As soon as he sees the river, he smiles. Josh Heuston will later tell me that whenever he’s away from the ocean for too long, he feels tense, a true water sign. This explains the way his shoulders visibly soften as he looks out across the skyline, as if appraising a kingdom.

We’re in the HBO offices in Manhattan, more than 20 stories up overlooking the Hudson, and the late October sky is almost the same gray as his eyes. We were supposed to be in a cozy café around the block, but the midtown lunch rush refused to accommodate our date. (Fine, interview.

Still, the wan corporate green room doesn’t do anything to lessen my butterflies when Heuston walks in, offering me a hug and a bashful smile. He’s kind, gracious, and kind of… nervous. It’s charming, especially given that a few hours before, I was watching the actor nail the galactic playboy persona of Constantine Corrino in the first few episodes of Dune: Prophecy.

Jamie Heath

The Australian actor stars in the new Dune prequel series from HBO, which is set 10,000 years before the events of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune films and the messianic arrival of Paul Atreides, focusing on the supreme rise of the clairvoyant Bene Gesserit sisterhood.

The show, which debuted its first episode on November 17, has already been lauded as the interstellar answer to Game of Thrones; it stars a refreshing mix of household thespians like Emily Watson and Mark Strong and newer talents like Heuston, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, Chris Mason, Chloe Lea, and even Bridgerton star Charithra Chandran in a recurring role.

Heuston plays Constantine, the illegitimate son of Imperial Emperor Corrino (Strong) and a fierce brother to Princess Ynez, the true heir to the throne. Constantine wears a sensual, debonair mask, one that slips as the season progresses to reveal trauma and insecurities that stem from a pressing desire to live up to his father’s expectations.

“I was excited to explore [him] because he’s very different,” says Heuston, settling into the huge plush couch in the center of the room. Constantine is the most complex, dramatic character he’s taken on yet, one that swivels between bravado and introversion. “It’s fun tapping into each character within the same character, if that makes sense.” Heuston says he based his emotional building of Constantine on “a Prince Harry, or someone that’s not going to get the throne.”

“It just felt natural,” he says. “Constantine’s a much different character [than] what I’ve played before.”

Josh Heuston as Constantine Corrino in Dune: Prophecy.Courtesy of HBO

Heuston hails from Sydney, Australia, where he grew up a timid kid who always dreamed of doing theater in school. “My parents were like, ‘Yeah, but you’re really shy. You want to get up there on stage and do all that stuff?’ And I was like, ‘…Probably not,’” he laughs.

But his imagination was still running free. “I always loved film and television growing up. That’s what I would do in my pastime. If I wasn’t working or studying, I’d be watching movies. Lord of the Rings was my favorite growing up,” he says, lighting up. “I went to the conventions, had the elf ears, a glow up sword, the whole [thing].”

“So… you were a nerd?” I ask.

He cheeses from ear to ear, nodding. “I was a nerd, yeah. I liked playing World of Warcraft, all that stuff.”

Heuston says his exceedingly high science and maths marks eventually led him to a “pretty heavy” double degree of biomolecular sciences and entrepreneurship. Fresh out of high school, he began waitering, and the new exposure led to his discovery — he soon became “scattered” into the modeling world and booked a music video for Australian electronic duo Super Cruel in 2017, his first real acting gig. When I mention that I watched the video that morning, he covers his face, adorably mortified. “Oh my God, it’s horrible.”

The video, while aesthetically aligned with a very specific 2017 “edgy” cheesiness, definitely showcases Heuston’s star power. He was a natural, even then. He got halfway through his double degree at uni and dropped it. He had found something better.

“I pretty much stupidly was like, ‘What’s this called?’” he recalls, remembering that first experience on a film set. “This guy on set was like, ‘It’s called acting.’”

“It was one of [those] things like, ‘Oh, I’ll do this for free,’” he continues. “For my whole career in acting, it’s always been something I would do for free, so I use that as a barometer of if something feels right or feels wrong.”

