Prophecy’ Star Emily Watson on What to Expect From HBO Show

To prepare for her starring role in “Dune Prophecy,” a sci-fi series set thousands of years in the future, Emily Watson turned to the Tudor dynasty. She spent hours at London’s National Portrait Gallery looking at paintings of Queen Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, and Anne Boleyn, women who, at least for a time, learned to successfully navigate a society dominated by men.

“It’s amazing to gaze at these portraits of these quietly powerful, terrifying women,” Watson says, during an interview at HBO’s Hudson Yards offices last month. “They don’t give too much away — they’re sort of ciphers, which gives them this sense of control. And you think about how they were surrounded by intrigue while living in this incredibly brutal, paranoid police state. Everybody in their life either wanted to kill them or or marry them.”

In many cases, both fates awaited them. The women in the paintings Watson viewed were married off, and, after getting out-maneuvered in an endless game of thrones, found themselves on the wrong end of the executioner’s ax. And though the world of “Dune” — with its interplanetary travel and advanced weaponry — bares little physical resemblance to the one where Henry VIII and his relatives, wives and progeny fought and feuded, there are unmistakable similarities. Namely, the way that Watson’s character Valya Harkonnen, the leader of a religious order known as the Sisterhood, must stroke the egos and manipulate the ambitions and fears of the men who lead the royal factions and fiefdoms that dominate this futuristic universe.

“The women that were playing aren’t forward-thinking feminist icons,” Watson says. “They’re messed up. They’re the products of this abusive system, and they’ve learned, like an Elizabeth or a Mary, that their power comes from having a veil of unknowability. Despite the science-fiction elements, there’s a texture of ancientness to the whole story.”

Prophecy’ Star Emily Watson on What to Expect From HBO Show