Kirsten Dunst

Dunst began her career when she was three years old as a child fashion model in television commercials.[5][12] She was signed with Ford Models and Elite Model Management.[5] 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 (1989). Soon after, Dunst performed in the comedy-drama The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), based on Tom Wolfe's novel of the same name, in which she played the daughter of Tom Hanks's character.[5] In 1993, Dunst made a guest appearance in an episode of the science fiction drama Star Trek: The Next Generation.[13]

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.[14] The film received mixed reviews,[15] 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.[16] Todd McCarthy of Variety said that Dunst was "just right" for the family.[17] The film included a scene in which Dunst shared her first on-screen kiss with Pitt, who is almost two decades older.[18] 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".[19] 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.[9][20][21]

Later in 1994, Dunst co-starred in the drama film Little Women opposite Winona Ryder and Claire Danes.[5] The film was favorably received.[22] 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".[23]

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.[24] 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.[25] That year, and again in 2002, Dunst was named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People.[5]

Dunst at the Toronto International Film Festival, 2005

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 (George Clooney).[9] In 1997, she voiced Young Anastasia in the animated musical film Anastasia.[26] Also in 1997, Dunst appeared in the black comedy film Wag the Dog, opposite Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman.[27] 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 (1998).[28] She also starred in Sarah Kernochan's period comedy All I Wanna Do (1998), playing a student at an all girls' boarding school in the 1960s, opposite Gaby Hoffmann, Rachael Leigh Cook, and Lynn Redgrave.[29] 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".[30]

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".[19] 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.[31] Dunst's next film was Sofia Coppola's drama The Virgin Suicides (1999), based on Jeffrey Eugenides' novel of the same name. She played Lux Lisbon, one of the troubled teenage daughters of Ronald Lisbon (James Woods).[32] The film was screened as a special presentation at the 43rd San Francisco International Film Festival in 2000.[33] According to Metacritic, the film received generally favorable reviews.[34] San Francisco Chronicle critic Peter Stack noted in his review that Dunst "beautifully balances innocence and wantonness".[35] Dunst also appeared in Savage Garden's music video "I Knew I Loved You", the first single from their second and final album Affirmation (1999).[36]

In 2000, Dunst starred in the comedy Bring It On as Torrance Shipman, the captain of a cheerleading squad.[37] The film garnered mostly positive reviews,[38] 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.[39] 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 "[Dunst] provides the only major element of Bring It On that plays as tweaking parody rather than slick, strident, body-slam churlishness."[40] 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".[41]

The following year, Dunst starred in the comedy film Get Over It (2001).[42] She later explained that she took the role for the opportunity to showcase her singing.[43] 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".[44] For her work, she won the Best Actress Silver Ombú award at the 2002 Mar del Plata International Film Festival.[45]

Tobey Maguire was paired opposite Dunst in the Spider-Man series.

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 (Maguire). 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".[46] 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".[47] Spider-Man was a commercial and critical success.[48] The movie grossed $114 million during its opening weekend in North America and went on to earn $822 million worldwide.[25]

Dunst next co-starred with Billy Bob Thornton, Morgan Freeman and Holly Hunter in the drama Levity (2003), a story of a man who is released on parole and returns to his hometown seeking redemption.[49] That same year, she co-starred opposite Julia Roberts, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Julia Stiles in the drama Mona Lisa Smile (2003). The film received mostly negative reviews,[50] with Manohla Dargis of the Los Angeles Times describing it as "smug and reductive".[51] 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 (2004).[52] The latter film received very positive reviews,[53] with Entertainment Weekly describing Dunst's subplot as "nifty and clever".[54] The film grossed $72 million worldwide.[25]

The success of the first Spider-Man film led Dunst to reprise her role as Mary Jane Watson in 2004 in Spider-Man 2.[55] The film was well received by critics and a financial success, setting a new opening weekend box office record for North America.[56][57] With box office revenues of $783 million worldwide, it was the second highest-grossing film in 2004.[25] 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 played a fading former tennis star. The film received mixed reviews,[58] but many critics enjoyed Dunst's performance.[59][60] 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".[61]

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.[11] The film garnered mixed reviews,[62] with the Chicago Tribune rating it 1 out of 4 stars and describing Dunst's portrayal of a flight attendant as "cloying".[63] It was also a box office disappointment.[64] After Elizabethtown, Dunst collaborated with Sofia Coppola again and starred as the title character in the historical drama Marie Antoinette (2006), based on Antonia Fraser's book Marie Antoinette: The Journey.[65][66] The film was screened at a special presentation at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival,[67] and was reviewed favorably.[68] The film grossed earned $45 million at the box office from a budget of $60 million.[69]

In 2007, Dunst reprised her role as Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man 3.[70] In contrast to the previous two films' positive reviews,[48][56] Spider-Man 3 received a mixed reaction from critics.[71] 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".[72] 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.[25] 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.[73] 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.[74][75]

