Kirsten Dunst

Kirsten Dunst (birthname: Kirsten Caroline Dunst) has created a unique film career for herself as an actor who not only successfully shifted from major teen roles to major commercial success in the original Spider-Man franchise but has also co-starred in significant art cinema, including winning best actress at the Cannes film festival and earning an Oscar nomination for best-supporting actor for Jane Campion’s Western drama, The Power of the Dog (2022). Dunst made her feature debut as a child actor in Woody Allen’s short segment titled Oedipus Wrecks in the anthology movie, New York Stories (1989), followed by a small role in the Tom Hanks-starring box office bomb, The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990)

Dunst played a child vampire in her acclaimed, career-turning role opposite Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in director Neil Jordan’s smash ($223 million) hit, Interview with the Vampire (1994), based on Anne Rice’s novel, featuring Stephen Rea, Antonio Banderas, and Christian Slater. Dunst co-starred with Winona Ryder, Gabriel Byrne, Susan Sarandon, Trini Alvarado, Samantha Mathis, Claire Danes, Christian Bale, and Eric Stoltz in the Oscar-nominated Gillian Armstrong-directed Little Women (1994), earning $95 million globally.

Kirsten Dunst shifted to adventure comedy by co-starring in another hit ($262 million worldwide) with Sony-TriStar Pictures’ Jumanji (1995), directed by Joe Johnston and starring Robin Williams, David Alan Grier, Bonnie Hunt, Jonathan Hyde, and Bebe Neuwirth. Dunst continued to be cast alongside top adult Hollywood stars with her role in the political satire, Wag the Dog (1997), co-starring Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, Denis Leary, Willie Nelson, Andrea Martin, Woody Harrelson, and William H. Macy, directed/produced by Barry Levinson, and co-written by David Mamet (with Hilary Henkin), grossing a fine $64 million and receiving three Oscar nominations.

Dunst did her first voice role in an animated feature for the English dub of Hayao Miyazaki’s acclaimed Kiki’s Delivery Service (1998), with fellow voice actors Phil Hartman, Janeane Garofalo, Debbie Reynolds, and Pamela Adlon. Dunst then starred in writer-director Sarah Kernochan’s comedy, All I Wanna Do (1998), co-starring Gaby Hoffmann, Lynn Redgrave, Rachael Leigh Cook, and Heather Matarazzo, and released in limited pattern by Miramax Films.

Kirsten Dunst co-starred opposite Kirstie Allie, Ellen Barkin, and Denise Richards in New Line Cinema’s mockumentary satire, Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), set in the world of small-town beauty pageants. Dunst, after co-starring with Michelle Williams in another political satire, Dick (1999), joined filmmaker Sofia Coppola for the drama, The Virgin Suicides (1999), based on Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel and co-starring James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Josh Hartnett, Scott Glenn, Michael Paré, and Danny DeVito, and earning over $10 million for Paramount Classics/American Zoetrope.

Dunst starred in the Peyton Reed-directed high school comedy, Bring It On (2000), a box-office hit for Beacon Pictures/Universal Pictures ($90.5 million globally) and co-starring Eliza Dushku, Jesse Bradford, Gabrielle Union, spawning six direct-to-video sequels. Dunst joined filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich to portray actor Marion Davies in the 1920s Hollywood drama, The Cat’s Meow (2001), co-starring Cary Elwes, Edward Herrmann, Eddie Izzard, Joanna Lumley, and Jennifer Tilly, but losing money for Lionsgate.

Kirsten Dunst reached a huge global audience as Mary Jane with her steamy kiss with co-star Tobey Maguire in the Sam Raimi-directed mega-hit for Sony Pictures/Columbia Pictures, Spider-Man (2002), with Willem Dafoe, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, and Rosemary Harris; Dunst returned in both Spider-Man 2 (2004), also directed by Raimi; and writer-director Raimi’s third hit in the series, Spider-Man 3 (2007), all of them grossing a combined $2.51 billion. Dunst delivered an energetic performance alongside a fine cast of Billy Bob Thornton, Morgan Freeman, Holly Hunter, and Dorian Harewood in director/writer Ed Solomon’s indie film, Levity (2003), premiering at the Sundance Film Festival and released by Sony Pictures Classics.

