Dune: Timothée Chalamet and Oscar Isaac talk about their father-son dynamic in sci-fi film

The big-budget epic film Dune, helmed by Denis Villeneuve, is out and running successfully in theatres. Apart from its massive scale of production and interplanetary grandeur, Dune is also known for its stellar star cast that includes Timothée Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson and Jason Momoa. The film is an adaptation of the 1975 novel of the same name written by Frank Herbert. It revolves around the nuclear family and it is the moments between parents and their children that quite build the narrative forward. In a recent conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Timothée Chalamet and Oscar Isaac who play the father and son duo in the sci-fi film opened up about their dynamics on screen and off screens. 

Calling it a great joy to explore the story with Rebecca Ferguson and Oscar Isaac, Chalamet added, "When one looks at the story of the book and the film, it’s an archetypal family dynamic — mother, son, father. As a narrative centering of a really big piece like this — independent of the fact that it’s science fiction — that’s rare."

Chalamet plays the role of Paul Atreides, the adolescent son of Duke Leto (Isaac), head of House Atreides. He told the portal that it was easy to play the son with Isaac and that he respects him as an actor. “Letting Paul’s freeform affection welcome his dad, and building that with Oscar, was so easy,” he said. 

Chalamet recalled the graveyard scene with him where they are seen walking together alongside their ancestors’ tombs before they leave their home planet of Caladan. Issac said that the idea behind the scene was Duke accepting his son the way he is rather than forcing him to be the leader he wanted him to be. He said the latter is usually a 'cliche'. He added, "Instead, what you get is him saying I get it. I understand if it feels like too much, and maybe it will be, and that’s okay." He admitted that he found this 'beautiful distillation of things that are implied in the book, but not said at all directly'.  

Talking about Chalamet, Isaac said that he has 'an amazing awareness of everything that’s going on around him, of everything that the other actor across from him is doing'. He added that Chalamet makes it a compelling watch because he does not bring forth the idea he has in his head, but 'he's just really there, he is so present'.

The age difference between the two is 15 years and Isaac credits Chalamet for bringing out the beautiful chemistry between them as father and son. "He really allowed himself to go to that place to have that dynamic of me being his father figure — and that’s something that needs to come from him," he said adding that it’s the court that tells everybody who the king is, not the king. "How the court treats the person of higher status tells you everything you need to know about them,” he said. Chalament, on the other hand, said that though they share a friendly relation off-screen, the moment the camera started rolling, he felt very paternal and it was a great honour to work with him.