YOU MIGHT RECOGNISE JESSICA BARDEN FOR HER SHARP WIT AND UNMISTAKABLE NORTHERN ACCENT IN THE BBC SMASH HIT *THE END OF THE F***ING WORLD. ACTING SINCE THE AGE OF SEVEN, SHE FONDLY RECALLS BEING A PRECOCIOUS KID SURROUNDED BY ADULTS, FINDING JOY IN THE UNIQUE ENVIRONMENT. NOW NEARING THE END OF HER SECOND PREGNANCY, JESSICA REFLECTS ON HER CAREER, REVEALING SHE’S ALWAYS PREFERRED A STEADY PACE—ESCHEWING THE PRESSURE TO HIT MILESTONES BY 25 OR 30—BECAUSE ACTING IS A LIFELONG PASSION FOR HER.

BARDEN IS BACK, BRINGING HER DISTINCTIVE VOICE AND LAYERED PERFORMANCES TO NEW HEIGHTS AS YOUNG VALYA IN DUNE: PROPHECY. WITH THE FIRST TWO EPISODES RECENTLY DEBUTING ON HBO, FANS OF THE DUNE UNIVERSE ARE ALREADY CAPTIVATED. PLAYING A TRUTH-SAYER ON SCREEN, JESSICA EMBODIES THE ROLE OFF-SCREEN TOO, DELIVERING AN UNFILTERED CONVERSATION ABOUT EMBRACING ANOTHER COMPLEX, NOT-SO-LIKABLE CHARACTER AND NAVIGATING THE NEXT CHAPTERS OF HER LIFE AND CAREER.

Cardigan **N°21**, Earrings **California Dirt**

I first saw you in The End of the F**ing World. After the success of the show, how did you stay grounded amidst the pressures of public attention and fame?

Having already been an actor for such a long time, I guess this was the only thing I hadn’t experienced yet. I had been to Cannes twice by then, I'd been in a soap opera. I'd done so many different things. And then to suddenly experience overnight fame, it really was such an amazing and unique experience. I think that I've come out of the other side of it now so grateful that I get to have this role that will always connect with people in some way. It really is so important for actors to have a role that stays in people's minds. I love that I'm kind of always connected to my generation in a way as well, through Alyssa and James. I get to have all these cool conversations with people and I genuinely like the fact that people feel like they know Alyssa as well. Like, when I go places, I can be in the middle of nowhere, and someone will have a really deep conversation with me about this TV show, and it's really interesting. Ultimately, I kinda realised that then you have to regenerate from it and reinvent. And I feel like I'm in that phase now where you have to really slowly and politely close the door on it and then find a way of figuring out what you're gonna do next, and that just requires a lot of patience.

Blazer and skirt **Prada**, shoes **N°21**, Earrings **California Dirt**

You play the role of young Valya in Dune: Prophecy. This is my first Dune experience. Can you maybe situate the series for the Dune universe virgins like me?

Well, the show takes place 10,000 years before the movies. So you definitely don't need to have seen the movies before because we tell you everything, we provide context for the movies. Dune is set in the same universe as Earth, but it's just in the future. And now we've moved on from Earth, and we're on different planets. In our show, Dune: Prophecy, we follow the sisterhood, which is the schooling for the Bene Gesserit. And we basically are, for lack of a better word, space nuns. We tell the truth. We mind control. We control all of the powerful houses in the universe. It's almost like, you know, the president or the royal family having somebody that stands behind them and tells people if they're telling the truth or not.

If you were a truth-sayer, who is the first person you'd use those powers on?

Who do you think? I'm in America right now, and I'm an immigrant. You know? So, like, who do you think I would use the truth saying on?

What I took away from this show was that it explores the intricacies of kin, whether that be through sibling dynamics or within the sisterhood. I read that you grew up with 2 brothers, what was your experience growing up like?

I've been thinking about this a lot. I'm really glad that that's what you got from the four episodes because that is a huge part of it. With Tula and Valya, I had no idea this was how sisters lived. And because I'm also about to have another girl, people are suddenly having these conversations with me where they're like, “My sister is the most important person,” or “My sister ruined my life.” And I never knew. It is completely different from having brothers. I find men very easy to be honest with. What you see is what you get. I've never had huge arguments with them where it's not resolved within an hour. But now suddenly people are like, “I haven't spoken to my sister for 15 years,” and I'm like, it feels like such a different life. But, growing up with brothers, especially being the only girl, a lot of it was survival. Emma Canning, who plays younger Tula, has a brother as well. Olivia and Emily both have sisters. So, I mean, me and Emma were just kinda making it up. But I've just been brought in on the fact that having a sister is, a completely different existence than you could ever understand if you don't have one.

There's a powerful moment—I won’t spoil anything—but when someone dies, Valya says, “I don’t want to mourn.” It feels like she takes on the role of the strong, stoic sister in the family, suppressing her emotions to keep moving forward. How did you and Emma, who plays Tula, work together to develop that sisterly chemistry?

