Emily Watson's upbringing in a cult-like group helped her to prepare for 'Dune: Prophecy'.
In HBO’s prequel series to the 'Dune films', Emily, 57, plays Valya Harkonnen, leader of a controlling religious sect, and she admitted that her childhood in the School of Economic Science sect was a similar experience.
She told Vulture: "It’s in my wheelhouse, really. I was feeling the sense of young lives being controlled and a sense of appropriation. People end up in those places because they have a kind of damage. That was my way into it. I thought, I grew up with people who had that kind of presence."
The SES is a global group that adheres to traditional gender roles, conservative sexual mores and has faced allegations of physical abuse as part of its strict disciplinary policies.
Speaking about what she was taught in the SES, Emily said: "No sex outside marriage, marriages for young women encouraged with older men, live at home until you’re married or with a family. We were told that 'women can hold hands to change the world,' which I absolutely believe to be true. But then we were encouraged to become mothers, nurses, and teachers. Independence was frowned upon.
"Needless to say, I wasn’t a very good student and did none of the above. I was, in part, protected from it because my parents were removed from it emotionally. We were a very strong unit as a family. Probably all religions have this, but when people are given power — and when you have power over children — it can get out of hand so easily. The day school was very new, and it was a very new organiSation that didn’t have any sense of governance. The whole thing started back in the ’40s. My dad joined when he was 18, so I think in the late ’50s. There are still things I’m grateful for, but there were a lot of things that were not right. All of us were desperate to be normal kids. We felt like we were on the outside looking in because we went to this strange setup."
However, she did take some positives from her time in the group.
Emily said: "I learned about the idea of there being a unifying force of love in everything and that everything is a version of that. I’m also able to concentrate, to really hyperfocus. I’ve got one of those slightly odd brains, possibly because I learned to concentrate out of fear.
"Doing your utter best meant being okay. There was very much a discipline of being in the present moment and being connected to your senses, which is massively helpful as an actor."
