10 Best Rebecca Ferguson Roles to Check Out Before Dune 2

Although Rebecca Ferguson has become one of Hollywood's biggest stars thanks to her roles in the Mission: Impossible franchise and Denis Villeneuve's Dune, until recently almost no one outside of Sweden knew about the actress.

1. Florence Foster Jenkins, 2016

One day, Florence decides to become an opera singer. But there is one problem – she has no voice at all. That doesn't stop her; her husband, St. Clair Bayfield, does his best to help, even through bribery and blackmail.

Although Rebecca plays a supporting role in this biopic as Florence's husband's mistress, she doesn't get lost and shines as brightly as Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant.

The film won numerous awards, including two Oscar nominations, and gave Ferguson the opportunity to star in bigger Hollywood projects.

2. The White Queen, 2013

The miniseries is set during the Wars of the Roses, one of the most turbulent periods in English history. Over the course of ten episodes, two sides of the same aristocratic family battle for control of the throne. The story of rivalry and intrigue unfolds, with young Elizabeth Woodville, who dreams of the throne, caught in the middle.

Queen Elizabeth was Ferguson's first major role and is considered by many to be her breakthrough in Hollywood. But the main thing is that it was in this series that Tom Cruise noticed the actress and invited her to play Ilsa Faust, who later became one of the most popular characters in the Mission: Impossible franchise.

3. The Greatest Showman, 2017

The Greatest Showman tells the story of the birth of show business through the eyes of the legendary American entrepreneur Phineas Taylor Barnum, played by Hugh Jackman.

Rebecca Ferguson played Jenny Lind, a popular Swedish singer known as the Swedish Nightingale, whom Barnum invited to tour the US. As a child, Rebecca studied at a school specializing in vocal and choral music, and her singing skills came in handy for the filming. However, she only sang on set, and in the movie itself, viewers hear the incomparable voice of Loren Allred.

4. Doctor Sleep, 2019

Dan Torrance is now an adult, but he is still haunted by the ghosts of Overlook. Dan takes a job at a hospice, using his "shining" to comfort dying patients, and learns of a secret society of people who feed off the "steam" that leaves a person's body when they die, led by Rose the Hat.

Rebecca Ferguson's unusual role as the villain makes a strong impression, even though Rose the Hat, with her quirky tattered shirt and braided hair, doesn't seem intimidating at first glance. The actress admitted that she was inspired by Jack Nicholson's Jack Torrance when preparing for the role.

5. The Girl on the Train, 2016

Rachel, a divorcee with a history of depression and alcoholism, takes the train to work every day and looks at houses along the way. One belongs to her ex-husband, Tom, and his then-mistress now-wife, Anna, and their child. The other belongs to her neighbors, Scott and Megan. Rachel is jealous of Megan, but everything changes the day she sees Megan on the balcony with another man.

Hollywood became interested in Rebecca after the release of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, and among the offers was the role of Anna in the film adaptation of Paula Hawkins' best-selling book, which everyone at least heard about if not read. The performances of all three women, including Rebecca, are one of the main strengths of the suspenseful film.

6. Despite the Falling Snow, 2016

In 1992, Lauren wonders why her uncle Sasha is so evasive about their family history and the circumstances of his flight from Russia 30 years ago. After inviting his niece on a trip to his homeland, the uncle talks about 1959, when he, a civil servant, met Katya. He didn't know that she was an anti-communist who had been sent to spy on him for the US.

The main highlight of the movie is the double role of Rebecca Ferguson. The actress portrays two women at once, Katya and Lauren, separated by time but connected by blood and events that took place at the height of the Cold War.

7. Life, 2017

The crew of the ISS Pilgrim 7 has been studying Mars for many months. It seems that they have made an incredible discovery and found extraterrestrial life. At first, the alien creature, named Calvin, appears to be a harmless single-celled life form, but it soon begins to multiply rapidly and becomes a threat to everyone on the spaceship.

Ferguson plays Dr. Miranda North, the most rational and disciplined member of the team. She is constantly trying to reason with her colleagues and forbid unnecessary dangerous experiments.

Her behavior may seem like an obsession with safety and control at first, but it soon becomes clear that this approach is the only correct one under the current conditions.

8. Silo, 2023-…

People escape the end of the world by locking themselves in a bunker that protects them from the deadly world outside. They wait for the planet to recover, but no one knows when that will happen. Ferguson plays Juliette, a technical engineer searching for the answers and facing a mystery deeper than she ever imagined.

Silo became one of the major TV events of 2023, and Ferguson was dubbed the new queen of science fiction, and for a good reason.

Silo became the actress' signature performance – other actors fade into the background, and the focus is on Rebecca, whose calm acting makes her Juliette very relatable even in the conditions of the end of the world.

9. Mission: Impossible – Fallout, 2018

The arc of Ilsa Faust, a former MI6 agent, began in 2015's Mission: Impossible –Rogue Nation, the fifth film in the franchise. The Swedish actress' character was so well received that her line was expanded, and now not a single Ethan Hunt’s mission is complete without his feisty girlfriend.

The appearance of a woman who is in no way inferior to the main character is an incredible twist in films of this genre. Previously, only sexy mistresses or damsels in distress could stand next to brutal spies. Faust not only appears frequently on screen, but is also an important part of the plot.

10. Dune, 2021

Of course, this list would be incomplete without Dune. Denis Villeneuve took the risk of adapting Frank Herbert's monumental work and managed to recreate the scope of the story and its powerful atmosphere with the help of mesmerizing visual effects and brilliant actors.

Villeneuve had no doubt about who would play the role of the strongest woman in the Dune universe – he had known Ferguson for a long time and was friends with her family.

The actress' combination of charisma and inner intensity was the secret ingredient that made Lady Jessica such a magnetic character. She captures the mysterious abilities of the Bene Gesserit acolyte with astonishing accuracy, and also conveys the mother's concern for the fate of her son Paul.