Ian McNeice is flying high as The Baron Harkonnen

The engaging Brit, who flies about and provides both great menace and humor to the proceedings as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in the SCI FI Channel's six-hour miniseries production of Frank Herbert's Dune, counts among his many credits such diverse projects as The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Valmont, The Russia House, Year of the Comet, No Escape, Funny Bones, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, Beautician and the Beast, A Life Less Ordinary, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. McNeice has recently signed on to co-star with Kenneth Branagh and Stanley Tucci in the made-for-cable telefilm Conspiracy, and will also appear in the Jack the Ripper-based thriller From Hell, alongside Johnny Depp, Heather Graham and Robbie Coltrane.

His craft has led him to appear regularly on television, the silver screen and on the stage, as he's played comedy, drama, fantasy, science fiction and everything in between to critical praise. It has further taken him all over the world, from England to America and now to a bustling soundstage in Prague, where SCIFI.COM sat down with him — eyes glued to his bright red hair — on the set of the eagerly anticipated Frank Herbert's Dune.

What was it that drew you to the role of the Baron?
Like a lot of people I saw the original movie. I didn't know the book, but I knew the movie. Subsequently, I heard that the movie was not nearly as satisfying for a lot of Dune lovers as the book was. I just knew the Baron from the movie and I knew what the character was, so I was hooked from the moment I heard the role (in the miniseries) was available. It's not many roles that let you fly like he does. I had to be supported in the air, which was a great challenge. I had to be so ugly and gross and powerful and maniacal.

After you landed the role did you then subsequently read the novel?
Yes, I have. I dipped into several passages, looking specifically for references to Arrakis and the Baron.

How closely are you playing the Baron to the one that Frank Herbert depicted in the novel?
Pretty closely. It's a mix. There always is. If you just go one way then you get locked into something. Hopefully, what you try and do is bring some of your own ideas into it as well, along with what the costume gives you, what the sets give you, what the director gives you, all that stuff as well.

Is there any element of your Baron that's particularly different from the one in novel?
What I tried to bring to him, which I don't think was in the film, is humor. There is a lot more humor than I had seen before in the Baron. There is a lot more fun we're having with the Baron this time around. Certainly in the playfulness. But there's also the hardcore stuff that comes as well.

What's it really like to fly around?
It was funny, because I e-mailed John Harrison, the director, asking him various things. He e-mailed me back and he said, "If there's anything you want to know, please let me know straight away." So I said, "How are you going to fly me?" And the line went dead. I didn't hear about anything. And I think they were trying to work out how they were going to fly me.

When I got here (to Prague), I said, "Look, please allow some time, so I can get here and at least try out what you are going to do." And I was amazed when I first came here and saw what they had in mind. Normally, flying is done with a wire rig and a harness and all the rest of it, but they had a much more interesting idea, to strap me onto a camera crane. So they built this special rig, which is a camera crane, and at the end of it there was this bicycle seat, which I sit on and which is now known as a torture instrument. It is so painful to go up and down on. We tried to make it work. We tried to put legs on it to see if I could put my feet on something, to support me as well, which helped a lot. But it's been a real challenge to go up in this thing, and quite high, too, and to also remember what to say, to get the dialogue right, with the costumes and all the rest. So it's been a terrific challenge, but I've loved it.

I don't walk in this movie. It's the only way I'm going to work from now on. I get pushed around. I get lifted up. It's great. I don't have to think about where I go. I don't have to hit a mark. I'm just pushed into the direction of the shot. I just love that so much that I'm going to have to buy (something for) the man who's been doing it, George, who's a wonderful Czech grip. I've got a little surprise for him at the end of the shoot. I bought him four or five cases of his favorite Czech beer, which is going to get pushed onto the set just as we wrap. It'll be my little "thank-you" for having to push me around all the time.

What's the trick to effectively playing a character who's so very emotional and capricious?
It's a tough one, this. I am a terrific admirer of William Hurt, who plays Duke Leto in the movie. I thought to myself, "Well, we're going to have two styles of acting here," because William is a very inward-thinking actor. He's very controlled. He has got a beautiful voice, but it's quite light and it's quite sort of naturalistic. So I was nervous of this because the Baron has got to be big. There's no doubt about it. He's a blustery, big character. And so putting him in the same room with Duke Leto was interesting.

