Kirsten Dunst
Kirsten Caroline Dunst is an American actress. Dunst made her film debut in Woody Allen's New York Stories, followed by Brian De Palma's The Bonfire of the Vanities. At age twelve, she gained widespread recognition for her performance as Claudia in the 1994 film adaptation of Interview with the Vampire, which earned her critical acclaim and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Also in 1994, she portrayed the young Amy March in the film adaptation of Little Women. She subsequently had roles in the youth fantasy films Jumanji and Small Soldiers.
In the late 1990s, Dunst transitioned to leading roles in a number of teen films, including the satirical political comedy Dick, and the Sofia Coppola-directed drama The Virgin Suicides, followed by the comedy Bring It On, and the drama Crazy/Beautiful. She subsequently portrayed Marion Davies in Peter Bogdanovich's period drama The Cat's Meow. Dunst soon gained a resurgence of mainstream attention for her role as Mary Jane Watson in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, a role which she reprised in the sequels Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3. She had a minor part in the psychological drama Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, followed by a lead role in Cameron Crowe's tragicomedy Elizabethtown, and as the title character in Coppola's Marie Antoinette. In 2010, Dunst portrayed Katherine Marks, the missing wife of accused murderer Robert Durst, in the biographical crime film All Good Things.
In 2011, Dunst starred in Lars von Trier's science-fiction drama Melancholia portraying a depressed newlywed, which earned her numerous accolades, including the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress. She then had a supporting role in On the Road, an adaptation of the Jack Kerouac novel, which garnered mixed reviews. She also appeared in Upside Down, and the thriller The Two Faces of January. In 2015, Dunst was cast as Peggy Blumquist in the second season of the FX series Fargo, which was well-received and earned Dunst her second Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Series. This was followed by a lead role in the thriller Midnight Special, the historical drama Hidden Figures, and she reunited with Coppola for The Beguiled. Dunst returned to television in 2019 with a lead role in the black comedy series On Becoming a God in Central Florida.
Early life and family
Kirsten Caroline Dunst was born on April 30, 1982, at Point Pleasant Hospital in Point Pleasant, New Jersey. Dunst's father worked for Siemens as a medical services executive, and her mother worked for Lufthansa as a flight attendant. She was also an artist and one-time gallery owner. Dunst's father is German, originally from Hamburg, and her American mother is of German and Swedish descent. Until the age of eleven, Dunst lived in Brick Township, New Jersey, where she attended Ranney School. Her parents separated in 1993, and she subsequently moved with her mother and brother to Los Angeles, where she attended Laurel Hall School in North Hollywood and Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks. Among her school friends was Rami Malek, who was in the grade above; they were both in a musical theater class. In 1995, her mother filed for divorce.After graduating from high school in 2000, Dunst continued acting. As a teenager, she found it difficult to deal with her rising fame, and for a period she blamed her mother for pushing her into acting as a child. However, she later said that her mother "always had the best intentions". When asked if she had any regrets about her childhood, Dunst said, "Well, it's not a natural way to grow up, but it's the way I grew up and I wouldn't change it. I have my stuff to work out... I don't think anybody can sit around and say, 'My life is more screwed up than yours.' Everybody has their issues".
