Dune: Prophecy’s Emily Watson Details Growing Up in a Cult-Like Group

Emily Watson did not have a typical childhood, and she admitted that her upbringing in a cult-like group helped her with her latest role in Dune: Prophecy.

Watson, 57, plays Valya Harkonnen, leader of a controlling religious sect, HBO’s prequel series to the popular Dune films, which premieres November 17.

Eventually known as the Bene Gesserit in the series, the sect is similar to the School of Economic Science, the organization that the British actress grew up in (which has been alleged to be a cult). The SES is a global group that preaches traditional gender roles, conservative sexual mores and has been a lightning rod for allegations of physical abuse as part of its strict disciplinary policies.

“It’s in my wheelhouse, really,” she admitted of her Dune role in an interview with Vulture published Friday, November 8. “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.”

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Watson explained that where she grew up, women were encouraged to become “mother’s nurses and teachers,” and that “independence was frowned upon.”

“Needless to say, I wasn’t a very good student and did none of the above,” she said. “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.”

She added that, at the time, the organization was still new and lacked a true sense of governance. Watson attended the St James Independent Schools, which later became the subject of independent investigations into the mental and physical mistreatment of its students. A 2006 report went as far as to call some disciplinary practices “criminal assaults” by teachers.

“There were a lot of things that were not right,” Watson said. “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.”

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That’s not to say Watson didn’t take valuable lessons from her childhood. SES draws from Hindu principles, putting an emphasis on meditation and awareness, which has served her well.

“I learned about the idea of there being a unifying force of love in everything and that everything is a version of that,” she added. “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 OK,” she continued. “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.”

Watson remained an SES member until she was 29 and starred in the 1996 film Breaking the Waves. She portrayed the wife of an oil rig worker who asked her to have sex with other men after he was paralyzed in an accident. The role required full frontal nudity, and SES expelled her from their ranks when the movie was released.