Timothée Chalamet & Florence Pugh Had To Be Kept Separate During Dune: Part Two

A quick Google search will reveal a whole lot of articles talking about the death of the "Movie Star" in the 21st century. Brands and IPs have replaced A-listers as the biggest selling points for films over the last 25 years, there's no denying that. Still, things may not be quite as dire as they appear. For one, audiences seem to be growing a little tired of the franchise model lately. For another, there's a small group of 20-something actors who are steadily making a bigger name for themselves and carving out a career much like the mega-stars of old did.

Their ranks include Timothée Chalamet and Florence Pugh, both of whom have been noticeably careful about the films they make and, just as importantly, the directors they work with. Between them, the pair have collaborated with the likes of Christopher Nolan, Luca Guadagnino, Paul King, Ari Aster, Wes Anderson, and Sebastián Lelio on movies both big and small. They also memorably teamed up with Greta Gerwig on 2019's "Little Women," which arguably did a better job of fleshing out the gradual romance between their characters, Theodore "Laurie" Laurence and Amy March, than any previous adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel. It's one of the many, many reasons to be excited about their onscreen reunion in Denis Villeneuve's "Dune: Part Two," which sees Pugh joining the fray as Princess Irulan, daughter of the much-ballyhooed Shaddam IV, the Padishah Emperor (who's played by none other than Christopher Effin' Walken).

As might be expected, Chalamet and Pugh are said to get on pretty well in real life too. This did, however, present a problem when their hijinks became a distraction during production on the latest "Dune" movie.

Chalamet and Pugh might be professional artists on the rise, but they're still young Millennials — or old Gen-Zers, depending on how you look at it — and have a tendency to get up to a bit of horseplay on the side. In a piece for TIME concerning Pugh (one that's even titled "Florence Pugh Might Just Save the Movie Star From Extinction," per my earlier point), Villeneuve called Pugh "mischievous" and confirmed that she and Chalamet had to be kept separate on the "Dune: Part Two" set due to their shenanigans whenever they weren't filming. Mind you, once the cameras started rolling, it was all business for the two of them, with Villeneuve praising Pugh for her "firepower" as an actor.

Pugh confirmed this story during an interview with Fandango alongside the rest of the "Dune: Part Two" cast. "I was reading that you guys had to be separated on set because you were having so much fun, and I know you like calling him Chalamala Bing Bong," noted host Naz Perez. "Well, my gran calls him Chalamala Bing Bong, so...," Pugh playfully replied. Not about to be left out of the fun, Chalamet followed that up by quipping, "And we know how much you respect your grandparents from the last interview."

This might be the standard fluff you expect when actors are promoting a movie, but it's entertaining all the same. It also makes for an amusing juxtaposition to Villeneuve's "Dune" films, which are dead-serious, mythical sci-fi epics about warfare, politics, and the ways people can be propped up as messiahs to serve the purposes of others. For all the pomp and circumstance surrounding them, actors are ultimately big kids playing make-believe.

The spice will flow when "Dune: Part Two" opens in theaters on March 1, 2024.