next »

[gkfi]

Kirsten Dunst has been acting since 1989. Every year since 'Interview with A Vampire,' with the exception of 2009, Kirsten has starred in a MAJOR motion picture, which is probably why, after just a little over one year, it seems like she's been gone forever. Did her career take a nose dive? No. Did she quit Hollywood? No. So where has she been? What's she been doing? Is she ever going to be in movies again? Oh how impatient we can be.

She's currently starring opposite Ryan Gosling in a chilling film, 'All Good Things,' inspired by a true story about the marriage of Robert and Katherine Durst, her subsequent disappearance and two unaccounted for murders, all of which Robert Durst was a suspect.

Besides this film, she's also got about a billion projects on the way.  

We got to talk to Kirsten this week about where she's been, her life now, her role in 'All Good Things' and what she wants for Christmas. Here we go!

Kirsten Dunst:  Hi!

Me: Hey Kirsten, how are you?
Good, how are you?

Good!  This is Chapin, from Myspace.
Oh, cool! Nice to meet you.

I have to say, your acting in this movie is tremendous, I really honestly hope you get an Oscar nomination for this.
Thank you. My mom and grandma would be thrilled to hear to say that! (laughing)

So, it's safe to say, your fans have missed you.  I imagine after 16 years straight of huge movies every year you'd kind of want a break.  Did you take a break, or was it just the way things kind of stacked out?
I did, yeah. I needed to, and reevaluate, and also wait for something that was emotionally where I was too, and could explore in myself.  Like, you know, there comes a point where you want something that you can really dig your teeth into, and that was this role, you know? I could do so many things that I hadn’t been able to do yet in a film.  So that was so freeing for me, you know. So I just had to wait for something, you know, like that, that was truly like special and -- yeah.

That definitely showed in your performance.
Thank you.

So, I have some lighter questions that I want to ask first. The outfits in that film, the early 80's outfits were really awesome.  Did you keep anything?
Yeah, first of all, the art direction, everything was very authentic feeling.  Like even my outfits felt very real, you know,  Nothing felt costume-y about them, or anything like that.  And I got to keep -- I kept so much of my wardrobe actually. (laughs) I kept so many little dresses or pants or all the jeans I wore, and -- yeah. I kept a lot of the stuff. (laughs) I've always been a girl who's like, you know, I liked the 70's costumes a lot and --yeah.  The costume designer was amazing and he really, he got it.  It was stylish and it was -- all my clothes were vintage except for the jeans and -- yeah.  They did a great job because it felt very authentic to me.  Nothing felt costume design-y, you know.

Your character had a bit of a New York accent.  What's your favorite New York accented thing to say?
Well, I have a slight Jersey accent that comes through when I'm a little tired. So I saw draw. And I say like oringe instead of orange. So little things like that come through sometimes.  Draw and oringe.

What did you have to do to pull out the New York accent when you were doing the role?
You know what's funny?  I didn't even realize that I had one in the movie.  I didn't even try.

Wow.  I'm not the first person to say anything about your accent am I?
Yeah, you are.

Oh. Ha!
I don't know why. (laughing) I literally -- I mean, I kind of noticed a little bit in certain things I think like around the family maybe, when I was in those scenes ... where I was supposed to be drinking wine, but yeah, I wasn't so conscious of trying to do an accent or anything.

That's so funny.  So, there's a scene where your character goes through her husband's files.  Are you snoopy or curious, or were you as a kid?
I was with my Christmas presents.  I definitely went in the closet, opened them up with the tape, I knew where my mom hid them.  Checked to see that I got what I wanted.  I got the Ariel doll, I taped it back up (laughs) and I -- yeah.  That was that. Yeah.  I definitely looked at my Christmas presents.

So, one of the major things that the film deals with is your character marrying someone who she doesn't entirely know who he really is. How long do you think it takes to really get to know another person?
I think it varies because some people you meet and you have soul connection pretty quickly. And there is something familiar about it.  But then, I mean, I feel like most of my friends and family are very emotional people, so it's like all of their hearts are very on the sleeve, you know?

Yeah...
They wear their heart on their sleeve and also they're very emotional.  So for me personally, and also to keep doing my job I have to work on my intuition about people. So that really has helped me I think.

