Kirsten Dunst Breaks Down Her Most Iconic Characters

I knew when I shut the door after my audition and then and then I forgot my CD case you know and I went back in the room and this was like every major producer Sam everyone I was like sorry I forgot my cdks that I could tell in their faces I was like you did it you nailed it bring it [Music] on I'm and I'm loud I'm going to make you proud ofen your cat Toren let go me and my girlfriends loved watching cheerleading competitions and also beauty pageants so that's why I dropped it gorgeous because I wanted to see that I read bring it on and I talked to pton Reed the director and he was so smart and cool like we just talked on the phone and I knew oh this guy is going to make something really clever but none of us knew that that would be a success in the way it was like we just thought we were making a little cheerleader movie in La Hoya and San Diego I can't believe You' do that to Aaron do what especially with him what are you talking about oh don't play dumb we're better at it than you you're hav't cheer sex with him I mean I was the youngest of everybody and so they were having a lot more different fun than I was they were in a hotel and I was in a house with my mom so they were going to Mexico on like a weekend and I was having my girlfriends come down and like singing Alanis morc going to see The Blair Witch you know or the new Dixie Chicks album going to see Blair Witch in the theat theaters so was a I got along with everyone great but I was definitely still the innocent one on set I did mostly everything I mean I don't know how to do a backflip I was a base in junior high but I flew and bring it on I was a flyer in that too you know dancing and everything it's always been a part of my life I loved learning routines I loved doing all of that at that age okay guys let's go out there and do our best nothing hits the floor we stick it on I mean that's kind of who I was you know that was another side to me like I had The Virgin Suicides in me and then I had the Bring It On gal in me which I think is all teenage women you know it's like when you hear certain musicians for the first time you're like oh that is the way I feel but you need help expressing that when you're that age you haven't found all the words yet or I didn't when you're young teenage girl you're really discovering how to put your feelings into words and everything is very intense Spider-Man [Music] wow great reflexes I wasn't a comic book reader as a young girl I was a deas reader remember the deas catalog a hard candy girl it was a long process Spider-Man I was working on crazy beautiful I really wanted to meet Sam I met with Sam and then it was a very long time before for my screen test and I think Toby McGuire was driving down Sunset Boulevard and saw me in those remember those Gap ads that used to be on the whole building he was like what about Kirsten and so I kind of maybe came back in the fold I'm not really sure how it happened and then I was working in Berlin on a film and they all flew out to screen test me Toby and I had amazing chemistry together we're both very vulnerable actors and and it just fell I knew when I shut the door after my audition and then and then I forgot my CD case you know like my huge CD case I'd carry around with me I remember I had like a little knit hat with cat ears thought it was so cool not so I remember I left my CD case and I went back in the room and this was like every major producer Sam everyone I was like sorry I forgot my CD case that I could tell in their faces I was like you did it you nailed it I did do a lot of my stunts in Spider-Man and I remember one stunt that they tested on me once and they like pulled me up basically to the top of a Sony Sound Stage which is enormous and they let me freef fall until the very last second and I was like should have done that on camera will never do that [Music] again it was like a bungee jump and I'm not that like I don't need that adrenaline personally so that was I put my foot down I was like I'm never doing that ever again Sam Ry is a very romantic gentle soul but he gave me this book before we did that Spider-Man kiss of like famous kisses from different photographers and it was in a little book and Sam had such a childlike beautiful way of the way he would describe Spider-Man and Mary Jane and their romance and so there wasn't a specific picture but I was like the feeling of making something that will last forever in film if we can do that and accomplish that I wanted to be there to make that happen for him the actual filming of it was really difficult Toby was getting water up his nose he could barely breathe it was torrential rain that they made and I was freezing and but it looked great I remember we were going to make another Spider-Man for I think we were I can't remember to be honest we'll see what happens I mean that universe is very open it's anything so for me to be a Spiderman movie again or something it's possible I guess Interview with a [Music] Vampire I want some more that was a lot a lot of auditions a lot of screen tests and I worked very hard with my acting coach and he would give me tools to make things look like maybe I had a sexy look on my face he would say you know pretend you your brother's looking for his toy and you know where it is but you're not going to tell them and that immediately gives someone like a mischievous look without having to deal with any of the inappropriate things for that age I remember him having me slam doors a bunch of times because it's scary to go to those places as a young person I was very protected um unset I I don't even think I watched the whole movie I sat there and my mom would cover my eyes for a lot of that film can I Lou be like her one day W you more Melancholy nonsense I swear you grow more like Lou every day soon you'll be eating rats I felt like Brad's little sister and Tom made me feel like a princess I mean at Christmas time he were like this gorgeous tree and in my dressing room and they just spoiled me in a really sweet way and also the clothes I mean Mar and Tanetta had fabulous outfits too but like interview was a production that still to this day I haven't experienced in uh film everything was mostly practical so the lack of special effects and like a lot of stunt work homes on fire that they built