Kenneth Branagh Remembers Auditioning for David Lynch’s “Dune” Alongside Gary Oldman, Daniel Day-Lewis and Colin Firth at 21 (Exclusive)
Kenneth Branagh Remembers Auditioning for David Lynch’s “Dune” Alongside Gary Oldman, Daniel Day-Lewis and Colin Firth at 21 (Exclusive)
Tommy McArdleSat, September 5, 2026 at 2:00 PM UTC
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Kenneth Branagh recalls auditioning for David Lynch’s ‘Dune’ at 21 alongside Gary Oldman, Daniel Day-Lewis, Colin Firth and Tim Roth
Kyle MacLachlan ultimately won the leading role in Lynch’s Dune
Branagh and Ryan Reynolds’ new action-comedy Mayday is streaming on Apple TV
Kenneth Branagh is remembering the lineup of talented future stars he auditioned with for David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation of Dune.
While speaking to PEOPLE alongside Ryan Reynolds for their new action-comedy Mayday, Branagh, 65, remembered sitting next to actors Gary Oldman, Daniel Day-Lewis, Colin Firth and Tim Roth at an audition for the original version of Dune.
“My ‘80s moment that just sprung from that is I’m in a queue outside a hotel room,” Branagh says, after Reynolds, 49, recalled being a fan of Lynch’s Dune growing up. “I’m sitting, there’s a whole pile of chairs. We’re outside and I’m sitting next to Gary Oldman who’s sitting next to Dan Day-Lewis, who’s sitting next to Colin Firth who’s sitting next to Tim Roth.”
Kenneth Branagh as a young man; Kyle MacLachlan in 1984’s DuneCredit: Ron Galella/Getty; Everett
He continues, “Swear to God, I’m not making this up. And we’re all waiting to go in and see David Lynch, to see if we might play the part that Kyle MacLachlan played so brilliantly.”
“Oh my God,” Reynolds responds. “And he wasn’t like ‘I’ll take all of you.’ ”
“I’m 21, and I don’t know what experience the other boys had. They left pretty quickly each time. We all did,” Branagh remembers. “We were all rivals for the parts. But David Lynch, for 21-year-old nobody, he gave you time. He spoke to you.”
He continues, “You could tell this guy’s going to make a wonderful, wonderful film. But he gave us the time and he asked questions and he passed on pearls of wisdom. It was the most gracious encounter with a master director for a nobody whom he didn’t need.”
“But not smart enough to hire that murderer’s row,” Reynolds jokingly interjects.
Kenneth Branagh on Sept. 4, 2026Credit: Eric Charbonneau/Apple TV via Getty
Branagh made his screen acting debut in a 1982 episode of Play for Tomorrow, two years before Lynch’s Dune movie hit theaters.
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Oldman, 68, acted for the screen for the first time in 1982’s Remembrance, while Firth, 65, made his film debut in 1984’s Another Country. Day-Lewis, 69, was first credited in a film with 1982’s Gandhi, but debuted on the big screen in 1984’s The Hit.
“I don’t know what they did in the end,” Branagh jests of his fellow auditioners, each of whom went on to find success elsewhere in the film industry.
Day-Lewis is a three-time Oscar winner, while Branagh, Firth and Oldman have each won one Academy Award. Roth was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 1996 for his movie Rob Roy. “I don’t know if any of them worked in their future career. It’s a tough game. Maybe they got gigs here and there, I don’t know, but they didn’t get that one.”
Lynch’s Dune was a box office disappointment upon its release, though it did launch MacLachlan’s career. Filmmaker Denis Villeneuve brought the science fiction-fantasy saga back into Hollywood’s mainstream in recent years with his nearly-complete trilogy starring Timothée Chalamet as its lead character.
Lynch himself died at 78 in January 2025 after more than five decades’ worth of work in Hollywood.
“But when you said Dune, ‘80s Dune, film generosity, master film-man — [Lynch] just does the thing we’d all like to feel as opposed to the ones who go, ‘Yeah, there’s nothing for you in this, but we got you in to have a look at you, bye,’ ” Branagh adds. “Believe me, he made the right choice.”
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Branagh and Reynolds’ Mayday is streaming on Apple TV.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