Career
1988–1993: Early work
Dunst began her career when she was three years old as a child fashion model in television commercials. She was signed with Ford Models and Elite Model Management. At age six, she made her feature film debut with a minor role in Woody Allen's short film Oedipus Wrecks; it was released as one-third of the anthology film New York Stories. Soon after, Dunst performed in the comedy-drama The Bonfire of the Vanities, based on Tom Wolfe's novel of the same name, in which she played the daughter of Tom Hanks's character. In 1993, Dunst made a guest appearance in an episode of the science fiction drama .1994–2001: Film breakthrough
Her breakthrough role came in 1994, in the horror drama Interview with the Vampire opposite Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, based on Anne Rice's novel of the same name. She played Claudia, the child vampire who is a surrogate daughter to Cruise and Pitt's characters. The film received mixed reviews, but many critics praised Dunst's performance. Roger Ebert commented that Dunst's creation of the child vampire Claudia was one of the "creepier" aspects of the film, and mentioned her ability to convey the impression of great age inside apparent youth. Todd McCarthy of Variety said that Dunst was "just right" for the family. The film included a scene in which Dunst shared her first on-screen kiss with Pitt, who is almost two decades older. In an interview with Interview magazine, she revealed that kissing him had made her feel uncomfortable; "I thought it was gross, that Brad had cooties. I mean, I was 10". Her performance earned her the MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance, the Saturn Award for Best Young Actress and her first Golden Globe Award nomination.Later in 1994, Dunst co-starred in the drama film Little Women opposite Winona Ryder and Claire Danes. The film was favorably received. Film critic Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the film was the greatest adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel of the same name and remarked on Dunst's performance:
"The perfect contrast to take-charge Jo comes from Kirsten Dunst's scene-stealing Amy, whose vanity and twinkling mischief make so much more sense coming from an 11-year-old vixen than they did from grown-up Joan Bennett in 1933. Ms. Dunst, also scarily effective as the baby bloodsucker of Interview With the Vampire, is a little vamp with a big future".
In 1995, Dunst starred in the fantasy adventure film Jumanji, a loose adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg's 1981 children's book of the same name. The story is about a supernatural and ominous board game in which animals and other jungle hazards appear with each roll of the dice. She was part of an ensemble cast that included Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt and David Alan Grier. The film was a financial success and grossed $262 million worldwide. That year, and again in 2002, Dunst was named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People., 2005|alt=Dunst signing autographs at the Toronto International Film Festival, 2005|195x195px
From 1996 to 1997, Dunst had a recurring role in season three of the NBC medical drama ER. She played Charlie Chemingo, a child prostitute who was being cared for by the ER pediatrician Dr. Doug Ross. In 1997, she voiced Young Anastasia in the animated musical film Anastasia. Also in 1997, Dunst appeared in the black comedy film Wag the Dog, opposite Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman. The following year she voiced the title character, Kiki, a thirteen-year-old apprentice witch who leaves her home village to spend a year on her own, in the anime movie Kiki's Delivery Service. She also starred in Sarah Kernochan's period comedy All I Wanna Do, playing a student at an all girls' boarding school in the 1960s, opposite Gaby Hoffmann, Rachael Leigh Cook, and Lynn Redgrave. Writing for The New York Times, A. O. Scott opined "the film is surprisingly pleasant, thanks to smart, unstereotyped performances – especially by Hoffmann and Dunst – and the filmmaker's evident respect and affection for her characters".
Dunst turned down the role of Angela in the 1999 drama film American Beauty, because she did not want to appear in the film's sexual scenes or kiss the main character, played by Kevin Spacey. She later explained: "When I read it, I was 15 and I don't think I was mature enough to understand the script's material". That year, she co-starred in the comedy film Dick, opposite Michelle Williams. The film is a parody which retells the events of the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of former United States president Richard Nixon. Dunst's next film was Sofia Coppola's drama The Virgin Suicides, based on Jeffrey Eugenides' novel of the same name. She played Lux Lisbon, one of the troubled teenage daughters of Ronald Lisbon. The film was screened as a special presentation at the 43rd San Francisco International Film Festival in 2000. According to Metacritic, the film received generally favorable reviews. San Francisco Chronicle critic Peter Stack noted in his review that Dunst "beautifully balances innocence and wantonness". Dunst also appeared in Savage Garden's music video "I Knew I Loved You", the first single from their second and final album Affirmation.
In 2000, Dunst starred in the comedy Bring It On as Torrance Shipman, the captain of a cheerleading squad. The film garnered mostly positive reviews, with many critics reserving praise for her performance. In his review, A. O. Scott called her "a terrific comic actress, largely because of her great expressive range, and the nimbleness with which she can shift from anxiety to aggression to genuine hurt". Charles Taylor of Salon noted that "among contemporary teenage actresses, Dunst has become the sunniest imaginable parodist", even though he thought the film had failed to provide her with as good a role as she had in either Dick or in The Virgin Suicides. Jessica Winter from The Village Voice complimented Dunst, stating that her performance was "as sprightly and knowingly daft as her turn in Dick" and commenting that " provides the only major element of Bring It On that plays as tweaking parody rather than slick, strident, body-slam churlishness." Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle, despite giving the film an unfavorable review, commended Dunst for her willingness "to be as silly and cloyingly agreeable as it takes to get through a slapdash film".
