Kirsten Dunst Talks On The Road

Kirsten Dunst on Bad Boys, Nude Scenes, and Beatnik Boot Camp

If there’s one word that’s probably never been used to describe a Kirsten Dunst movie, it’s “challenging.” Not that she hasn’t been in some entertaining films over the years. She was great as vampire jailbait in Interview With a Vampire, a cheerleader with strong opinions about racism in Bring It On, and an archduchess with a taste for 80s New Wave in Marie Antoinette. But even her finer cinematic moments have been less about Oscar buzz and more about Teen Choice Award buzz. Her most famous movie role, as Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man and its two blockbuster sequels, nabbed her an MTV Movie Award for best kiss in 2002, and even the least snarky of critics had to concede that it might be the top of the accolades mountain for her.

But everything you thought you knew about Kirsten Dunst might be about to change. After a two-year hiatus, the now 28-year-old Dunst is staging a comeback, and not of the signing-on-to-the-inevitable-Spider-Man-sequel variety. It started earlier this year, when she appeared in a bizarre art video for an exhibit at London’s Tate Modern, in which Dunst wore a blue wig and Sailor Moon costume and danced through Tokyo’s Akihabara shopping district to the tune of “I’m Turning Japanese,” for some reason. Opening nationwide tomorrow, she co-stars (alongside Ryan Gosling) in All Good Things, a feel-not-good romance and docu-drama, loosely based on the true story of New York real estate millionaire/drag queen Robert Durst and his disappearing wife. It’s the perfect film for anyone who loved Elizabethtown but wished it had more emotional abuse and uxoricide. Dunst has also been working on two new film projects—On the Road, adapted from the Jack Kerouac novel that inspired thousands of useless poetry M.F.A.s, andMelancholia, from filmmaker Lars von Trier, whose last movie featured Willem Dafoe ejaculating blood. It’s possible that Dunst is maturing as an artist, finally taking on roles that ask more of her than flashing her dimples and being adored by her male co-stars. Or maybe she’s going through a stage, like all young adults do, forging an identity by pretending to be interested in beat poetry and art-house films. Regardless of whether she succeeds, it’s admirable that she’s wandered so far outside her comfort zone. Even if her fanbase accepts her new “adult” direction, there isn’t a Teen Choice Award for best dysphoric topless scene.

When I called Dunst to talk about All Good Things, it was like talking to any of her movie characters. The meter of her voice, the inflections—it was all intimately familiar. The only difference between Dunst the actress and her on-screen persona(s) was that when she laughed, she actually said the word “Ha,” like she was reading stage directions.

What else do you have coming out next year? You’re in On The Road, right? You’re playing Camille?

Yeah, that’s right. We’re still working on it.

Has that been frustrating? Kerouac didn’t write memorable female characters. On The Road is mostly about dudes and the drugs that love them.

Well, I think Camille is pretty fascinating. She’s based on Carolyn Cassady, Neal’s wife, and their relationship is really complex. Neal grew up without a mother. I think he had two sides to him; he wanted the wild stuff, but also a wife and kids. I think there was a constant pull inside of him. He wanted to go out and do his thing but also wanted to be an upright man with a steady life.

But even the way you just explained it, it’s all about Neal. Carolyn is just one of his options, not a fully fleshed-out human being.

That’s true. The female characters kind of play supporting roles. I mean, obviously women drive men to a certain point. Their contributions are important. But the relationship between Jack and Neal is what really drives the book.

I heard that director Walter Salles sent the cast to a four-week “beatnik boot camp” in Montreal. Were you a part of that?

No, I didn’t make it. I’m getting the condensed version. I’ve just tried to do as much studying as I can, watching videos online of Neal and Jack. I also saw that movie Heart Beat with Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte. And then I have the book that Carolyn wrote. I feel like I have a lot of information to draw on.

If you want to do your own beatnik boot camp, just smoke some weed and write some crappy stream-of-consciousness poetry. You’ll get the basic gist of it.

(Laughs.) Yeah, I guess so. That’s the crib notes version.

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xoxo
Carrie