Kirsten Dunst
An American actress, singer and model. She made her film debut in Oedipus Wrecks, a short film directed by Woody Allen for the anthology New York Stories (1989).
Date Born: 30th April 1982
Location Born: Point Pleasant, New Jersey, United States of America
Kirsten Caroline Dunst (born April 30, 1982) is an American actress, singer and model. She made her film debut in Woody Allen’s short film Oedipus Wrecks for the anthology film New York Stories (1989). At the age of twelve, Dunst gained widespread recognition as vampire Claudia in Interview with the Vampire (1994), a role for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. She appeared in Little Women the same year and in Jumanji the following year. After a recurring role in the NBC medical drama ER (1996–97) as Charlie Chemingo and co-starring in films such as Wag the Dog (1997), Small Soldiers (1998) and The Virgin Suicides (1999), Dunst transitioned into romantic comedies and comedy-dramas, starring in Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), Bring It On (2000), Get Over It and Crazy/Beautiful (both released in 2001).
At the age of 12, Dunst gained widespread recognition playing the role of vampire Claudia in Interview with the Vampire (1994), a performance for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. The same year she appeared in Little Women, to further acclaim.
Dunst achieved international fame as a result of her portrayal of Mary Jane Watson in the Spider-Man trilogy (2002–07).
Since then her films have included the romantic comedy Wimbledon (2004), the romantic science fiction Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and Cameron Crowe’s tragicomedy Elizabethtown (2005).
She played the title role in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006) and starred in the comedy How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008). She won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011 for her performance in Lars von Trier’s Melancholia.
In 2001, Dunst made her singing debut in the film Get Over It, in which she performed two songs. She also sang the jazz song “After You’ve Gone” for the end credits of the film The Cat’s Meow (2001).
Dunst was born in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, to Klaus Hermann Dunst and Inez Dunst. She has a younger brother, Christian. Her father worked as a medical services executive, and her mother worked for Lufthansa as a flight attendant and was an artist and one-time gallery owner. Dunst’s father is German, originally from Hamburg, and Dunst’s mother was born in New Jersey.
Until the age of eleven, Dunst lived in Brick Township, New Jersey, where she attended Ranney School. In 1993, her parents separated, and she subsequently moved with her mother and brother to Los Angeles, California, where she attended Laurel Hall School in North Hollywood and Notre Dame High School. In 1995, her mother filed for divorce.
After graduating from Notre Dame in 2000, Dunst continued the acting career that she had begun. 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 expressed that her mother “always had the best intentions”. When asked if she had any regrets about the way she spent 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.
The breakthrough role in Dunst’s career came in 1994 in Interview with the Vampire, based on Anne Rice’s novel, in which she played Claudia, the child vampire who is a surrogate daughter to Cruise and Pitt’s characters. 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 shared her first on-screen kiss with Pitt, who is almost two decades older.
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 co-starred in the drama film Little Women opposite Winona Ryder and Claire Danes. The film received favorable reviews. 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.”