'Dune: Prophecy' showrunner and Harkonnen stars dissect a stellar first season (exclusive)

《沙丘：预言》节目主持人和哈肯南明星剖析了精彩的第一季（独家）

HBO's "Dune: Prophecy" aired its eventful season finale on Dec. 22, right before Christmas bells rang, and it was a satisfying end to this spinoff series set 10,000 years before Paul Atreides' birth and concerned the rise of the Bene Gesserit sect.

HBO的《沙丘：预言》于12月22日，就在圣诞节钟声敲响之前，播出了多事的一季大结局，这是这部设定在保罗·阿崔迪斯出生前10,000年、讲述贝尼·杰瑟里特教派崛起的衍生剧的令人满意的结局。

With the Sisterhood's thinking machine smashed to bits, Emperor Corrino putting himself out of his misery, Tula embracing her enhanced son Desmond Hart, and Valya finally touching down on Arrakis in the sixth episode titled "The High-Handed Enemy," many loose narrative ends and inevitable fates were all tied up in a bow with one major mystery left unsolved that might point to the AI overlord Omnius.

随着姐妹会的思维机器被打成碎片，科里诺皇帝摆脱了痛苦，图拉拥抱了她增强的儿子德斯蒙德·哈特，瓦利亚最终在名为“高压敌人”的第六集中降落在阿拉基斯身上，许多松散的叙事结局和不可避免的命运都绑在了一个蝴蝶结上，有一个主要的谜团没有解开，可能指向人工智能霸主奥姆纽斯。

Now that fans have had a chance to catch up with this exceptional show's half-dozen chapters in the holiday afterglow, let's unpack "Prophecy's" Dec. 19 press conference which Space.com attended featuring showrunner and executive producer Alison Schapker ("Fringe," "Lost") and stars Emily Watson (Valya) and Olivia Williams (Tula).

现在，粉丝们已经有机会在假期余晖中赶上这部特别节目的六个章节，让我们来解开《预言》12月19日的新闻发布会，Space.com出席了发布会，节目主持人兼执行制片人艾莉森·沙普克（《边缘》）、《迷失》）以及明星艾米丽·沃森（Valya）和奥利维亚·威廉姆斯（图拉）。

Space.com: "Dune: Prophecy" is sprinkled with many tropes and overtones of classic horror films. Could you speak about your love of supernatural and horror cinema and its place in the series?

Space.com：《沙丘：预言》洒满了许多经典恐怖片的比喻和暗示。你能谈谈你对超自然和恐怖电影的热爱以及它在系列中的位置吗？

Alison Schapker: Oh, yeah. Well, I think "Dune" is a very psychological property. And I think horror lends itself to kind of that idea of we're plumbing kind of the darkness of our own minds or the corruption of people, the sort of power in the shadows, all that stuff. I think horror is a wonderful genre to kind of weave through. And we specifically look to horror for things like Lila's agony and what it would mean to have all the ancestors awaken in you and the sort of nightmare story that comes and becomes a possession story, and things that are nightmare tropes.

艾莉森·沙普克：哦，是的。嗯，我认为“沙丘”是一个非常心理属性。我认为恐怖有助于我们在挖掘自己内心的黑暗或人们的腐败，阴影中的力量，所有这些东西。我认为恐怖片是一种很棒的类型。我们特别关注恐怖，比如莱拉的痛苦，让你所有的祖先都觉醒意味着什么，那种噩梦般的故事变成了附身的故事，以及噩梦般的比喻。

But what I also love about "Dune" is that some of the horror is not supernatural but is actually rooted in a kind of science. And I think that's very interesting. I think it kind of has its own spin on what it's doing because it's always trying to ground itself, I think scientifically, so. But I think the idea that we would feel fear or that we would want to speak to that kind of anxiety that's happening, and like Olivia said, it's happening at the school, it's sort of ratcheting up over the season and horror's incredibly useful to have in your toolbox.

但我也喜欢《沙丘》的一点是，一些恐怖不是超自然的，而是植根于一种科学。我觉得这很有趣。我认为它对自己所做的事情有自己的看法，因为它总是试图让自己接地气，我认为从科学角度来说，所以。但我认为，我们会感到恐惧，或者我们会想要谈论正在发生的那种焦虑，就像奥利维亚说的，它正在学校发生，它在整个赛季中逐渐增加，恐怖在你的工具箱中非常有用。

Moderator: Emily and Olivia, you both spent a lot of time together before filming forming that sister relationship that's so specific in this show, and one of the questions is about how did that preparation really help you, especially as you got to the later episodes in the season?