The following year, Dunst starred in the comedy film Get Over It. She later explained that she took the role for the opportunity to showcase her singing. Also in 2001, she starred in the historical drama The Cat's Meow, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, as the American actress Marion Davies. Derek Elley of Variety described the film as "playful and sporty", saying that this was Dunst's best performance to date: "Believable as both a spoiled ingenue and a lover to two very different men, Dunst endows a potentially lightweight character with considerable depth and sympathy". For her work, she won the Best Actress Silver Ombú award at the 2002 Mar del Plata International Film Festival.
2002–2009: Stardom with ''Spider-Man,'' and comedy films
In 2002, Dunst co-starred in the superhero film Spider-Man with Tobey Maguire, the most financially successful film of her career up until this date. She played Mary Jane Watson, the best friend and love interest of Peter Parker. The film was directed by Sam Raimi. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly remarked on Dunst's ability to "lend even the smallest line a tickle of flirtatious music". In the Los Angeles Times review, critic Kenneth Turan noted that Dunst and Maguire made a real connection on screen, concluding that their relationship "involved audiences to an extent rarely seen in films". Spider-Man was a commercial and critical success. The movie grossed $114 million during its opening weekend in North America and went on to earn $822 million worldwide.Dunst next co-starred with Billy Bob Thornton, Morgan Freeman and Holly Hunter in the drama Levity, a story of a man who is released on parole and returns to his hometown seeking redemption. That same year, she co-starred opposite Julia Roberts, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Julia Stiles in the drama Mona Lisa Smile. The film received mostly negative reviews, with Manohla Dargis of the Los Angeles Times describing it as "smug and reductive". Dunst co-starred as Mary Svevo opposite Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet and Tom Wilkinson in Michel Gondry's science fiction romantic comedy-drama Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The latter film received very positive reviews, with Entertainment Weekly describing Dunst's subplot as "nifty and clever". The film grossed $72 million worldwide.
The success of the first Spider-Man film led Dunst to reprise her role as Mary Jane Watson in 2004 in Spider-Man 2. The film was well received by critics and a financial success, setting a new opening weekend box office record for North America. With box office revenues of $783 million worldwide, it was the second highest-grossing film in 2004. Also in 2004, Dunst co-starred opposite Paul Bettany in the romantic comedy Wimbledon in which she portrayed a rising tennis player in the Wimbledon Championships, while Bettany portrayed a fading former tennis star. The film received mixed reviews, but many critics enjoyed Dunst's performance. Claudia Puig of USA Today observed that the chemistry between Dunst and Bettany was potent, with Dunst doing a "fine job as a sassy and self-assured player".
In Dunst's sole project of 2005, she co-starred opposite Orlando Bloom in Cameron Crowe's romantic tragicomedy Elizabethtown as flight attendant Claire Colburn. The film premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival. Dunst revealed that working with Crowe was enjoyable, but more demanding than she had expected. The film garnered mixed reviews, with the Chicago Tribune rating it 1 out of 4 stars and describing Dunst's portrayal of a flight attendant as "cloying". It was also a box office disappointment. After Elizabethtown, Dunst collaborated with Sofia Coppola again and starred as the title character in the historical drama Marie Antoinette, based on Antonia Fraser's book . The film was screened at a special presentation at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, and was reviewed favorably. The film grossed earned $45 million at the box office from a budget of $60 million.
In 2007, Dunst reprised her role as Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man 3. In contrast to the previous two films' positive reviews, Spider-Man 3 received a mixed reaction from critics. In his review, Ryan Gilbey of the NewStatesman was critical of Dunst's character: "the film-makers couldn't come up with much for Mary Jane to do other than scream a lot". Nevertheless, with a worldwide gross of $891 million, it stands as the most commercially successful film in the series and Dunst's highest-grossing film to the end of 2008. Having initially signed on for three Spider-Man films, she said that she would consider doing a fourth, but only if Raimi and Maguire also returned. In January 2010, it was announced that the fourth film was cancelled and that the Spider-Man film series would be restarted, and therefore dropping the trio from the franchise.
