Dune star Rebecca Ferguson reveals 'love' for co-star with four-word statement

Dune actress Rebecca Ferguson is currently starring in cult sci-fi series Silo alongside The White Lotus's Steve Zahn, who she describes as "the most pure dude I have worked with"

Ten thousand people are living in a giant underground vault with the belief that they’re the only survivors on post-apocalyptic Earth. However, when mechanic Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) is cast out into the horrors outside and survives her fate, that illusion is at risk of shattering. Sci-fi drama Silo is back for series two on Apple TV+, picking up with Juliette adjusting to life after being banished from the silo and discovering another silo littered with dead bodies. But with many of the lower floors flooded, our heroine must face her fear of water and learn to swim.

Shooting the water sequences was also tough for Mission: Impossible star Rebecca – even though she is an experienced scuba diver in real life and loves to swim. “I was born in Stockholm and we have lots of lakes and an archipelago,” she says. “I’ve always loved the sensation of swimming and had that feeling of having a superpower. The movement is so unregulated, it’s so different from walking. I love the way it feels when you go underneath and you can’t hear anyone.”

For the 10-part series, which also stars Tim Robbins, Common and Harriet Walter, Rebecca had to learn how to move and act like someone who has no experience in the water. “It was so hard to pretend not to know how to swim,” she says. “There’s a natural move, how your hands touch the water and how you paddle, how you move your feet. To be able to look clumsy, it feels silly and it’s also hard to get into your head how you’d move. To get into that mindset, I thought of animals and dogs and what we did when we were young.”

As Juliette explores the new silo, she discovers that she isn’t alone. It is home to a man named Solo, who has spent the last 30 years by himself after the other residents attempted to leave and died. The White Lotus star Steve Zahn takes on the role – with Rebecca, who is also an executive producer, casting him herself.

“Steve is probably the funniest, most honest, pure dude I have ever worked with,” she says. “I’ve always loved him. He’s a true character and he inhabits Solo in the way he moves, the way he uses his voice, his face, the way he moves his hands. It’s fun to bounce off that and he made it all so real.”