She has such a thankless role in the family and she's misunderstood by everybody. And she's ultimately misunderstood by Tula as well. Even though I think Tula is obsessed with her. I think she really loves her older sister. But for various reasons, Valya has been made to feel unlovable in her family. I mean, honestly, as is always the case with TV shows, there just isn't the time [to develop chemistry]. TV moves so fast that you don't have this rehearsal time. We did get to spend more days together than usual, though. We did a Bene Gesserit boot camp for 2 days where we learned how to march and stuff. But honestly, in TV, you're meeting people 24 hours before, and people are so nice so it’s easy to make friends. That was the case with Emma, Charithra and Yaron who were in our little foursome.

You describe the people you play as very unlikable. What attracts you to those types of characters?

Because they're the best roles. If I'm gonna get out of bed at 4:45 am, I want it to be good. Obviously, I do try to play likeable people, but I find them quite boring. And there's probably just somebody else way better for the part. It just seems to be a natural decision where I play really complicated people, and I enjoy it.

How do you balance staying true to the character and bringing parts of yourself in, without overstepping boundaries?

I actually have very good boundaries with work. But in saying that, I think the majority of the time, the roles that I find or the jobs that find me, usually, it's kind of half and half. I'm kind of a little bit like this person. I've never really taken on a job that is completely opposite from me or completely me because that just wouldn't be very interesting for me personally. But I would never be deep into it. It's never been asked of me. I've always wondered how people go really deep and change their appearance. Like, I would do it honestly. Method acting. It would be really interesting to see if I could concentrate.

Dress and jacket **N°21**, earrings **California Dirt**

Do you have a character or celebrity in mind that you would wanna method act with?

Seriously, if I'm gonna do it, I'd love to work with Daniel Day-Lewis. And be the one person that cracks him, and he's like, “I can't work with her.” Like, she's unbelievable. I would love that. I've always said that my dream role would be playing a real person. So that probably would require a certain amount of method acting. A lot of how I discovered that I wanted to be an actor was actually impersonating people. So I'd love to do something really immersive and play a real person. And see how much of them you keep and what you bring to it. Yeah. I'll play a real person with Daniel Day-Lewis. I think he's retired though.

You'll just grab him back in just for that one last role.

Yeah, it’s do or die time, Dan, let’s go.

And, if you could impersonate anyone in the Dune cast, like, a favorite character that isn't your own, who would it be?

Shai Hulud, The giant worm. No, I'm kidding. Well obviously, Emily Watson. To impersonate Emily, I would be terrified. Emily is the nicest, warmest person, and then she can flip into being the scariest person that you've ever met. She knows it. It's fine. I'm not saying anything she hasn't said about herself. But I really admire it because I don't think that I have that skill. I don't think that she would wanna see my impression of it. I would love to be more like Emily. She's always in control.

Top and skirt **Tigra Tigra**, shoes **Tod’s**, earrings **California Dirt**

Is there anything unexpected that you learned from this role?

Loads. I mean, I was playing somebody who was genuinely powerful and was kind of arrogant in their idea of how they wanna live, and what they wanna achieve. Who was selfish in their goals. Obviously, it's not realistic to live like that, and I wouldn't want to. But it was really effective playing somebody who only believed in themselves. It was so fun to be playing somebody who everybody's always slightly intimidated by and who everybody listens to.

You grew up in North Yorkshire and people fell in love with your accent on The End of the F***ing World. How has your accent helped you and also disserviced you in your career?

With jobs in England, it 100% dictated my work there because it's a working class accent. So it very much was always trying to pigeonhole me into something. I wanted way more possibilities than just playing working class roles. Even though they're amazing and often the best roles, I wanted more diversity in my career. And then in America, I experienced the complete opposite where everybody is genuinely fascinated by my accent, and I find them so interested in it. And I'm not pigeonholed in any way because of how I talk in a room. So it's always been a really interesting part of my career, the way that I talk and where I'm from. At the end of the day, I'm an actress, and I know I can learn to do different accents and play different people, and there's always gonna be somebody somewhere that wants to give me a chance to act outside of the preconceived idea of me. And, when I get that chance, I'm gonna do the best that I can.

What would you say this next phase is for you?

What I'm working on next is obviously just growing up. I've always been very heavily associated with playing teenagers and people in their early twenties, which is amazing. But I would love to, as I go into my thirties, play relationships, and play a parent. It would be great to play a mom, and just kind of move into things which make sense for my life that I'm experiencing in real time. But it all takes time. My main goal is I just wanna keep regenerating and keep doing something different. Once somebody thinks that they know a type of role that I can do, I wanna move on and do something else. I wanna stay a creative person that is learning new skills, working with new people. I don't wanna be locked into maintaining status.

You’re expecting your second child, was there any negative pressure as a woman in Hollywood when you broke the news?

For the last three years, it's been a very interesting experience as a woman. Once you have a kid, everywhere you go, people are like, “So are you still acting? Are you still gonna work?” And you're like, “Yeah.” Everybody has an opinion on everything and you feel like you're some 1950s housewife. It's crazy. And I think it's especially crazy for our generation now because no other part of our life has ever reflected that very domestic, stereotypical male-female thing. But in something like motherhood, you can't get away from it. It's always gonna be trapped in this very domesticated stereotypical thing. And so you get these questions, and you're like, “Woah. I've never been asked a question like this before.” I mean, everybody has an opinion of everything when you have a kid. And it just gets better over time.