People think no one in the cast of Dune 2 likes each other
The cast members of Dune: part two don’t like each other, people say online.
This claim, perhaps unsurprisingly, is not motivated by anything any actor said or did. But Zendaya, Timothée Chalamet, Florence Pugh and Austin Butler have had a… somewhat awkward press tour. And their amateur Internet biographers have dissected interviews to death in a way that has increasingly become par for the course for fans online.
Fanatical obsessions with celebrities go back to the concept of celebrity itself. But what’s striking about this response is how seemingly small a moment can be, and how much speculation it can inspire online. The four appeared Jimmy Kimmel Live! and at one point Kimmel asked if the cast socialized outside the movie. In response, Chalamet said, “Yeah, I mean we, um…” and before he could finish his sentence, Zendaya just laughed at his reaction and looked around a bit with her arms crossed. Chalamet later ended, “We communicate on talk shows like this… in the most natural way. We are almost at ease.”
This interview alone is enough to fuel me viral videos and posts commenting on the overall awkwardness of the cast. The fact that there are four doesn’t help, as it leads people to speculate about the different interpersonal dynamics that may be at play within the group. I have seen videos where people claim that the rest of the cast just “tolerates” Butler, while Zendaya is legitimately friends with Chalamet.
The entire response to the Dune: part two cast taps into the general tendency of users of TikTok and other video-friendly platforms to hyper-focus on the play-by-play of casual moments. On TikTok, there are entire accounts dedicated to lip reading and people claiming to be so experts in decoding body language dissecting videos of Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez chat during the 2024 Golden Globes. And while these videos may be harmless speculation, and even framed as such, the trend is creating a dynamic where fans continue to buy into uncomfortable or even false narratives that directly refute those involved. It seems that no matter what is said, there will be a faction fans who believe Taylor Swift is gay.
Lately, there has been extra emphasis on how celebrities behave in press appearances. On platforms like TikTok, one PR agent has managed to grow the audience more than 470,000 followers simply by dissecting press strategies and proposing different ways celebrities can deal with crises. Apology videos in particular have become a focal point for people looking to take a more critical look at the way celebrities are presented, but there are other examples of this interest as well. During the Mean girls During a press tour, several viral videos online promoted the idea that Reneé Rapp was not trained by the media just because she was relatable and seemingly open with her answers.
Despite all the talk on the internet, all these actors are still people and professionals who don’t have to be best friends for a movie to work. It makes sense that this particular group wouldn’t have the most chemistry, given the story of Dune: part two – two of the characters in the group spend virtually no time with any of the others. While Chalamet’s Paul and Zendaya’s Chani spend much of the book rekindling their relationship, the only time they end up in a room with Pugh’s Princess Irulan and Butler’s Feyd-Rautha is at the story’s climax . (The film is by all accounts expected to be a faithful adaptation.)
Sure, having a few fun moments during the press tour would only endear it to the audience, but that’s not all. So as long as no one spits on anyone else during the tour, I think we can call it a good one.