Dune is an amazing movie that most would agree was a visual and technical achievement. Every shot was like a painting painstakingly crafted by director Denis Villeneuve. Although, it has to be said that at least some viewers might have missed some of this because Oscar Isaac is naked at one point. It’s a moment many fans won’t forget, and neither will the director. Especially since Isaac left him a present to commemorate the event, the cloth used to cover his junk.
In the film, when Oscar Isaac’s Duke Leto is brought before Stellan Skarsgard’s Baron Harkonnen, Leto is completely vulnerable. He’s been paralyzed and he’s completely naked. It’s one of the more tense sequences in the film, but apparently making it was quite fun, Isaac tells Yahoo that when it was over, he surreptitiously dropped the “sock” that had been covering him up into his director’s pocket so he would have a little memento of the experience. According to Isaac…
At one point, when Denis wasn’t looking, I may have left my cock sock in his pocket, just so he just had a little bit of me next to him when I left. Just a little, musty handkerchief.
One can only imagine being Denis Villeneuve at some point later and discovering the “cock sock” in his pocket. What exactly does one do at that point. Laugh? Throw it away? Keep it? Sell it on eBay? Never say a word and pretend this never happened?
It sounds like everybody had quite a lot of fun making Dune, especially this sequence, which is potentially surprising because Oscar Isaac, who worked hard to get a role in the film, also admits the scene itself was actually quite scary. He calls the performance of Stellan Skarsgard, who knows a thing or two about on screen nudity. “terrifying” and having seen it it's hard to disagree. Although, apparently the decision to make Duke Leto completely naked was something that only happened because Isaac wanted it. He explains…
Everything about it was just so scary. He’s been stripped of his clothing. There was some thought, I think originally, like, ‘he doesn’t have to be naked.’ I was like, ‘No, he should be naked, man.’ It’s like Christ on the cross kind of moment. So we came up with a few different ideas of what his posture would be. That’s where we came up with that great idea of seeing the bull’s head, this motif that’s been never talked about really or explained. It’s just been traveling along with him as this omen.
It’s a frightening scene, but now I’m not sure I will ever be able to look at it quite the same way again knowing what Oscar Isaac did after the camera stopped rolling. The sequel to complete the Dune story is on the way. It’s already got a 2023 release date so Dune Part Two will begin filming very soon. Unfortunately, due to the events of the first film, the sequel is not one of Oscar Isaac’s upcoming projects.
