Javier Bardem is receiving a ton of recognition for his role as Desi Arnaz opposite Nicole Kidman’s Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos, but that film wasn’t the Spanish actor’s only acclaimed credit in 2021.
Bardem recently sat down to have a chat with Deadline, where he discussed the challenges of bringing Arnaz to life. Him being a real-life individual and one who still elicits a lot of respect as one of the industry’s oldest icons, it must’ve been quite demanding for Bardem to portray Arnaz as seamlessly as he did. Dune‘s Stilgar, meanwhile, is a different beast.
The character appears in numerous scenes throughout Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation, but in the third act, Bardem gets to truly shine as Stilgar. And as those who’ve read Frank Herbert’s novels will probably tell you, Stilgar will go on to play an important role in young Paul’s life, so we can expect to see much more of Bardem as a leader of the Fremen.
As for the actor himself, it seems that all he actually cares about at this point is getting the opportunity to ride a sandworm. In his own words:
“The only thing I’m asking is that I get to ride a sandworm,” he revealed, laughing. “Denis told me he’s going to try to make that happen. That does happen in the book, by the way. Stilgar teaches Paul [Atreides] how to take the desert power, which is to domesticate those huge animals in order to use their force, their strength, and their huge size against the Harkonnen. Hopefully, that will happen.”
Dune: Part Two is still in the early stages of development, so it’ll be a while until we hear anything concrete about a possible release date, but since Villeneuve is not a filmmaker to shy away from ambition, it’s a safe bet that Javier will get to ride a sandworm at one point in the sequel.