specifically to light on fire and the sets were just incredible I mean I remember dancing with Brad in this gorgeous place and Paris to shoot in New Orleans and Paris and London on one production it's just those times of making movies like that they they just don't exist anymore do you want me to Forever you don't why not can't I change like everybody else you know I think at that point all of these scenes almost felt like a play I knew them so well I had auditioned all of them and it was such a long process getting that role I was like a racehorse ready to go you know and I wasn't afraid to you know go there when I think about that that movie I'm just like we we literally were vampires we we lived at night we shot at night always so it was weird to you know get up and do homework at like 300 p.m. and then go to work Eternal Sunshine of a soless mind you should not have seen this I apologize this is a hoax right and this is Clint I assure you no no I read Eternal Sunshine and I thought this was the best script I've ever read in my life all Charlie scripts are like reading a brilliant book I actually had to kind of Chase that movie I met Michelle I remember our meeting you know he wasn't sure I was the girl from Spider-Man you know what I mean so a lot of people see saw me maybe as that and I just wanted to do that movie so badly a lot of the way of working with Michelle was following the actors really and having a fluidity and a very naturalistic way of filming it you know had the idea of swirling in my chair instead of just sitting there and we had already done a bunch of takes but none of that matters with working with Michelle we just did it again in a different way and also a lot of things were done practically which was really cool like I remember Jim KY would change costumes quickly and theyd pan to something else and then he'd have a beanie on or whatever it was or just holding up like a screen in front of the camera to blur something out I was very impressed by all the Practical special effects that were very simple it's beautiful you look at a baby and it's so pure and so free and so clean and adults are like this mess of sadness and phobias we're both sober we weren't smoking weed all my scenes were with Jim he had a you know the brain helmet thing on I don't even remember what it's called and he was just lying in bed asleep those were like his break days I guess just listening to me and Mark pgeon suicides I thought you died in there are you done hogging in the bathroom I need something do you mind I remember reading the script and being actually really nervous because Lux was a little bit promiscuous and I was so nervous about any scene like that which Sophia handled so well for me I didn't even have to kiss the guys on the roof like she was just like just pretend and move your hair in front of your face and just like nuzzle into their neck or something so she saved me with that stuff cuz I I was a very innocent 15 16 year old she's very soft sopia and very kind and generous and it was kind of a Nob brainer you know to work with her but I was nervous to play that role it's like I I wasn't playing footsie with dudes under a table you know I was playing with Barbies probably for far too long to be honest the scene that made me the most nervous was having to jump on Josh heartnet in the car and make out with him and I remember once he was like oh I think you bit me and I was like oh my God I was so mortified and one time his wig got weird and like I mean I had kissed a guy in real life before but I had never jumped on it some you know and in the car and it was I just was very innocent and that was like a lot for me I mean Sophia played music so it' be a little bit more relaxing I think she played the music that's actually in the movie as I remember I think the roles I picked were scripts that I wanted to see whether it was a comedy or with the vir suicides I wanted to work with Sophia I just chose what I wanted to see and if that was what other people wanted to see then it was successful and if it wasn't then it wasn't I saw Sophia's short film lick the star and I just knew that because of the way she grew up she would do an incredible job I mean being on sets your whole life and bringing this story together I also like the idea of being a Sisterhood again like in Little Women I really enjoyed that experience you know what's interesting is the scene where you don't see me pass die in Virgin Suicides you just see my arm outside the car window in the garage and that's Sophia's arm cuz I couldn't be there right I don't know why I like wrapped early or they needed a shot so that's not even my arm in Sophia's Mar Anette let them eat cake that's such nonsense I would never say that well first of all I would do anything Sophia wanted me to do I met her at the Chateau and she gave me this like and Antonio Frasier novel of Maran tonette she's like I want you to play Maran tonette I like really okay wasn't you know I was very intimidated by the idea of it but knowing Sophia she wanted to portray you know the essence of her and and really what she went through which was being a very young woman and and thrown into this situation that she was so unprepared for and Sophia always brings the small moments the in between moments to life in such beautiful ways where you really get to be with a person privately which are always my favorite scenes in in film I feel like most of the movie most of the movie is private moments with Mar andette we only shot at Versa on Mondays and then we decorated a chatau with different rooms to be Versa it was interesting to see the back quarters that no one gets to see like their little toilets and stuff like that it was so crazy that was the the coolest thing to me is their private quarters which were very tiny and then you go to these Grand things so it's all just such a performance you know for me it was just a a fish out of water really Mar Anette and also isolation and not knowing how to handle any of it for that scene where I bowed to the crowd I was thinking about her death and like giving them my head in a way and also kind of like apologizing too melancolia I was working in Montreal and they were like Lars vontre wants to meet you I think we just talked on the phone to be honest but I got the script I read it immediately and the script is you