Jamie Heath

Heuston landed his first big role in the Australian teen drama series Dive Club in 2021, but his breakout moment came a year later with another Australian YA show, the Netflix revival of Heartbreak High. Heuston was cast as Dustin “Dusty” Reid, a sly, sometimes scoundrelly heartthrob. Due to Heuston’s steep schedule while filming Dune: Prophecy, Dusty was reduced to recurring character status for the show’s second season, much to the, well, heartbreak of fans.

When asked whether he thinks his character will return for the show’s third and final season, Heuston starts off coy. “Who knows, who knows? I think the guys still did a really, really good job of [season 2]… I love Dusty and I love Heartbreak High and everyone involved in it. So I don’t know. That show is a special part of me growing up and it kind of gave me the platform for opportunities like this. It’ll always feel unfinished, I suppose. I think the way it goes is just the way it goes.”

The way it’s going is pretty skyward. Heuston just attended his first New York Comic Con to debut a new trailer and the release date for Dune: Prophecy, his first con since the LOTR conventions he used to go to as a kid. He’s entered a different world. “The tone’s very different,” he says. “The energy levels are super different, [in] the Dune universe the stakes are different — where [in Heartbreak High] you get detention, the other one, you die.”

Heuston wasn’t new to the universe of Dune, as his grandpa read the first novel with him when he was a kid. But a brief stint in the MCU — “I definitely can’t say I’m in the MCU,” Heuston laughs — as one of Zeus’s “Pretty Boys” in Thor: Love and Thunder prepared him for the amount of blue screen work he’d do in Dune: Prophecy. He got MMA stunt training for his role as Constantine, which he calls “a dream come true” for a kid who was “running around [his] backyard with fake swords.”

“He probably lives life a little bit more on the edge, I’m probably more boring,” he jokes. “I’m not throwing benders in a Spice Den.”

Josh Heuston as Constantine Corrino in Dune: Prophecy.Courtesy of HBO

Becoming Constantine also meant becoming extremely close with Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, who plays his half-sister Princess Ynez. According to Heuston, they became “very sibling-y in real life,” hanging out, being “each other’s little rock,” and texting about what they were going to wear to the show’s different premieres around the world.

The Dune fanbase spans countries and generations. Joining a spinoff series within a franchise, whether it be prequel, continuation, or revival, can be intimidating for actors — especially when, in the case of Heuston, fans are online saying you look like Timothée Chalamet “in a different font.”

“I saw that,” he says with a snort, taking the comparison in stride. “That guy is insanely talented. That’s a compliment in itself.” Heuston admits to being part “troll,” part “internet sleuth,” lurking on both his main and secret burner account. The potential fame that may come with a huge production like Dune: Prophecy doesn’t seem to unnerve him in the slightest (or deter him from trolling). Though he’s the subject of swoons, fancams, and thirsty posts across social media, the man that sits opposite me is a down-to-earth outdoorsman whose eyes sparkle at the mention of surfing and grow warm while talking about his two younger sisters.

“My grounding points have always just been going home to my family and my friends in Australia,” Heuston says. “I’ll go home and my little sisters will just tell me I’m a loser, like, ‘Yeah, sweet. Nothing’s changed.’ There’s nothing humbling like a 16-year-old being like, ‘You’re actually annoying.’”

The arrival of Dune: Prophecy will be a gift for the actor, as the show premieres the night before his 28th birthday. “This would be my third birthday involved in doing it,” he says. “I had two birthdays [while filming it] in Budapest… by the time I wake up to watch it, it’ll probably be my birthday.”

When I ask if he knows his big three, Josh Heuston starts to smile mischievously, keeping his moon and rising signs close to his chest. “I know the three. I get them confused,” he deflects.

Then, a challenge, without breaking eye contact: “Everyone hates a Scorpio.” Well… they do have a little bit of a reputation, I offer. Many view their passionate intensity as a double-edged sword, but no one can deny their confidence, ambition, or magnetism. And hours after our conversation, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was still being pulled into his orbit.

Dune: Prophecy is now streaming on HBO.