Dunst's next role was in 2008, in which she co-starred opposite Simon Pegg in the comedy How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, based on former Vanity Fair contributing editor Toby Young's memoir of the same name. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 37%, with the film gaining mostly negative reviews. Robert Wilonsky of The Village Voice was critical of Dunst's performance, writing she "seems to be speaking in four different accents at once, none of them quite of the English variety". He added that the film "plays like a made-for-CBS redo of The Devil Wears Prada".
2010–2016: Independent films, television work and dramas
Dunst made her screenwriting and directorial debut with the short film Bastard, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2010 and was later featured at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. She co-starred opposite Ryan Gosling in the mystery drama All Good Things, based on a true story of a New York real estate developer Robert Durst, whose wife disappeared in 1982. The film received fair reviews, but was a commercial failure, earning only $640,000 worldwide. Film critic Roger Ebert praised Dunst for her ability to capture "a woman at a loss to understand who her husband really is, and what the true nature of his family involves". Similarly, the San Francisco Chronicle complimented her performance as "the only one worth watching", despite the film's "slow crawl" and lack of suspense. Also in 2010, Dunst co-starred with Brian Geraghty in Carlos Cuarón's short film The Second Bakery Attack, based on Haruki Murakami's short story.In 2011, Dunst co-starred opposite Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland and Charlotte Rampling in Lars von Trier's drama film Melancholia as a woman suffering depression as the world ends. The film premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and received positive reviews; in particular for Dunst's performance. Steven Loeb of Southampton Patch wrote "This film has brought the best out of von Trier, as well as his star. Dunst is so good in this film, playing a character unlike any other she has ever attempted... Even if the film itself were not the incredible work of art that it is, Dunst's performance alone would be incentive enough to recommend it". Sukhdev Sandhu of The Daily Telegraph wrote "Dunst is exceptional, so utterly convincing in the lead role – trouble, serene, a fierce savant – that it feels like a career breakthrough. Dunst won several awards for her performance, including the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival and the Best Actress Award from the U.S. National Society of Film Critics.
Dunst made a cameo appearance in Beastie Boys' 2011 music video Fight For Your Right Revisited which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. A year later, she starred in Juan Diego Solanas' science fiction romance Upside Down with Jim Sturgess. Described as a Romeo and Juliet story, Peter Howell of the Toronto Star opined there was no character development and Dunst "brings competence but no passion to her underwritten roles". The critical consensus from Rotten Tomatoes was also negative, with the film receiving only a 28% approval rating. Next, she had a role in Leslye Headland's romantic comedy Bachelorette, starring alongside Isla Fisher, Rebel Wilson and Lizzy Caplan. The film was produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. Dunst plays Regan Crawford, one of three women who reunite for the wedding of a friend who was ridiculed in high school. Upon release, the film garnered mixed reviews. Writing for the New York Post, Sara Stewart thought Dunst and Caplan gave "standout performances" and praised the writing, despite it being "a little underwhelming when it comes to delivering on laughs".
