While some may find the intense desert heat grueling, Robert Pattinson actually found it “relaxing.”
During a recent interview for IndieWire, alongside his Die My Love co-star Jennifer Lawrence, the actor shared his experience shooting Denis Villeneuve‘s upcoming Dune: Messiah.
“When I was doing Dune it was so hot in the desert that I just couldn’t question anything,” he recalled. “And it was so relaxing, like my brain actually wasn’t operating, I did not have a single functioning brain cell. And I was just listening to Denis [Villeneuve]: ‘Whatever you want!’
While details surrounding Pattinson’s character in the third installment of the sci-fi franchise have been kept under wraps, sources previously told The Hollywood Reporter that the Twilight alum would likely be playing the chief villain in the film.
Pattinson isn’t the first Dune star to open up about filming in the desert elements. Zendaya, who plays Chani, previously told W Magazine that she got heatstroke while filming Dune: Part Two in Jordan because she wasn’t drinking enough water.
“It was very hot, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh, man, the bathrooms are so far away,’ because we had to hike to the locations,” she recalled. “If you have to pee, you need at least 10 minutes to get out of the costumes. I was like, Damn, I don’t want to drink too much water. I had such a fear of peeing myself or shitting myself, honestly, in the suit on set.”
Zendaya continued, “One day, I didn’t drink enough and I had a heatstroke. I felt so barfy. I remember calling my mom on the bathroom floor, saying, ‘I feel terrible.’ She was like, ‘Did you drink water today?’ I said no. I thought I was being smart, but you can’t do that. So, lesson learned.”
Austin Butler, who portrayed villain Feyd-Rautha in the second installment, also previously shared his experience working in what he described as an “uncomfortable environment.”
“It was 110 degrees and so hot,” he explained to Entertainment Weekly. “I had the bald cap on, and it was between two soundstages that were just these gray boxes of 200-foot walls and sand. It became like a microwave. There were people passing out from heatstroke. And that was just my first week.”
Dune: Messiah is set to be released on Dec. 18, 2026. Returning castmembers include Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson and Anya Taylor-Joy.