by Paul Fischer
by
Paul Fischer
She's sweet 19 now and all grown up as can be seen by her latest
movie Crazy/Beautiful. Funny,
sweet
and honest, Kirsten Dunst spoke about a range of
subjects, including Spider-Man, nudity and what she insists is her last
teen movie. Conducted June 2001.
CrankyCritic®: Was the attraction of Crazy/Beautiful that it gave you the chance to break out of the teen roles that audiences are used to seeing you in?
Kirsten Dunst: Well, I think that Bring It On was such a success that I wanted to contradict that. I had The Virgin Suicides before that, but I just wanted a younger person's movie that wasn't some cheesy romance and was more realistic, and was a role where I could just be a slob and a mess, which I'm surprised that the studio even let me do. They cut a lot of stuff out, but it's funny what stuff they let us get away with.
CrankyCritic®: Was the pressure to get a PG-13
rating a surprise to you?
Kirsten Dunst: I don't think the script was anything like the movie we
made. The whole script was much more wholesome and sweet. I'm surprised that the
studio even let us go where we did, but that's what I knew John Stockwell (the
director) wanted to do and I was so ready to do something like that. People are
afraid to make movies like that, especially for younger people.
CrankyCritic®: Is it more challenging to look
like a mess or is it more work to get all made up?
Kirsten Dunst: Oh, believe me, it was the best thing. I'd go in and out
of hair and make-up in 10 minutes in the morning. My call time was at 7 instead
of 6, in comparison to Spider-Man where I had a wig and all this make-up on, it
Was ridiculous. There was all this make-up and hair and looking like the Cute
girl. I liked looking like a mess. (Laughs)
CrankyCritic®: Do you prefer that?
Kirsten Dunst: Not prefer that, but like casual, yeah, definitely. I don't
like getting all fancied for everyday.
CrankyCritic®:
What was the toughest thing about making this movie? Was it the more intimate
moments?
Kirsten Dunst: No, I think that the challenge was really just fighting
for keeping stuff in the film that people wanted to take out or soften. We even
had to do some re-shoots because they wanted my character to be more redeeming,
but it was the role. You don't like Nicole in the beginning and that's the whole
point, that you don't like her, but studios are so afraid sometimes. I'm happy
they let us go where we went, but the most challenging for me was probably staying
in that emotional depressed mode all the time. It was just so draining to go in
and out every day. I'd take that home with me and I noticed myself even being
different to my family. It's just icky, but I wanted to do it.
CrankyCritic®: Did you stay up late, because
you looked really tired?
Kirsten Dunst: I get circles under my eyes because I'm really fair,but
I always get tired when I'm working. It was good. It was better for me that I
stayed up late.
CrankyCritic®: What did you do to get out
of that funk at the end of the shoot?
Kirsten Dunst: I went off to Berlin and played Marion Davies [in The
Cat's Meow] and got all dolled up like the 20s.
CrankyCritic®: Can you talk a little bit about
that?
Kirsten Dunst: That was an amazing experience. It was my first really adult
role. I played 27 in the movie. It was so much fun researching Marion Davies.
What a cool woman to portray? Nobody s done her justice in the past, so I hope
my portrayal will enlighten people's perspective. She really was a great comedian.
CrankyCritic®: She wasn't such a good singer,
though.
Kirsten Dunst: Not a good singer, but we don't concentrate on that, even
though they made me sing a little song for the end credits. It's cute. It was
cool.
CrankyCritic®: Who's in that?
Kirsten Dunst: Edward Hermann, who's such an amazing actor, and
Eddie Izzard, and he's 
awesome,
and we had Joanna Lumley, who's from Absolutely Fabulous.
CrankyCritic®: And then to go from that to
Spider-Man, it's like one extreme to another.
Kirsten Dunst: Well, that's what I want to do. I want to not be pigeonholed
as anything and make sure that I stay diversified because then Spider-Man is going
to come out, then I'll be the girl-next-door, Mary Jane, and I'll have to contradict
that.
CrankyCritic®: Was Spider-Man your first movie
with special effects?
Kirsten Dunst: No way; Jumanji, man, and Small Soldiers.
To act when nothing's there and be screaming at things that aren't there . . .
Spider-Man was the hardest, though, because that was just so much blue
screen and of screaming to myself. They put me through more torture than they
put Tobey [Maguire] through. I was doing more stunts than he was because you see
my face, so you can't really hide me. You can hide behind a mask anyone who you
want to Hide behind that mask, but me, I was out in the open and I had to do everything.
CrankyCritic®: That has to be one of your
biggest films, right?
Kirsten Dunst: Yeah, since Vampire.
CrankyCritic®: How's Spider-Man coming?
Is it done yet?
Kirsten Dunst: It's done, finally. I don't bet on it, but . . .
CrankyCritic®: Is there a good relationship
between your character and Tobey's?
Kirsten Dunst: It's a good love story, but it's also his journey. It's
good because he s very humanistic. I think people will relate to him a lot. It's
a loving character and you really feel for him and in a lot of [other] superhero
movies, you really don't care about the superhero. Spider-Man has so much more
to him and so I think it will be good.
CrankyCritic®: Is there a lot of pressure
on you because you re a part of the film?