Her next release was the adventure drama On the Road, an adaptation of Jack Kerouac's novel of the same name, in which she plays Camille Moriarty. Dunst was first approached for the role by director Walter Salles several years prior. The film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, and was released in the United States on December 21, 2012. On the Road gained mixed reviews and under-performed at the box office. Writing for Time magazine, Richard Corliss compared On the Road to "a diorama in a Kerouac museum... lacks the novel’s exuberant syncopation", but praises Dunst's "excellent" performance. Chicago Tribune
In 2016, Dunst co-starred in Jeff Nichols' science fiction drama Midnight Special with Michael Shannon and Joel Edgerton. The story is about a father and his eight-year-old son who go on the run upon discovering that the boy possesses mysterious powers. The film opened to mostly positive reviews; Tim Grierson of The New Republic was impressed by Midnight Special
2017–present
Dunst had two film releases in 2017. She starred with Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, and Elle Fanning in the drama The Beguiled, her third collaboration with Sofia Coppola, who wrote and directed the feature. The film is a remake of Don Siegel's 1971 film about a wounded Union soldier who seeks shelter at an all-girls' school in the Confederate States. Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 79% approval rating which was "enlivened by strong performances from the cast". London's Evening Standard also took note of the "impeccable" cast performances, writing "Dunst lends the ideal measure of coiled physical longing to her prim spinster".Dunst then starred in the psychological thriller Woodshock, written and directed by her friends, Kate and Laura Mulleavy, founders of the Rodarte fashion label. The film is about a woman who falls deeper into paranoia after taking a deadly drug. The Mulleavys' personally approached Dunst for the lead role, which gave Dunst an "emotional safety net" during filming. She prepared for the role over the course of a year, undertaking dream experiments in order to try to inhabit the character's state of mind. Upon release, the film was unpopular with critics. Katie Rife of The A.V. Club acknowledged the "sophisticated" cinematography but thought "Character development and motivation are practically nonexistent, and the already-thin plot pushes ambiguity to the point of incoherence". Variety
As of 2019, Dunst stars in the Showtime dark comedy television series On Becoming a God in Central Florida, which premiered in August that year. For her role, she was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress and a Critics Choice Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. Dunst will next star in The Power of the Dog directed by Jane Campion, alongside Jesse Plemons and Benedict Cumberbatch for Netflix.
Music
Dunst made her singing debut in the comedy film Get Over It, performing two songs written by Marc Shaiman.She recorded Henry Creamer and Turner Layton's jazz standard "After You've Gone" that was used in the end credits of The Cat's Meow. In Spider-Man 3, she sang two songs as Mary Jane Watson, one during a Broadway performance, and one as a singing waitress in a jazz club. Dunst recorded the songs earlier and lip-synced while filming. She appeared in the music videos for Savage Garden's "I Knew I Loved You", Beastie Boys' "Make Some Noise" and R.E.M.'s "We All Go Back to Where We Belong" and she sang two tracks which were "This Old Machine" and "Summer Day" on Jason Schwartzman's 2007 solo album Nighttiming. In 2007, Dunst said she had no intention to release albums, saying, "It worked when Barbra Streisand was doing it, but now it's a little cheesy, I think. It works better when singers are in movies".
Dunst starred as the magical princess Majokko in the Takashi Murakami and McG directed short Akihabara Majokko Princess singing a cover of The Vapors' 1980 song "Turning Japanese". This was shown at the "Pop Life" exhibition in London's Tate Modern museum from October 1, 2009, to January 17, 2010. It shows Dunst dancing around Akihabara, a shopping district in Tokyo, Japan.
Personal life
Dunst dated actor Jake Gyllenhaal from 2002 to 2004, Razorlight frontman Johnny Borrell in 2007, and her On the Road co-star Garrett Hedlund from 2012 to 2016. She began dating her Fargo co-star Jesse Plemons in 2016 and they became engaged in 2017. Their son, Ennis Howard Plemons, was born on May 3, 2018.In 2001, Dunst bought a home in Toluca Lake, California but eventually sold it in September 2019 for $4.5 million. In 2010, she also sold a property in Nichols Canyon, California for $1.4 million. Dunst owned a Lower Manhattan apartment which she listed for sale in 2017.
In early 2008, Dunst was treated for depression at the Cirque Lodge treatment center in Utah. In late March 2008, she left the treatment center and began filming All Good Things. Two months later, she went public with this information in order to dispel rumors of drug and alcohol abuse, stating, "Now that I'm feeling stronger, I was prepared to say something. Depression is pretty serious and should not be gossiped about".
Dunst supports the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, for which she helped design and promote a necklace whose sales proceeds went to the Foundation. She worked in support of breast cancer awareness, participating in the Stand Up to Cancer telethon in September 2008 in order to raise funds for cancer research. On December 5, 2009, she participated in the Teletón in Mexico, in order to raise awareness for cancer treatment and children's rehabilitation.
Dunst endorsed John Kerry during the 2004 U.S. presidential election. She supported Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential election, and directed and narrated a documentary, Why Tuesday, about the tradition of voting on Tuesdays and low voter turnout in the United States, to "influence people in a positive way". She endorsed Bernie Sanders in the 2020 presidential election. In 2011, she gained German citizenship, which enabled her to "film in Europe without a problem". She now has both United States and German citizenship.