For Rebecca Ferguson, 'A House of Dynamite' Has Nothing on the Sorry State of the Real World

[Celerity]

“It’s fucking horrific. I get so angry about what is happening,” says the actor, who follows Kathryn Bigelow’s gripping nuclear strike thriller with another turn as Dune standout Lady Jessica.

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/story/rebecca-ferguson-a-house-of-dynamite-interview

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Rebecca Ferguson knows her way around a blockbuster. In both the Mission: Impossible series and the Dune franchise, the Swedish actor brought layers to characters that could easily have been one note; she’ll reprise her role as the formidable Lady Jessica in Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming third installment of the latter, Dune: Part Three.

So it’s no wonder that Ferguson stands out even among the star-studded ensemble of her latest film, Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite. She stars as Captain Olivia Walker, who is tasked with leading the White House situation room as a nuclear attack unfolds. The gripping Netflix film, which opens in select theaters October 10 and on Netflix October 24, is told from the perspectives of characters played by Idris Elba, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Greta Lee, and Jason Clarke, among others.

But it’s Ferguson’s performance that sticks with you. Olivia isn’t just trying to maintain control in the situation room—she’s also worried about the fate of her family, including her young son. As she did in The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, Bigelow builds intensity through her detailed storytelling, focusing on the people behind an intense setting. “I know how intelligent she is, so I was quite nervous,” says Ferguson of the first time Bigelow reached out to her about the project. “But she took all of that away so quickly, and was this enormously curious, calm, and kind human being.”

Ferguson spoke with Vanity Fair about the surreal experience of watching the film at the Venice Film Festival, the terrifying possibility of nuclear war, and how she’s handling her anger at the state of the world right now.

Vanity Fair: What was it like seeing the film with an audience for the first time in Venice?.......

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