主持人：艾米丽和奥利维亚，你们在拍摄之前花了很多时间在一起，形成了这部剧中如此具体的姐妹关系，其中一个问题是这种准备对你们有什么帮助，尤其是当你们进入这一季的后几集时？

Emily Watson: I think we share a lifelong kind of story muscle, that, you know, we're like, we're not related, but we're related. We know we have the same instincts of what the story needs. We might approach things in slightly different ways, but we really have that actor's "what is this," "what is this scene telling and why are we telling it," and let's make that, let's find that.

艾米丽·沃森：我认为我们分享了一生的故事肌肉，你知道，我们就像，我们没有血缘关系，但我们是血缘关系。我们知道我们对故事需要什么有着相同的直觉。我们可能会以稍微不同的方式处理事情，但我们真的有那个演员的“这是什么”，“这个场景在讲述什么，我们为什么要讲述它，”让我们创造，让我们找到它。

Olivia Williams: I also think Emily suggested quite notoriously now that we go and visit the National Portrait Gallery in London to have a look at some sisters who had some similar dilemmas to the sisters in the "Dune: Prophecy" story. We went to look at portraits of Queen Elizabeth the first, and she famously sort of bumped off a couple of her cousins and sisters in order to get the crown. And [she] could write a letter saying, "I love you, dear sister," and then use the same pen to sign that sister's death warrant.

奥利维亚·威廉姆斯：我还认为艾米丽建议我们去伦敦的国家肖像画廊看看一些姐妹，她们和《沙丘：预言》故事中的姐妹们有着相似的困境。我们去看了伊丽莎白一世女王的肖像，众所周知，她为了获得王位而杀死了她的几个堂兄弟姐妹。[她]可以写一封信说，“我爱你，亲爱的妹妹”，然后用同一支笔在那个妹妹的死刑执行令上签名。

So, at the time, I thought it was a bit, well to be honest, a bit keen of Emily to suggest we go to the National Portrait Gallery to research the role, but it came in so useful when we were facing these stories of generational hatred towards another family and sisterly bonding that goes beyond blood to bloody secrets.

所以，当时，我认为艾米丽建议我们去国家肖像画廊研究这个角色有点，老实说，有点热衷于，但当我们面对这些对另一个家庭的代际仇恨和超越血腥秘密的姐妹情谊的故事时，它变得非常有用。

Emily Watson: And when you find yourself sort of in the world of a sci-fi and you're out in space, just having that something that feels really rooted in history and reality was very helpful, I think.

艾米丽·沃森：当你发现自己置身于科幻世界，身处太空时，我认为拥有一些真正植根于历史和现实的东西是非常有帮助的。

Moderator: For you, Olivia and Emily, what were the most challenging aspects of playing these characters throughout the series for you both?

主持人：对你们、奥利维亚和艾米丽来说，在整个系列中扮演这些角色对你们俩来说最具挑战性的方面是什么？

Olivia Williams: Well, it was a sort of pleasure. There was a pleasure in - Emily and I've talked about this before - sort of leading a company. But it's always a bit of a shock because I am a younger sister, and I always think of myself as the youngest person on the set, and yet, have all these young actors coming up and going "it's so amazing to work with you." The sort of euphemism was "experienced." "You're so experienced." What they really mean is, "you're so old." But what was a real joy, and I know Emily agrees with me, was to kind of set the tone for how the company acted and treated each other and were treated, and it was a really good cast and crew atmosphere on set.

奥利维亚·威廉姆斯：嗯，这是一种享受。领导一家公司是一种乐趣——艾米丽和我以前谈过这个问题——。但这总是有点令人震惊，因为我是一个妹妹，我总是认为自己是片场最年轻的人，然而，所有这些年轻演员都走过来说“和你一起工作真是太棒了。”这种委婉的说法是“经历过的”。“你真有经验。”他们真正的意思是，“你这么老了。”但真正令人高兴的是，我知道艾米丽同意我的观点，为公司的行为、对待彼此和被对待定下了基调，片场的演员和工作人员氛围真的很好。

Emily Watson: Yeah, absolutely. It's a real pleasure to have that opportunity because you don't always get that. We were number one and number two on the call sheet, and if you don't act out, then nobody else can, basically.

艾米丽·沃森：是的，当然。有这样的机会真的很高兴，因为你并不总是得到这样的机会。我们是电话单上的第一和第二名，如果你不表现出来，那么基本上其他人都不能。

Moderator: Could you please unpack Valya's defeat of the thinking machine virus and how did she overcome her fear and what did her vision of Desmond's operation memory reveal?