Dunst's next role was in 2008, in which she co-starred opposite Simon Pegg in the comedy How to Lose Friends & Alienate People,[76] based on former Vanity Fair contributing editor Toby Young's memoir of the same name.[77] Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 37%, with the film gaining mostly negative reviews.[78] 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".[79]

Dunst at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival premiere of Marie Antoinette

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.[80][81] She co-starred opposite Ryan Gosling in the mystery drama All Good Things (2010), based on a true story of a New York real estate developer Robert Durst, whose wife disappeared in 1982.[82] The film received fair reviews, but was a commercial failure, earning only $640,000 worldwide.[83][25] 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".[84] Similarly, the San Francisco Chronicle complimented her performance as "the only one worth watching", despite the film's "slow crawl" and lack of suspense.[85] 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.[86]

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".[87] 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.[88] Dunst won several awards for her performance, including the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival[89][90] and the Best Actress Award from the U.S. National Society of Film Critics.[91]

Dunst made a cameo appearance in Beastie Boys' 2011 music video Fight For Your Right Revisited which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.[92] A year later, she starred in Juan Diego Solanas' science fiction romance Upside Down with Jim Sturgess.[93] 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".[94] The critical consensus from Rotten Tomatoes was also negative, with the film receiving only a 28% approval rating.[95] Next, she had a role in Leslye Headland's romantic comedy Bachelorette (2012), starring alongside Isla Fisher, Rebel Wilson and Lizzy Caplan. The film was produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay.[96] 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".[97]

Her next release was the adventure drama On the Road (2012), an adaptation of Jack Kerouac's novel of the same name, in which she plays Camille Moriarty.[98] Dunst was first approached for the role by director Walter Salles several years prior.[99] The film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, and was released in the United States on 21 December 2012. On the Road gained mixed reviews and under-performed at the box office.[100] Writing for Time magazine, Richard Corliss compared On the Road to "a diorama in a Kerouac museum ... [the film] lacks the novel’s exuberant syncopation", but praises Dunst's "excellent" performance.[101] Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips was more positive however, giving the film 3 out of 4 stars, praising the cinematic quality and actors for their "kind of fluid motion and freedom that periodically makes On the Road make sense and makes it feel alive".[99]

Dunst at the Australian premiere of Anchorman 2, 2013.

2013 saw Dunst make cameo appearances in two films, The Bling Ring and Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. Hossein Amini's The Two Faces of January (2014) was Dunst's next film role, starring alongside Viggo Mortensen and Oscar Isaac. Playing Colette MacFarland, the wife of a con artist, the thriller is based on Patricia Highsmith's 1964 novel of the same name. Garnering mostly favorable reviews, the Los Angeles Times complimented the 1960s Greek setting and observed Dunst "brings a potent complexity to Colette; every mood shift registers to the bone".[102] Jake Wilson of The Sydney Morning Herald praised the script for "condensing the book's plot while retaining its spirit", although he thought there was some uneven editing. Of Dunst's performance, he called her "typically teasing yet sympathetic".[103] Finally in 2014, Dunst voiced a character in the eighth episode of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, and made a guest appearance in an episode of Portlandia. Throughout 2015, Dunst focused solely on television work. She was cast as hairdresser Peggy Blumquist in the second season of the critically acclaimed FX crime comedy-drama Fargo, which earned her a nomination for Golden Globe Award for Best Actress.[104]

In 2016, Dunst co-starred in Jeff Nichols' science fiction drama Midnight Special with Michael Shannon and Joel Edgerton.[105][106] 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;[107] Tim Grierson of The New Republic was impressed by Midnight Special's special effects which imitated a late 20th century retro style. However, he questioned Dunst's character which "simply has nothing to do".[108] Dunst had a supporting role in biographical drama Hidden Figures (2016), a loose adaptation of the book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly, about African-American mathematicians who worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the Space Race. Dunst's portrayal of a white supervisor drew praise from Slant Magazine's Elise Nakhnikian, while The Guardian thought the film was entertaining and educational despite the underdeveloped supporting cast.[109] The film was a commercial success, grossing $236 million worldwide and was nominated for three Academy Awards.[110][111] The cast also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.[112] In addition to film work, Dunst served as a member of the main competition jury of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.[113] That year, Dunst planned to direct an adaptation of Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar, starring Dakota Fanning,[114][115] but left the project before development.[116]

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.[117] Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 79% approval rating which was "enlivened by strong performances from the cast".[118] 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".[119]

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.[120][121] 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.[122] 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".[123] Variety's Guy Lodge shared a similar opinion with the character, writing "Dunst has form in playing irretrievably inverted depression to riveting effect, but the Mulleavys’ script hardly gives her as complex an emotional or intellectual palette to work with".[124]

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.[125][126] 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.[127][128] Dunst will next star in The Power of the Dog directed by Jane Campion, alongside Jesse Plemons and Benedict Cumberbatch for Netflix.[129]