Dunst continued appearing in fine American films as a cast member of director Michel Gondry’s and writer Charlie Kaufman’s magnificent sci-fi romance, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), co-starring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, and Tom Wilkinson, winning Gondry, Kaufman, and co-writer Pierre Bismuth a best original screenplay Oscar and grossing a strong $74 million global take with Focus Features as a distributor. Dunst co-starred opposite Paul Bettany in the tennis rom-com, Wimbledon (2004), co-starring Sam Neill and Jon Favreau under Richard Loncraine’s direction and backed by Working Title Films, StudioCanal, and Universal Pictures in a UK/US/France co-production.

Kirsten Dunst co-starred with Orlando Bloom in Cameron Crowe’s tepidly received tragicomedy, Elizabethtown (2005), with Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin, Bruce McGill, Judy Greer, and Jessica Biel, and under-performing at the box office ($52 million) for Paramount Pictures. Dunst reunited with Sofia Coppola for the re-fashioned $40-million French Revolutionary drama, Marie Antoinette (2006), based on Antonia Fraser’s biography, and co-starring Jason Schwartzman, Judy Davis, Rip Torn, Rose Byrne, Asia Argento, Molly Shannon, Shirley Henderson, Danny Huston, and Steve Coogan, but which lost money for Sony Pictures/Columbia Pictures/American Zoetrope.

Dunst co-starred with Ryan Gosling in the true crime drama based on the notorious Robert Durst case, All Good Things (2010), directed and co-produced by Andrew Jarecki, and co-starring Frank Langella, Philip Baker Hall, Nick Offerman, Kristen Wiig, but which was a box-office bomb ($1.8 million on a $60 million budget) for co-distributors Magnolia Pictures and Weinstein Company.

Dunst earned the best reviews of her career (as well as a best actress Palme from the Cannes Film Festival) for her stirring, unsettling lead performance in Lars von Trier’s apocalyptic drama, Melancholia (2011), co-starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Alexander Skarsgård, Brady Corbet, Charlotte Rampling, Jesper Christensen, John Hurt, Stellan Skarsgård, and Udo Kier, and earning high acclaim following its Cannes world premiere before a fine global release with a $22 million return.

Kirsten Dunst co-starred with the ensemble of Isla Fisher, Lizzy Caplan, James Marsden, Rebel Wilson, and Adam Scott in writer-director Leslye Headland’s screen adaptation of her play, Bachelorette (2012), premiering at the Sundance film festival and earning a solid $12 million in a release by The Weinstein Company. Dunst joined the cast of the Jack Kerouac Beat-era biopic, On the Road (2012), earning fine reviews for Dunst but tepid ones for filmmaker Walter Salles’ international co-production, which co-starred Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, Kristen Stewart, and Amy Adams, Tom Sturridge, Alice Braga, Elisabeth Moss, and Viggo Mortensen, and which premiered at the Cannes film festival and received a weak Stateside release by IFC Films.

Dunst co-starred in the intriguing and well-mounted Hossein Amini screen adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The Two Faces of January (2014), starring Viggo Mortensen and Oscar Isaac, premiering at the Berlin film festival and earning a good $4.5 million for StudioCanal/Working Title Films/Magnolia Pictures. Dunst joined filmmaker Jeff Nichols for the sci-fi drama, Midnight Special (2016), with Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Adam Driver, Jaeden Martell, and Sam Shepard, garnering excellent reviews but disappointing box office after a Berlin film festival premiere.

Kirsten Dunst was cast in the fine ensemble of the Oscar-winning NASA bio-drama, Hidden Figures (2016), co-written and directed by Theodore Melfi, and starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe, Mahershala Ali, and Kevin Costner, and grossing an excellent $236 million globally after earning three Oscar nominations including Best Picture. Dunst made her third movie with filmmaker Sofia Coppola as star of the remake of the Civil War-era drama, The Beguiled (2017), co-starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning, Oona Laurence, and Angourie Rice, grossing a modest $27.4 million return for American Zoetrope/Focus Features after garnering good reviews at its Cannes film festival premiere (where Coppola was only the second woman to win Cannes’ best director Palme).

Dunst joined the brilliant ensemble of Jane Campion’s magnificent Western, The Power of the Dog (2021), with Benedict Cumberbatch, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Thomasin McKenzie, Keith Carradine, and Frances Conroy, with Campion winning the best picture Silver Lion at the Venice film festival and an Oscar. Dunst co-starred with Oscar Isaac, Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Moura, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Nick Offerman in Alex Garland’s near-future political thriller, Civil War (2024), which premiered at the South by Southwest film festival before an A24 release.

Kirsten Dunst joined the U.S. indie project from co-filmmakers Charlie McDermott and Sara Rejaie for the drama, Rhubarb (date to be announced), with McDermott and co-writer Haley Ramm co-starring with Dunst.