The “arduous and depressing” movie Kirsten Dunst hated making: “I was dying in my trailer”
Kirsten Dunst has had, and is still having, an incredible career.
Dunst’s career is one that deserves genuine admiration. She has done it all, from becoming an indie darling through her work with Sofia Coppola to starring in major blockbusters. Her resumé is the kind most actors dream of, but it’s worth remembering that success doesn’t always reflect the full story.
By 2007, Dunst should have been on top of the world. She wasted no time, as since the start of the 1990s, the young actor was booked and busy, racking up roles and making chance connections that would change everything – namely, crossing paths with Sofia Coppola on the set of New York Stories, where Dunst played a minor role. Throughout the decade, she was building her name, taking on parts in now iconic flicks like Jumanji and Interview With A Vampire, but it was really in 1999 when things changed.
In one year, Dunst played a lead role in two hits – the dark comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous and Sofia Coppola’s feature debut, The Virgin Suicides. When it came to casting Lux Lisbon, Coppola already knew she wanted Dunst. She’s spoken ever since about that gut feeling she had when Dunst, who was only 16 years old at the time of filming, walked into the audition room. Proving her ability to play a comic lead and a deeply introspective one in the same year, Dunst was now a leading lady through and through, quickly cast in more.
By 2002, the big leagues came calling. Dunst was cast as the first ever Mary-Jane in the first cinematic adaptation of Spider-Man alongside Tobey Maguire as the titular superhero. Saying yes to that role would change everything once again, as Dunst was elevated to a whole new Hollywood stature, both simply by agreeing to the action blockbuster, but also as she and Maguire became a high-profile celebrity couple during filming.
It’s the stuff people dream about as Dunst cashed in with this major payday and still continued taking on more introspective roles in the off-periods between sequels. Anyone would have thought she had it made and that life must surely be perfect – but no.
In fact, by 2007, Dunst said that filming the third Spider-Man movie was the most miserable she’s ever been on a film set. Part of it was because she was painful bored, stating, “As it came to the end of our film, it was like this three-week period of sitting in the trailer, just zoned out on MTV.”
But the other aspect was that when she was called to set, the nature of the action movie meant doing stunts that scared her, and doing them on repeat for hours upon hours. “Occasionally, we’d do a shot and it [lasts] the blink of an eye in the film. It’s really arduous and depressing,” she said, admitting that for the most part, “I was dying in my trailer.”
Each night, she’d go home overwhelmed with a feeling of ‘what on earth am I doing?’ Despite the fame and assumed success, she felt lost as she admitted, “I actually remember my best friend was living with me – she works for MTV; she casts reality shows for you guys. She’d come home super-bored, depressed from her job, and I’d come home depressed from mine. We’d drink pinot grigio and watch American Idol and be like, ‘I hate our lives!’”
Maybe it all comes down to Spider-Man 3, but maybe it was more. The year after the film’s release, Dunst was open about seeking treatment for depression, pausing her career for a bit to be able to come back stronger, happier and healthier.
She also took a break from action movies, instead opting for dramas or comedies for a while, only returning to the classically high-octane genre in 2024 for Civil War.
