Facts
Kirsten Dunst began working in commercials at age three (eventually racking up over 70 such credits) and made her feature debut as Mia Farrow's
daughter in Oedipus Wrecks, Woody Allen's
segment of New York Stories (1989). Modest roles in other features followed, though several of the films (e.g. The Bonfire of the Vanities 1990)
saw little exposure at the box office. Dunst
also appeared in a recurring
role on the NBC drama Sisters
and guest starred in an
episode of the syndicated Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Dunst was catapulted into the
limelight with her stunning
work in Neil Jordan's Interview With the Vampire
(1994). Only eleven at the time of filming,
she essayed what was debatably the
female lead opposite Tom Cruise
and Brad Pitt. Her Claudia, a little girl made
into a vampire and unable to age
through the years, looked like a child one
moment and appeared--and acted--like a grown woman
the next. Although the film received mixed
notices, Dunst's remarkably mature performance
earned nearly universal raves, earning her a few critics
awards and a Golden Globe nomination. Although there was talk of an Oscar nomination, it failed to materialize. Nevertheless, the young actress continued
to turn in impressive work. She portrayed the younger version
of the spoiled, artistic Amy in
Little Women (1994), appearing
alongside Winona Ryder
and Susan Sarandon (although Samantha Mathis
essayed the adult character).
Dunst solidified her rising status
co-starring with Robin Williams
in the hit Jumanji (1995).
Poised to make the transition to adult roles,
she alternated TV appearances with her high
profile films. During the 1996-97 season, Dunst
had the recurring role of a
tough-talking runaway who crosses paths
with Dr. Doug Ross (George
Clooney) in the hit NBC drama ER.
After providing the speaking voice of the young version
of the title character in Fox's animated Anastasia,
she earned notice as a teenager hired to
play an Albanian refugee in a mock war
in the political satire Wag the Dog
(both 1997). Dunst was Fifteen and Pregnant
in the based-on-fact lifetime drama
before returning to the big screen
in the highly touted Small Soldiers and alongside other rising female stars (e.g., Heather Matarazzo, Monica Keena)
in the ensemble of Strike/The Hairy Bird (both 1998).
Dunst began to emerge from the back of
Hollywood starlets to become a recognizable
actress and box office draw, beginning
with her adroit comedic turns in the
beauty pageant comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous
(1999) and the off-the-wall teen girls-meet-Richard Nixon
riot Dick (1999) in which she
and Michelle Williams were prefectly
cast as clueless teenager of the Watergate
era. As she matured, Dunst also became something of
a sex symbol for the younger set with roles
in teen romantic comedies. She played the plucky captain
of an ambitious cheerleading squad in the
surprisingly infectious Bring It On (2000), in which she displayed
her ability to carry a film on her perky,
girl-next-door charm, and she also scored
in the less brilliant teen romance Get Over It
(2001). Dunst proved she also had formidable
dramatic chops when she appeared as Lux, the eldest and most
rebellious of the doomed Lisbon
sisters, in Sofia Coppola's acclaimed
directorial debut The Virgin Suicides (1999)
and was particularly riveting in
2001's crazy/beautiful as the emotionally troubled
daughter of a wealthy congressman who threatens to
derail the rise of
her less-privileged Latin boyfriend (Jay Hernandez).
It would be Dunst's sunny,
sexy and endearing portrayal of Mary Jane Watson,
the love interest of nerdy Peter Parker, in the
big screen adaptation of the comic book
superhero Spider-Man (2002) that
would thrust her into full-fledged
superstardom. Dunst's utter likeability and strong
chemistry with leading man Tobey Maguire
turned Spider-Man into an action
blockbuster with a romantic soul, and the see-sawing nature
of the characters' relationship made it the
first super-hero date movie.
The same year, Dunst had a
wonderful turn in director Peter Bogdonavitch's
early Hollywood scandal film The Cat's Meow
in which, despite being far too young
to play early screen star Marion Davies,
she turned in a convincing performance centered
around the character's surprisingly
believeable romance with media tycon
William Randolph Hearst (Edward Herrmann).
She next appeared with an all-star cast
in writer-director Ed Solomon's Levity
(2003), playing a self-destructive young
woman who becomes
dependent on an ex-con (Billy Bob Thornton).
Dunst joined
fellow up-and-comers Julia Stiles
and Maggie Gyllenhaal as students of progressive
and liberal-minded teacher Julia
Roberts in Mona Lisa Smile
(2003). Dunst showed her harsher edges as the vicious,
overprivileged senior Betty Warren
who, committed to a life of houswifery to a louse,
shows the most opposition to Roberts'
ideals, using the student newspaper
to attack her stance that Wellesley women of the 1950s
should aspire to more from life than a role
as a perfect housewife to a CEO.
Next for Dunst was a pivotal and well-acted
supporting turn in Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind (2004) as Mary, the young
receptionist in the memory-erasing facility
where heartbroken Jim Carrey goes to have
his ex-girlfriend eliminated from his thoughts.
Then it was on to reprise her role as Mary Jane Watson,
now a successful, engaged actress but
still pining for Peter Parker
in the highly anticipated sequel Spider-Man 2
(2004), followed by the U.S. release of
France's first 3-D CGI animated film Kaena: The Prophecy
(2004), in which she provided the voice of the rebellious
teen heroine in the sci-fi fantasy.
Hot off the success of the Spider-Man
films, Dunst landed her first full-fledged
adult leading role in the lukewarm
romantic comedy Wimbledon (2004),
winningly playing up-and-coming tennis sensation Lizzie
Bradbury, an easily distracted "bad girl of tennis"
whose romance with a faded
ex-star of the game (Paul Bettany) reignites his passion and sends
him to tennis' most prestigious tournament.
Taking on one of most mature
leading roles to date, Dunst
was winsome and appealing in her turn
as the relentlessly upbeat
flight attendant Claire Colburn,
who helps a failed golden boy (Orlando Bloom)
mourning his father re-awaken to the joys of
life and romance in writer-director Cameron Crowe's
engaging, if uneven, film Elizabethtown (2005).
