Kirsten Dunst (born April 30, 1982) is an American actress, model, and singer. She made her film debut in Oedipus Wrecks, a short film directed by Woody Allen for the anthology New York Stories (1989).
The breakthrough role in Dunst’s career came in Interview with the Vampire, a 1994 film based on Anne Rice’s novel, in which she played the child vampire Claudia, a surrogate daughter to Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt’s characters in the film. The film received ambivalent reviews, but many film critics complimented 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 in Variety noted that Dunst was “just right” for the family. The film featured a scene in which Dunst received her first kiss from Brad Pitt, who was 18 years her senior. In an interview with Interview magazine, she revealed, while questioned about her kissing scene with Pitt, 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 appeared in the adaptation of the drama Little Women opposite Winona Ryder and Claire Danes. The film received favorable reviews:16 critic Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the film was the greatest adaptation of the novel 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, she appeared in the fantasy movie Jumanji, loosely based on Chris Van Allsburg’s 1981 book of the same name. The story is about a supernatural and ominous board game which makes animals and other jungle hazards appear upon each roll of the dice. She was part of an ensemble cast that included Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt, and David Alan Grier. The movie grossed $100 million worldwide. That year, and again in 2002, she was named one of People magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People. In 1996, Dunst had a recurring role in the third season of NBC’s medical drama ER. She portrayed a child prostitute, Charlie Chiemingo, taken under the guidance of Dr. Doug Ross, played by George Clooney. In 1997, she was the voice of Young Anastasia in the animated musical film Anastasia. Also in 1997, Dunst appeared in the political satire Wag the Dog, opposite Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman.The following year she was the voice of the title character, Kiki, a 13-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).
In Sofia Coppola’s independent film The Virgin Suicides (1999), Dunst played the role of troubled adolescent Lux Lisbon. The film was screened as a special presentation at the 43rd San Francisco International Film Festival in 2000. The movie received generally favorable reviews, and San Francisco Chronicle critic Peter Stack noted in his review that Dunst “beautifully balances innocence and wantonness.”
In 2000, she played Torrance Shipman, the captain of a cheerleading squad in Bring It On. The film generated mostly critical reviews, with Charles Taylor of Salon.com writing that the film had failed to provide Dunst with as good a role as she had either in Dick or in The Virgin Suicides. However, Jessica Winter of The Village Voice complimented Dunst, stating that her performance was “as sprightly and knowingly daft as her turn in Dick. She provides the only major element of Bring It On that plays as tweaking parody rather than slick, strident, body-slam churlishness.” The movie grossed $68 million worldwide.
The following year, Dunst had the lead in the teen comedy Get Over It (2001). She later explained that one of the reasons for accepting the role was that it gave her the opportunity to sing. Also in 2001, she depicted the late American actress Marion Davies in The Cat’s Meow, directed by Peter Bogdanovich. 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.” In the Esquire review, Tom Carson called her performance “terrific.” For her work, she won the Best Actress Silver Ombú category award at the 2002 Mar del Plata Film Festival.
In the 2002 superhero film Spider-Man, the most successful film of her career to date, Dunst played Mary Jane Watson, the best friend and love interest of the title character, played by Tobey 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.” 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.
Following the success of Spider-Man, Dunst appeared in the independent drama Levity (2003), where she had a supporting role. In this year she starred in Mona Lisa Smile (2003), part of an ensemble cast that included Julia Roberts, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Julia Stiles. The film generated mostly negative reviews, with Manohla Dargis of the Los Angeles Times describing it as “smug and reductive.” She next appeared in the supporting role of Mary Svevo in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), alongside Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, and Tom Wilkinson. The latter film received very positive reviews, with Entertainment Weekly describing Dunst’s subplot as “nifty and clever.”
The success of the first Spider-Man film led Dunst to reprise the role in the 2004 sequel, Spider-Man 2. The movie was well received by critics, and it proved to be a big financial success, setting a new opening weekend box office record for North America. With revenue of $783 million worldwide, it became the second highest grossing film in 2004. Also in 2004, she appeared in the romantic comedy Wimbledon, a film in which she portrays a rising tennis player in the Wimbledon Championships opposite Paul Bettany, who plays a fading former tennis star. Reception for the movie was mixed, but many critics enjoyed Dunst’s performance; Claudia Puig of USA Today reported that the chemistry between Dunst and Bettany was potent, with Dunst doing a fine job as a sassy and self-assured player.
In 2005, she appeared as flight attendant Claire Colburn alongside Orlando Bloom, in Elizabethtown, a movie written and directed by Cameron Crowe. The film premiered at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival. Dunst revealed that working with Crowe was enjoyable, but more demanding than she had expected. The movie garnered mixed reviews, with the Chicago Tribune rating it one out of four stars and describing Dunst’s portrayal of a flight attendant as “cloying.” It was a box office disappointment.
Dunst’s next film role was the title character in the 2006 biographical film Marie Antoinette. Adapted from Antonia Fraser’s book Marie Antoinette: The Journey, the film was Dunst’s second with director Sofia Coppola. The movie was screened at a special presentation at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2007 she again played Mary Jane Watson, in Spider-Man 3. In contrast to the previous two films’ positive reviews, Spider-Man 3 was met with a mixed reception by critics. Nonetheless, with a total 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 revealed that she would do a fourth, but only if Raimi and Maguire also returned. In January 2010 it was announced that the Spider-Man franchise would be restarted, thus dropping Dunst, Maguire, and Raimi from the film series.
In 2008, Dunst starred alongside Simon Pegg in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, an adaptation of the memoir of the same name by former Vanity Fair contributing editor Toby Young. After she signed on to the film, she revealed that she had joined the project because Pegg was scheduled to appear in it.
Dunst has agreed to appear in upcoming romantic drama All Good Things, in a leading role opposite Ryan Gosling, portraying a woman from a run-down neighborhood who goes missing. She also signed to appear in Sweet Relief as peace activist Marla Ruzicka, a U.S. relief worker killed by a suicide bomb in Baghdad. She has expressed interest in playing the role of Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry in Michel Gondry’s upcoming biographical film about the band. Dunst has also finished filming with Jim Sturgess in Upside Down, with a scheduled release in 2011. She has also taken to directing, with the short film, Bastard, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2010, and was later featured at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. As of April 2010, Dunst will star in Lars von Trier’s upcoming science-fiction film Melancholia alongside Kiefer Sutherland and Charlotte Rampling. The film is scheduled to commence production later in 2010. Reports have also stated that she will join Kristen Stewart, Sam Riley, and Garrett Hedlund in the upcoming feature, On the Road. It is scheduled to begin filming in August 2010.—wikipedia