主持人：能否请您解开Valya击败思维机器病毒的故事，以及她是如何克服恐惧的，以及她对Desmond的记忆操作的愿景揭示了什么？

Alison Schapker: Well, I think we've seen kind of this idea that this machine virus is operating in a certain part of the brain that is triggering people's fears to kind of manifest, and there's sort of layers to it. And I think you saw a little bit in episode four when the acolytes were, when Tula guides them on their experiment to uncover the meaning of their dreams. Like, they start out and they're all drawing different things, and then they all begin drawing in unison. And then it's as if Desmond's fears become so present that that’s what's overpowering everybody, and nobody can get past these two blue eyes. [It] sort of awakens them because the terror is so great.

艾莉森·沙普克：嗯，我认为我们已经看到了这种想法，这种机器病毒在大脑的某个部分运作，引发人们的恐惧，这是有层次的。我想你在第四集看到了一点，当学徒们，图拉指导他们进行实验来揭示他们梦的意义。就像，他们开始画不同的东西，然后他们开始一致画。然后就好像德斯蒙德的恐惧变得如此真实，这就是压倒每个人的原因，没有人能越过这两只蓝眼睛。[它]在某种程度上唤醒了他们，因为恐惧是如此之大。

And I think Valya, when she goes to transmute this machine virus -- Tula, thank God, is there to tell her that the key is actually to let go. And that actually the work that Valya has to do on a cellular level is to let go of fear, to kind of transmute the fear as opposed to the virus and to let it go. And Emily, I know we talked about this, but this idea that Valya has held on for her whole life to fears. Fears that she caused her own brother’s undoing. Fears that she would amount to nothing. Fears that the family would be forever denied or that the loss would be interminable.

我认为Valya，当她去改造这个机器病毒时——感谢上帝，图拉在那里告诉她，关键实际上是放手。实际上，Valya在细胞水平上必须做的工作是放下恐惧，将恐惧转化为病毒，让它过去。艾米丽，我知道我们谈过这个，但是瓦利亚一生都坚持的这个想法让她很害怕。担心她导致了自己哥哥的毁灭。担心她会一事无成。担心这个家庭将永远被剥夺，或者损失将永无止境。

Moderator: Could you talk about the choice of Arrakis for Valya's destination and what she hopes to accomplish there from your perspective?

主持人：你能谈谈Valya选择Arrakis作为目的地，以及从你的角度来看她希望在那里完成什么吗？

Alison Schapker: After a season of Arrakis kind of exerting its pull from afar, and whether that's in the economics of spice trade or the psychological aspects of these visions and nightmares that are sort of imagery of Arrakis and Desmond's past seeping into everyone's consciousness. To actually go and put boots on the ground at this incredibly overdetermined and sort of almost mythic "Dune" space that we know very well, but we sort of kept it at distance the whole season.

艾莉森·沙普克：经过一个赛季的阿拉基斯从远处发挥了它的吸引力，无论是在香料贸易的经济学方面，还是在这些幻象和噩梦的心理方面，这些幻象和噩梦都是阿拉基斯和德斯蒙德过去的图像渗透到每个人的意识中。实际上，在这个令人难以置信的超确定的、几乎是神话般的“沙丘”空间，我们非常了解它，但我们整个赛季都与它保持距离。

So, I think it's very significant that Valya's back there, and I also think she's back kind of at the origin point of Desmond, where he emerged from. Like, he emerged with a story and a myth, and it was I'm from Arrakis, and I was swallowed by a worm and I survived after my whole regiment was killed. I think Valya is going to find out a lot more, given that she is sort of back where Desmond sort of emerged as an adversary. And [it will] be interesting to see what she finds out there.

所以，我认为Valya回到那里是非常重要的，我也认为她回到了Desmond的原点，他就是从那里出现的。就像，他带着一个故事和一个神话出现了，那就是我来自阿拉基斯，我被一条虫子吞了，在我的整个团都被杀后我活了下来。我认为Valya会发现更多，因为她回到了Desmond作为对手出现的地方。看看她在那里发现了什么会很有趣。

All episodes of "Dune: Prophecy" are now available on HBO and streaming on Max. It has been approved for a second season as announced at this press conference.

《沙丘：预言》的所有剧集现在都可以在HBO和Max上观看。正如在这次新闻发布会上宣布的那样，它已经被批准了第二季。