10 Best Performances In Dune (2021) | ScreenRant
Denis Villeneuve’s universally acclaimed adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi novel Dune was nominated for a whopping 10 Academy Awards at this year’s ceremony (and came home with six trophies, the most wins of the evening), including Best Picture, Best Cinematography, and Best Adapted Screenplay. But the movie received no Oscar nods for acting.
There was no Best Actor nomination for Timothée Chalamet, no Best Actress nomination for Rebecca Ferguson, and no Best Supporting Actor nomination for Oscar Isaac. The Academy voters were more impressed with Dune’s technical aspects than the work of the cast. But there are plenty of great performances in the movie. Screen legends like Javier Bardem and Charlotte Rampling give scene-stealing supporting turns alongside the main cast members.
10 Stephen McKinley Henderson As Thufir Hawat
Stephen McKinley Henderson is a true dramatist who embodies every character he plays and finds the realism in every moment. In Dune, he plays the Mentat of House Atreides, Thufir Hawat.
Thufir is deeply ashamed of himself when his security team allows an assassin to break into the homestead and attack Paul. Henderson brings his usual pathos to the role, immersing himself in the character and in the reality of each scene.
9 Josh Brolin As Gurney Halleck
Josh Brolin gives a small but memorable performance in Dune as Gurney Halleck, the weapons master of House Atreides and a mentor to Paul. In true Brolin style, Halleck is a typical gruff action hero.
He’s tough on Paul during their training sessions, but ultimately only pushes him so hard because he cares about him and wants him to be able to defend himself. Brolin shares great mentor-mentee chemistry with Chalamet.
8 Zendaya As Chani
Zendaya’s Chani only appears briefly in Part One, but she’s primed for a much larger role in Part Two. Chani is an elusive young Fremen woman who appears in Paul’s recurring visions (and later meets him when he joins the Fremen’s fight in the film’s cliffhanger ending).
Despite having a minor role in the film, Zendaya does a great job with limited screen time, creating a real air of mystery around Chani. She’s burdened with delivering most of the key exposition in voiceover and, like fellow exposition deliverer Ian McKellen in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, she conveys a suitable sense of dramatic weight and grandiosity with all the crucial context.
7 Oscar Isaac As Duke Leto Atreides
Oscar Isaac added another sci-fi franchise feather to his cap with the role of Duke Leto Atreides, Paul’s father and the Duke of House Atreides.
Isaac is his usual charismatic self in the role of the de facto ruler of House Atreides. In his heartbreaking death scene, Leto makes the ultimate sacrifice in a desperate bid to wipe out House Harkonnen.
6 Charlotte Rampling As Reverend Mother Mohiam
Charlotte Rampling is a beloved screen legend – and a staple of the Swinging Sixties – but despite her warm relationship with the audience, she’s genuinely creepy in Dune. She plays Reverend Mother Mohiam, the Emperor’s Bene Gesserit Truthsayer.
Rampling is chillingly cold-hearted in her interactions with Paul (and even Lady Jessica in some cases) – especially in the haunting scene with “the box.”
5 Stellan Skarsgård As Baron Vladimir Harkonnen
The Baron of House Harkonnen is the main villain of the movie. He’s the arch-nemesis of House Atreides who teams up with the Emperor to sabotage them. Stellan Skarsgård is unrecognizable under a truckload of prosthetics and makeup, and similarly disappears into the role with an unsettling yet captivating performance.
Skarsgård’s turn is a spooky, somewhat grounded take on the Jabba the Hutt “alien slug crime lord” archetype, but with the disturbed mind of Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now.
4 Jason Momoa As Duncan Idaho
After playing Aquaman, Khal Drogo, and Conan the Barbarian, Jason Momoa was a no-brainer casting choice for arguably Dune’s most badass warrior, Duncan Idaho. Duncan is the swordmaster of House Atreides and a secondary father figure to Paul. He’s one of the most proficient fighters in the movie – and one of the most merciless killers – but there’s also a surprisingly sweet side to this character.
Duncan is as loyal to House Atreides as he is ruthless to their enemies. Like Leto, Duncan gets a moving death scene when he sacrifices himself to save Paul and Lady Jessica and goes out in a sword-wielding blaze of glory.
3 Javier Bardem As Stilgar
Javier Bardem’s nuanced, stern-faced turn as Stilgar, the leader of the Fremen tribe at Sietch Tabr, is one of Dune’s highlights (and he only appears in a couple of scenes).
Bardem nails a powerful monologue summing up the themes of the story, pointing out the irony of two colonizers fighting over land and resources that don’t belong to either of them.
2 Rebecca Ferguson As Lady Jessica Atreides
Rebecca Ferguson is a total badass in the role of Lady Jessica, Paul’s Bene Gesserit mother and consort to Duke Leto, effortlessly wielding her powers and delivering ice-cool one-liners.
After instantly defeating Stilgar, who wonders why she didn’t reveal her supernatural abilities earlier, she quips, “The conversation ran short.”
1 Timothée Chalamet As Paul Atreides
Timothée Chalamet has been an indie darling adored by critics and cinephiles for years, but in Dune, he finally proved he can carry a big-budget, large-scale, effects-driven blockbuster.
As Paul, the ducal heir of House Atreides, Chalamet brought the same subtleties and brooding dramatic nuance that he brings to roles in smaller independent films to the spectacle-focused realm of science fiction.