it was also written like it felt like a play or something and and actually the reason I got that role was because of Paul Thomas Anderson told Lars like you should hire Kirsten for this role that was really amazing of him I loved working on melancolia it did feel like we were making a play and that it was very intimate and I always like making movies when you feel like you're not worried if anyone's ever going to see it or what you do or anything so there's a freedom to it that you just are having a really special time and nothing else matters really you know it just is that movie felt that way you're not even halfway through yet no you're right I have to pull myself together honestly when you're in the best part of yourself I think you can go to the the worst places IID wrapped the day and we were all staying at this Swedish Hotel slash there was homes on the property and I'd get my risotto and have a glass of wine and watch some crappy TV you know what I mean like you got to relax after days like that but also I'm so not afraid to go there I have no fear of of going to really difficult places we rehearse but we rehearsed for feeling the feeling of something not rehearsed the actual scenes but like Charlotte and I would kind of uh do an improvise of like me trying to eat something and her trying to encourage me to eat or me trying to fold clothes or anything that was around her house she was staying in like we were just kind of getting that sister Dynamic and for Lars to be able to see the feeling I guess is the best way to describe it the Earth is evil we don't need to grief for it what nobody will miss it me and Charlotte instantly were actors that really listened to each other and we no one has any pre-planned way of doing something I mean I'm sure she does her own work and how to prepare for something and so do I so but when we actually come together we're with each other and she's so natural and certain people it's it's so easy there's a flow to it where it doesn't even feel like you're acting left to right I think also it has to do with who's behind the the camera I think that doing a lot of H handheld stuff A lot of times allows you that freedom and it feels more like you're documenting someone's life but then a lot of things were really planned and set up so you know I think as an actor and a director you migrate to people that have similar sensibilities in some ways I like people who do things different you know and who are very provocative filmmakers and it's fun I mean I got I love making movies and I want to make movies that matter to people that what matters Fargo I ran over him hit and run and and then you stabbed him with a gardening tool the cops do you think they're going to believe us I don't know but but people are going to look for him but but look I I was careful I I drove the backway all the way home Peggy Peggy Peggy Peggy was one of the most fun roles I've ever played I think and I met my husband it's just like roles like that aren't written like I loved her crazy illusional mind and I love doing dark comedy and that was just the perfect role for me because you get those scripts not you know you don't get all of them at once you know sometimes they like what is Bey doing now like oh my god what did I just see you going to be nice for Peggy it was just like like nicking someone or like you know like whatever it was was it's not a knife to her you know what I mean I forgot what my thought was behind that process cuz it's been a long time now but I it definitely wasn't I'm stabbing someone it was probably like I was like you're a naughty little boy you know and that was the vibe more we cover the damage file a report and then I mean that should do it we got rid of the I mean the guys all grown up and you burned his clothes you said so once the car is fixed it's we're free it was so fun to to balance all of that and working with Jesse we really fell in love creatively first and we rehearsed a lot together and it was just certain actors you just fly with creatively it's so effortless because we both are very hard workers and then when you come together with someone that has the same work ethic as you it's it's the most fun thing ever Little Women are limes the fashion now of course they are it's nothing but limes now everyone keeps them in their desk and trades and for beads and things and all the girls treat each other at recess if you don't bring limes to school you're nothing you might as well be dead right after Interview with the Vampire I did Little Women so that was the perfect J position of being on a very male-dominated set and then being with like the most powerful females so it was a great balance my dearest family I am well and safe our Balian is encamped on the patomic picomic Jillian Armstrong was the director and I was working with you know Susan sandon and her daughter and I would make lemonade stands at lunchtime for the crew and it just felt like so cozy compared to it was it was such a weird balance but I think that kind of set up the foundation for my choices in life and for the rest of my career because I worked with such powerful kind men and then I worked with really incredible powerful women you know I I never thought oh she's a female director that's it didn't matter to me ever their influence on me yeah a huge [Music] deal I shall miss my little women I just felt so comfortable and cozy and I looked up to Claire and went on a rider and I just felt special being able to be a part of the legacy of telling that movie and that book dropped at gorgeous I'm Amber Atkins and I'm signing up cuz um my two favorite people in the whole world competed in pageants my mom and Diane Sawyer I just loved watching Beauty pions so much I auditioned for that movie and I wanted it so badly I just I love doing comedy and that was the perfect dark comedy sensibility that I love and I loved Ellen Barkin and Alison Janney and I knew Britney Murphy very well and we made another movie together after that it was fun doing the fight scene with Denise Richards well as my mother says it's Sunday dinner come and get it get it I'll get it all right take seconds you want seconds I'll make sure I had never done that and I have never had a cat bik before because that is very not who I am so it was kind of fun to live out that feeling the power of the dog she Drew