Date : winter 2000, Publication : Scifi.com

It's only fitting that Julie Cox assume the role of Princess Irulan in the SCI FI Channel's production of Frank Herbert's Dune. The talented actress, who was born in Scotland but was raised around the world — in Indonesia, Texas, Australia and Malaysia — always loved the Herbert novel. She first perused its pages at age 15. "My brother had read it, and at that time I read anything he did because I looked up to him as my big brother," she recalls.

"And he had very good taste. He got me into sci-fi." A few years later, at 19, Cox made the move from Melbourne to London in order to pursue the acting craft. And she's been doing quite well, graduating from small roles in Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life and The NeverEnding Story III, to steadily larger roles in such productions as Danielle Steel's The Ring, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Felicia's Journey and the upcoming productions of The War Bride and David Copperfield.

But the topic of the day, of course, is Frank Herbert's Dune, and SCIFI.COM caught up with Cox on the set in Prague.


Did you always want to be an actress ?
No. I wanted to be an astronaut or a racecar driver. To be honest, I didn't want to be an actress. When I read sci-fi books, I always wanted to be the hero, the one who goes out and saves the world, who gets into fights, flies spaceships and that kind of stuff. But I loved the romantic stories as well. I loved the Arthurian legends, the ones with the guys who came charging on a horse.

You mentioned that your brother got you into sci-fi, into Dune.
Originally I was more into Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov — and then I read Dune. I am not a big fan of little green aliens flying around in spaceships. It's much more interesting when the stories are on a more human level. Then I became a huge fan of William Gibson and Philip K. Dick. My favorite sci-fi book is probably Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? And I loved Neuromancer, because of the effect it had on me at the time. I also liked (J.R.R.) Tolkien. I think Dune is close to Tolkien sometimes. Lord of the Rings has that same kind of mythology, where there's a journey and (the story) goes across generations.


How does your Princess Irulan compare to the one in the novel ?
In the book, she's the narrator. She actually only comes into the story physically, as such, right at the end. She marries Paul at the end and that's really the only time you see her. She's chosen to marry Paul because she's the eldest. What (writer-director) John Harrison has done is develop a character pretty much inspired by the records. She is listed in the history of Arrakis. Chapters of the book are punctuated with information about her. John has also taken the dialogue of another character in the book … and put it into Irulan's mouth. And it works. I heard Irulan saying the words when I read the script.

Just how elaborate are the costumes ?
The costumes are outrageous. They are fantastic. It's very easy to play someone who's imperial when you have these costumes. You automatically feel special, but they're not always the most comfortable clothes. But they work. They work with you and you work with them. It doesn't feel like something that was just sort of stuck on you. Have you seen my shoes? They're about seven inches, maybe eight inches high. That's been quite interesting, just walking around. I have about eight different costumes. There's the very official-looking outfit that I wear whenever I'm in the Court. There's one thing that (costume designer Theodor) Pistek has done and that is to design two dresses that are straight from Mucha, who was a Czech artist in the 1920s. I always loved the Baroque art from that period. So when I found out that two of the dresses were going to be based on two particular paintings, I was very, very excited about that. I feel quite blessed to be the one wearing the dresses. There will be people who, if they are fans of Mucha or the period, will go, "Oh, that's Mucha" because a lot of the Imperial Palace is designed based on the Baroque style.

How would you describe the scale of the production ?
When you're in it and you're working, you just have to do it. You have to be in the moment. But I am very much aware that this is going to be quite huge. I've got a lot of friends who are avid Dune fans who want to see this. I want to see it, too. I can't wait to see it. But it's hard to think about it while you are doing it.

What's your favorite aspect of Princess Irulan ?
I like her intelligence, her ability to transform herself into all these different kinds of personalities. She gets a lot of information. You can have a lot of fun with her and she has a lot of fun sometimes. But the basic part of her is always the same, and that's someone who is very strong, very strong-minded. She's not egotistical at all. She can be charming. She can play gullible. That makes her a lot of fun to play.

She's a particularly strong female character, wouldn't you say?
That's what was unusual about Dune for the time it was written. There were very few women in sci-fi books. There were very few women who were written as strong characters (in any kind of fiction). Yet in Dune there were three women — there are three in this version anyway — who very much kind of lead the story. The thing that separates Irulan from everybody else is that she is royal. She has breeding. She has certain things that she can't escape from, in terms of her background and the role she is to play in the future.

What is John Harrison's take on Princess Irulan ?
A lot of the way things work in Dune is in triangles. You have two characters against one. It's always more interesting when there is a dynamic, when there is tension going on between three people. There's a lot of Dune that would have been quite laborious to get through film-wise, and John has gotten around that by turning her into a bigger character. He can get the essence of those moments in the book and put it into a situation in the miniseries. You get the same output as far as story development or character development by creating the scenes with her and the Emperor and the Baron. So the creation of Irulan as a bigger character kind of pushes forward a lot of material that otherwise would have been difficult to get through. Much of Dune is about the sacrifices one makes for love, and much of it is about sacrificing love for something else.

Would you say that applies to Princess Irulan ?
I like the slight tragedy Irulan (experiences). She is a bit of a martyr in a sense. She has definitely sacrificed love. I do believe that she was in love with Paul when they first met, when they both were very young. There was definitely great potential for a love story there. And she does sacrifice. There's a greater cause that she believes in, and that becomes her goal. I liked that. I like the very last image of her standing on the balcony alone, retreating away from all of that. It makes her into this wonderfully tragic heroine, in a way.

What's been the worst part of your job while making Frank Herbert's Dune ?
My shoes. But I've come to love them, actually. I am quite attached to them now. I know that most of the men on this production appreciate the shoes more than I do. I had to do one scene where I was walking down a flight of stairs. I was walking and talking at the same time and trying to be very imperial at the same time. I was terrified. I was shaking because I thought I was going to fall and break my ankle. So that kind of got in the way of the acting.

What's the key message you'd like to convey to Dune fans who are wondering if this production can really capture the spirit of the novel ?
I think the one thing that should give people who love Dune the confidence that this is going to be rewarding is that there are so many people working on this who are huge fans of the book. Vittorio Storaro is. William Hurt is. John Harrison obviously is. A lot of the other actors are, too, and they are all quite passionate about making this as real and as true as it can be to the book. And I believe it will be. I do. I really do.