I had to trust the director here, too, and the type of style that he's come from. We've gone through this. It's a big, big style. It's theatrical. It's blustery. It's big. It's emotional and it's highly charged. If you support that underneath, which is what I hope one does as the truth behind what you're trying to do, then it's not empty. This performance could be potentially over-the-top. He's Grand Guignol. He's grotesque. That's our take on the Baron.

Let's talk about the costumes, which are a major element in the presentation of the Baron in the miniseries. What did you make of them?
I had worked with Theodor Pistek, the costume designer, before. I think the man is a genius. I think they all are. We are surrounded by genius on this production. Everywhere you turn there's an Academy Award winner. … Theodor I worked with on a movie called Valmont, and he had already won an Academy Award for Amadeus a couple of years before. Valmont was directed by Milos Forman, and the film was the other version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. So I knew how good Theodor was.

I remember a little story. I was bringing my family over to Paris to go look for somewhere to live. There were locations on Valmont and they said, "While you are here, would you mind having a costume fitting?" I said, "I'm here. Let's go for it." And they said, "Well, your plane for Rome leaves at..." I said, "Rome?" That's where the costumes were being made. … So we all ended up in Rome for three days to have a costume fitting.

He's a master. He's a genius, and what he's done with these (costumes for Dune) is spectacular. I mean, I'm pretty big anyway, and now I look like two blocks of a building, I am so huge in this. Visually, I don't think anybody is going to have a problem with this. It's going to blow people away. I'm sure of it.

Everyone seems to have very good things to say about writer-director John Harrison. What's been your personal experience with him?
I think John Harrison is probably, surprisingly for a director, one of the nicest people you could possibly meet. He's incredibly sensitive to what's going on on the set. I haven't seen him lose his temper once and I've been on the set for a good six weeks.

Obviously, with a writer as a director you say, "Well, maybe one's going to be stronger than the other." In this case, John has written some great stuff, certainly for the Baron. I had a scene the other day and I looked at the script. It was three and a half pages of dialogue with William Hurt. He had one word and I had the rest. It was like speech-up, speech-up, speech-up. He's written this great stuff and he is directing, too. It's a heck of a mix. One has got to take your hat off to a guy who's been going since November. We're now into March and he looks as fresh as a daisy. I don't know how he does it.

And he is very good with notes. He will come at you and say, "Why don't you try it this way? Great, we've got that that way, now let's try to push it a little further." You just have to trust the guy and say, "Well, look, are you happy with that?" If he goes, "Yes, we are," then it's, "OK, let's move on. We don't have to do anymore."

The Baron is almost entirely despicable and irredeemable, but he also seems to have some noble characteristics...
There's nothing noble about the Baron whatsoever. The Baron is ultimately evil. That's the best type of character to play. You can just go for it wholeheartedly. I don't think there is one nice thing you can say about the Baron. I have to acknowledge that. I've lived in his socks now for a good six weeks and he is a beast. And hopefully that will come across from day one.

Last question: Are you going to keep your hair its current color?
I get here and I know the Baron is going to fly. Then John Harrison asks, "Now, you don't mind going red, do you?" I said, "What do you mean, red?" He said, "Well, we are thinking of dying your hair red." So I went to this very posh — I think, for Prague, anyway — hair salon with all these ladies (there). So I sit down and my hair is normally gray. By the time I came out it was orange-violet-red and all of these women were looking at me as if I was absolutely crazy. And that's the way it's been for the last six weeks. I forget about it and then I walk into a café and I wonder why people are laughing at me like I'm some aging punk rocker walking in with this hair that is hysterical.

The person who does the hair, the hairdresser on the show — a great guy — says to me, "Look, don't worry, at the end of the shoot we will dye it back to the same color it was." So I'm thinking, "That's great." I went to the salon the other day to have it redone because my roots were showing. You girls (out there reading this article) will know exactly what I am talking about. I said, "Now, when you dye my hair back to its proper color..." and they go, "Your what?" I said, "Well, at the end we'll be able to get it back to the color it was." They said, "No. No way. You're going to have to let it grow out." I said, "This is it?" They said, "Yeah." So I'm going to have orange hair for some time yet.