Stellan Skarsgård told us last year (while promoting HBO’s Chernobyl) that he was preparing to spend “a lot of time in the makeup chair” for Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming Dune reboot, and he wasn’t messing around. Skarsgård plays the big bad, Baron Harkonnen (enemy of Oscar Isaac’s Duke Leto Atreides), and the veteran actor revealed to us that his role isn’t a huge one, so he only needed to be onset for about two weeks. However, Baron himself is, well, kinda huge, so Skarsgård was gearing up (with movie magic) to match the script weight of 300 pounds, of which he added, “I can’t gain that much weight and survive.” So that meant a lot of rubber prosthetics and, yup, a lot of time on set before an “Action!” call.
Well, it sounds like he had a good time. Skarsgård is now talking about his time on Dune on the day before the trailer arrives. As he told The Mirror of Baron. “He’s fat, that was fun to do.” He also remarked, “It’s sort of fun to play this huge monster, but it’s less fun to spend five or six hours in make-up every day.”
All worth it in the name of the spice, no doubt. However much fun Skarsgård had, though, his experience pales in comparison to the longest time (allegedly) ever spent each day in a makeup chair. That record still apparently belongs to Rod Steiger from 1969’s The Illustrated Man (1969), although 20 hours to paint on tattoos sounds unfathomable. Not only that, but it sure looks like Colin Farrell must have invested hefty time for his The Penguin transformation in The Batman. Hopefully, we’ll hear some claims about time spent there soon.
Dune also stars Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson, Dave Bautistia, Javier Bardem, and Sharon Duncan-Brewster. The film is still scheduled for a December 18 release.