happened in the Landsraad, there is only one way for him to go – up and perhaps sideways.”

For Evgeny, Valya’s reappearance only strengthens the spirits the man has lived with for decades. Neither he nor Valya ever properly (or healthily) mourned Griffin’s death, and all of this nastiness comes to a head at the end of the episode. The two engage in a never-ending shouting match, with Evgeny lying on the ground and grabbing for his oxygen tank – which Valya refuses to do while she watches her uncle die.

“He puts the blame for Griffin’s death squarely on her shoulders,” Addy said. “Griffin, the golden boy, the hope, the future of House Harkonnen, and killed because of her. That has been atrophied over 30 years, and of course that bitterness comes out as fresh as ever when it comes back.”

Addy continued: “30 years of simmering resentment towards Evgeny spills out as soon as she arrives, really.” She takes the opportunity to stop him breathing. You’re doing this to a member of your own family – not a very nice member of your own family – but it shows how much length Valya is willing to go to achieve her goals.”

Finally, Addy looked back to a head of house he had played in a previous high-profile fantasy series – Game of Thrones. Addy played King Robert Baratheon in Season 1 of the HBO series – a character who found himself on a throne and had a level of power he never wanted, which is a far cry from Evgeny who craves power and respect for him and his family longs for lost. When asked who he would rather see sitting on a throne, Addy hesitated before making a decision.

“I mean, they’re both terribly flawed characters and you have to choose one or the other. I think Robert had a lot more fun in his life,” Addy said. “Just the idea of ​​simmering in a bitterly cold hellhole for 30 years. I would have to choose Robert over Evgeny.”

The post Dune: Prophecy Stars Mark Addy and Edward Davis Break Down Life’s ‘Great Cold’ as Harkonnen appeared first on TheWrap.