chalk Stars by our names on the Blackboard I wonder why it was Stars she gave us why not diamonds why not hearts why not Fades Jesse got the script first and was like I'm meeting with Jane campy and I was like I'm like you're doing this movie you don't even need to read the script I had met Jane had I met her no she had written me a letter I had saved in my email forever you know I just saved certain things about working together on something and it never came to fruition but then Jesse was doing the movie and she had cast someone else in my role and then they couldn't do it and then Jane came to meet me and yeah it really worked out for me but I she's been someone you know an idol of mine since I've saw the piano and knew of her work you know you don't get to see women portray roles like that and she's also a master filmmaker well you know what was hard about making that movie is was we had a house but it was there was nothing inside the house so we did all the exteriors for the entire film first and then Co happened and then we did all the Interiors for the film after even even though that's how movies are made you never make things in order it was hard because I when you're not in every day and then suddenly you're like running out of the house crazy but you haven't done all these other scenes you're the girl that comes up on set and is just acting crazy and you know what I mean but you haven't done any of the other scenes that build up to it so sometimes I felt ridiculous Benedict and I didn't really have any scenes together real scenes we have one where we really talk to each other but barely so I really had to create my own monster and all of it because Rose is really in her own weird movie and you know there's sweet scenes with Jesse but that's not really what's going on with her too you know your own mind go you know playing with itself and messing with yourself and meanwhile no one's there no one's there no one's there but yes the piano I did learn because the whole purpose of that scene is that like his Artistry is so beautiful and effortless and here I am clunking away at the piano so I imagine like someone else performing something and knowing that I will never be able to reach that level and I'm having to hear it and then I'm having to go in after this person you know what I mean like so I just would set up little scenarios like that for myself to make myself feel like and then I was fine after I really can't dance you're dancing here this Mo forward Jesse and I on the Mountaintop was like gorgeous surroundings we I was blown away but I'm not going to lie I felt so dorky doing that scene because it's like we have our tea and we're and meanwhile we have like a child together and just such a polite interaction of like two people first kind of falling in love and dancing and like all the beauty in in a very polite reserved way so to me I it felt really dorky I knew like the first moment that I met him I I remember the meeting at LAX I remember my one of my best friends was like I remember remember you telling me that you'll know him for the rest of your life and that was like two weeks into filming I just you you just he was a soulmate connection of mine Civil War like why didn't I just tell him not to shoot them they're probably going to kill them anyways how do you know he doesn't know but that's besides the point once you start asking yourself those questions you can't stop so we don't ask we record so other people ask want to be a journalist that's the job I got pregn right after power of the dog I had another child so I hadn't worked for a little while and then this was so exciting I've been a fan of Alex garlands for so long and I mean it could have been like me alone in a room with like a chicken and I would have done the film you know I mean like I don't again like I'll do whatever with a great director it it doesn't matter to me but this happened to be the script and I was on the edge of my seat when I read it and I knew that he was doing something extremely provocative and I had never done a movie like this you know there's a lot of action in it and portraying a photographer you know a very different role from what I'd played in the past for me that movie and what starts to happen to her towards the end of the film is really an unconscious your her unconscious mind I think taking over warning her not to keep going so I think her physical body is literally like working against what she's trying to do to stop her I know you're really angry about it and I know you think I don't know but I'm not angry about that Jesse I don't care what you do or don't know okay but you are angry with me there is no version of this that isn't a mistake I know because I'm it I started to work with her and I immediately fell in love with her I was like we're the same in the way we like to work I said what if like I'm your long lost mother and you're my long lost daughter just so that even though we're talking about what gei needs there's something that's immediately like a really strong pull those are the kind of things I like to play with with another actor and she's very was very receptive too and loved doing things like that together it was mostly CGI in terms of obviously all of the Washington DC stuff they built roads and these huge blockades that we shot with tanks and explosions and they built part of a Downtown City so it was because of shooting in order for the last 2 weeks it was so loud and so intense I mean I would wear earplugs because I would be like this otherwise like I'm so not an action girl you know like let's get in there who cares even hearing like the blanks hit the tanks it's like was so loud and I yeah so that's good that I did something that's very out of my comfort zone because it it was like hell for me to do things like that and some people get high off of it I think and I think that's what my character is you know adrenaline junkie but I personally really yeah after those two weeks I was a little bit like whoa I mean now I'd like to do a comedy again I like when female directors write roles that are like women we haven't seen before so that's really interesting women basically

Channel: British GQ

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Id: pev4mrWUatA

Length: 29min 0sec (1740 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 23 2024