Do you think that Katie, your character, didn't have a lot of intuition, or do you think that Ryan's character, David, just didn't show anything that would trigger her intuition about a secret area of his life?
I think that when you fall so deeply in love with someone right away, and someone is charming and, you know, he has money and all these things, and then you kind of look at the quirky things as like cute or like charming in the beginning.

And you don't realize what they can actually, you know, you don't want to see it sometimes.  So I think that for Katie, that it was a slow progress of getting to know these parts of him more and more.  And I think if they had continued living in Vermont it would have been fine. But I think the pressure of having to move back into the city and for him to be forced to work for his dad really brought out the worst in him, and then he took that out on her.


NOTE: Skip this part unless you've seen the movie ... or unless you don't mind some mild spoilerage.

It makes you wonder if they would have been okay if they had just stayed in Vermont.
Probably.

And what would have happened if your character's older brother (played by Nick Offerman, who plays Ron Swanson on 'Parks and Rec') would have intervened when Ryan's character pulls you out of the house by your hair...
Yeah.  That's heartbreaking.

Why didn't the brother do anything?!!!
I mean, that happened, and I think it's just so shocking, you're just so shocked, you don't know what to do. And I think it all has to do with the time (late 70s/early 80s) when it's like, 'well, that's their business,' you know what I mean?  Like ... you're there, and you don't want to believe it, and who knows what's going through their head.  But I think it was so shocking that they didn't know what to do.  And who knows, they might have called the house a bunch of times.  We don't know what happened, you know?

Yeah...
I just think that maybe she didn't answer.  Maybe she was embarrassed.  Maybe she was thinking, 'how do I get out of this right now?'  You know, all of those things went through my head.  But it's awful to watch.  I think that they were just so astonished by it that they were immobilized.

**********OKAY, YOU CAN START READING AGAIN***********


Did the process of being this character put you through a lot?
For me it was a demanding role, but like also it's fun to play all these things, you know?  I like going to those places. Like it can be really cathartic in a way, you know?  I feel like as an actor you choose things that, you know, you can really bring out things that are inside of you, and I think that's part of our job is to is to bring what you have and expound and go to territories that you never would in real life, and all these things that are great challenges. And when you're in that world, you just -- you are so immersed in what you're doing that, you know, you get in the flow of the film, and working with Ryan. We'd work and I'd go to bed, and we'd get up and we work, and we worked very hard, but it always like very satisfying days, you know?  It's nice to feel that way.  So I didn't feel tormented or whatever.

In the film this guy comes into this girl's life and her life is altered irrevocably. Does that make you look differently at people coming into your life and the effect that any given person could have on your life depending on how you let them in?
I think that's with everyone, yeah.  For sure. But I have a pretty good radar. And I have a solid group of friends, so I don't feel the need to let too many new people in.  And the ones I have are pretty solid ladies and gentlemen. So it didn't teach me anything about that, but it's kind of crazy that someone who you think is charming and your husband who loves you can turn out to be such a monster of a human being.  It's pretty nuts, and that's, you know, what's intriguing about this film too, you know.  Because he was -- and Ryan played him very human, you know?

Totally...so, couple more light questions to round us out. The dog in the film, so cute. Did you fall in love, and do you have pets?
I have -- well, my mom has three cats at her house, so we have three cats.  And then, it's hard for me because going away and traveling. I love animals, but it's hard to bring them.  Some countries don't allow dogs and this and that.  So we have animals at home.  But that dog was so well trained and so smart.  He was a really good dog, yeah.

And last question.
Yeah?

What do you want for Christmas?
Oh, my God! I haven't thought of that (laughs)! I honestly don't have any idea what I want for Christmas.  My friends are good at that.  They always get me good gifts. They're -- I mean, we know each other so well -- oh, you know what I always get every year from my best friend -- well, I have these two friends are really good girlfriends and she makes a calendar of the year in pictures every year.  So that's our calendar.  That's always like one of my favorite gifts.

That's sweet! Well, have a great launch of this movie.  I know it's going to do very well.  And happy holidays!
Thank you, you too! Bye!
Bye !

There are a lot of words people use to describe Kirsten: lilting, effusive, unguarded, charming,ethereal ... and she is all of these things. But this time away seems to have transformed her into something more. Into someone who is very solid and very secure in who she is, where she is and where she's going. And hopefully that's to the Oscars.

Source: myspace