Kirsten Dunst: I don't feel any pressure. I'm not Spider-Man.
(Laughs)
CrankyCritic®: Did you get injured at all
during filming?
Kirsten Dunst: No. We had the best stunt guys. I was hanging from wires
and being dropped and doing all that kind of stuff, and it was a lot of fun, but
I never felt like I was in danger.
CrankyCritic®: Was there ever a time when
you were hanging there that you thought: What the hell am I doing?
Kirsten Dunst: Oh, my God, yeah. The best was when I had to sit in this
chair, facing up with the camera about my head, and wiggle my arms and hands and
just scream at the camera. It's so ridiculous. You feel like such an idiot. The
crew is all standing around you and everything is blue around you and here you
are supposedly falling. You just feel like such an idiot sometimes.
CrankyCritic®: Are you through with playing
a teenager now?
Kirsten Dunst: Definitely. I'm done. That's it. Hopefully, Crazy/Beautiful
will be an intelligent film for
teenagers
because I think that so many of them have no substance. Hopefully, it will make
people think and effect people, but it's definitely my last teen job.
CrankyCritic®: Do you have a no nudity clause
with the films you do?
Kirsten Dunst: Yeah, I'm always very careful about that, definitely.
CrankyCritic®: Wasn't this film supposed to
have your first nude scene?
Kirsten Dunst: No. It was in the script, but I would never do that and
they knew that.
CrankyCritic®: And why wouldn't you?
Kirsten Dunst: I don't feel comfortable with that. I have younger people
watching my films and I want to be a good role model and I don't think it's necessary,
either, and it's tasteless, for me, for a girl my age to be doing that in a film.
I don't think it's right.
CrankyCritic®: What do you think that scene
might have done to the overall dynamic of the movie if it had been left in?
Kirsten Dunst: Not much at all. It's just trying to make it risky. It would
have been R and they would have had to cut it out anyway.
CrankyCritic®: But there were more scenes
of your character drinking?
Kirsten Dunst: There was a lot more of that.
CrankyCritic®: Do you think that would have
made the film more effective or do you think it's effective the way it is now?
Kirsten Dunst: I think it's effective because you can clearly see that
we're wasted. To me, it's so weird how [the rating s board] critics things. [In
order to] get the rating,] they can look like they're drunk and they can hold
a bottle of alcohol, but they can't sip from it. It's so ridiculous. They just
cut around us taking every sip and we're still wasted and we still have a bottle
in our hands. I don't understand their whole mentality, but whatever.
CrankyCritic®:
Can you talk about working with Jay Hernandez?
Kirsten Dunst: Jay was also so professional and talented. It was his first
film and I was so surprised because he really had his stuff together. I made him
feel at ease a little bit in the beginning because he was nervous.
CrankyCritic®: He said that he thought you might
be a diva.
Kirsten Dunst: I know. I could tell. When I first met him, he was already
standoffish and I was like, Oh, God, I'm just a normal girl.
CrankyCritic®: He mentioned that he thought
you might be jaded having been in the business for so long. How do you avoid being
jaded?
Kirsten Dunst: I just have good friends.
CrankyCritic®: You re an 'It' Girl now, according
to Entertainment Weekly.
Kirsten Dunst: I know, it's so silly, huh? I mean, 'It' Girl one year and
then the next year, I'm something else.
CrankyCritic®: And you were the Maxim girl
too.
Kirsten Dunst: Oh, yeah.
CrankyCritic®: What did that do right after
that cover came out?
Kirsten Dunst: It's something that I thought was a smart career choice
and it helped with Bring it On, but that's in my past now and I won t be doing
any more of those. I did that, I'm done with that. It helped show me as: Look,
Kirsten's grown up. I'm done.
CrankyCritic®: No Playboy in your future?
Kirsten Dunst: Oh, god, no.
CrankyCritic®: You did a great job with the
MTV Movie Awards. How was that experience for you?
Kirsten Dunst: It was so much fun. Jimmy Fallon is such a cool guy.
He's so sweet. We just had so much fun. It was like two kids at play. It was such
a laid-back, cool atmosphere. I was so nervous to do the show, at first, but then,
when I started getting into it and the day of the show. Now, I'm not nervous at
all to do live TV. I did Jay Leno like two days later and I was fine. I
had never been so comfortable.
CrankyCritic®: Do you want to do more independent
work, like with The Virgin Suicides? Are you going to pursue that?
Kirsten Dunst: I want to do both. I want to do everything. I love doing
independent films, but I like to do bigger films that are good too.
CrankyCritic®: What else is on your agenda?
Kirsten Dunst: Nothing right now.
CrankyCritic®: Are you taking a break?
Kirsten Dunst: Yes.
CrankyCritic®: You have been working nonstop
for a number of years now.
Kirsten Dunst: But that's how I like it. People always tell me, Don't work
so much, but I can't help it. I feel like all the things I've done are important
to get to this adult stage now and now I'm getting all these adult offers, so
it's working. Now, I'm going to be more careful and just take time off and be
very selective now.
CrankyCritic®: What are you going
to be doing during this downtime?
Kirsten Dunst: I want to take a lot of vacations. I went to Oregon and
went river rafting. I'm going to Maui soon with my family soon and my friend.
I don't know what else I'll do.
