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Kirsten DunstVolleying for Privacyby Lynn B.
Most recently Kirsten (pronounced Keersten) is taking on romantic comedy as a hot-shot tennis pro with a serious ‘tude opposite tall drink of water Paul Bettany in Wimbledon. Although Ms. Dunst has German blood, you would think she was Italian the way she uses her hands to gesture when she speaks. As Paul Bettany says “she’s been doing this since she was a fetus” so Kirsten is hard for reporters to “crack”. However, when she talked to press at the 4 Seasons in L.A. recently, the young actress did talk a lot about the perils of a “public” personal life, insecurities, her next projects, fave music etc. Dressed in a simple black shirtwaist dress, her hair up with braids and wearing little jewelry, the talented young woman put herself in the line of fire yet again. Sit back and take it all in….. AGW: Did you know anything about tennis before you started this? Kirsten: I had played a little when I was younger. My dad’s pretty athletic and actually, because he’s German, they really are into tennis. And so I definitely learned a little bit when I was younger and then I hadn’t played in forever. So when I started this movie, I didn’t watch tennis, I didn’t know that much about it. I didn’t know hardly anything so I had to start from ground zero. AGW: Was it important to look real? Kirsten: Of course, yeah. I don’t' want to look like a hack out there. I mean, a lot of it’s sold in the expression and the force. But then we also had experts there standing off camera the whole time telling me to lift it a little higher and throw the ball more to the left or whatever it was. They were constantly there making sure it would look authentic. AGW: Your character seems to have a little John McEnroe mean streak. Kirsten: Everybody has a mean streak in them don’t they? I don't know if it’s mean, but she’s a very angry girl. She has this doting father. Her whole entire life, it’s probably one of the loneliest jobs to just be on the tour all the time and not have any friends. Your friend is your dad all the time and yeah, I’m sure it’s- - always training. There’s a lot of anger in her. AGW: In tennis, what were you good at and bad at? Kirsten: I was really bad at my serve. I wasn’t so good at that. Some days I was really good and then other days- - I was always trying to work it out. But my backhand was really great. Everybody was like wow, you have a great backhand. I had a two handed. I don't know, it just worked well with the way your hips are aligned. I could get that really well. AGW: When acting, do you have any superstitions? Kirsten: No, I mean, sometimes I’ll listen to music, but there’s no particular thing that I’ll do. But I always notice when I’m not feeling confident in myself or there’s something throwing me off like when people are standing in your eye line but all those distractions never bother me when I’m ready to go. But then sometimes they creep in when you’re feeling insecure or something’s not going right, so usually those things that are added or muted are out of insecurity a little bit. But I don’t have any ritual that I do. I brush my teeth in the morning before I go to work. AGW: Did being so successful as Mary-Jane make you want to go in a whole different direction? Kirsten: I don’t really think that I have to change other people’s perspective of me and play a killer because this way people won’t think that I’m just cute or something like that. So I just do what I am moved by and then I think that if you’re honest about that and you give a performance that people respond to, then- - I try not to be just one-dimensional in movies anyway. AGW: What kinds of music are you into? Kirsten: Right now, I really like Patty Griffin a lot and I’m always a Rufus Wainright fan. I always am looking for new music but it’s hard to find. Recently a really sexy song to me is this song from Radiohead, this “Talk Show Host” song. I hadn’t listened to it in a while, I just listened to it again recently. I was like this is a really hot song. AGW: What was your experience working in the actual Wimbledon stadium in England? Kirsten: Well, Paul (Bettany) walked on the court with all the crowds during the games. So he had a totally different experience from me. They were filming him step out and the actual Wimbledon crowd was there cheering him on. But I definitely felt the weight of this arena and it was an honor to be allowed to step on it and shoot on it. It’s just really overwhelming for sure.
Kirsten: I just used myself and my feelings, but I don’t say, “I remember that time when that happened and I’m [mad].” I don’t use my life. I try to be as present as I can and all those experiences are there because they’re in me, but I don’t think about them to use for a scene. AGW: Did you volley with Venus and Serena, and what advice did they give? Kirsten: Serena was supposed to come down one of the days but she was busy practicing. They’re busy girls. It just seemed like a really lonely life. I watched a match between her and her sister and I can’t imagine how complicated that must be. I really felt that they’re just normal really cool girls and I can’t imagine the stuff they have to go through together as a family. It must be really hard. AGW: Could you take them? Kirsten: (laughing) Oh, yeah, right. I’d be afraid. I’d be so afraid. I’d be just crouching in the corner. They’d probably kill me with their serve. AGW: What sports do you play? Kirsten: I like to swim, ping pong, play charades. AGW: This is your first romantic comedy. Was it very different from say shooting scenes for Spider-Man? Kirsten: Spider-Man, I love, but it’s more juvenile than this one. Every time before takes, Paul and I would, be ‘here we go again’, and he’d be saying ‘fresh and (hot), fresh and (hot)’, because it’s hard to keep that thing going when it’s like take however many on a different angle, and it’s such ‘in the moment’ dialogue and sometimes we have such little quips, so to make them real but natural, it’s sometimes difficult to get that balance. AGW: What makes a really good romantic comedy? Kirsten: I think that English humor really helps out by not making it so cutesy and the fact that I’m really the masculine energy in the film is different from most romantic comedies. In Wimbledon, you have this tennis world which sets it up for a lot of comedy and I think it’s just a good balance in the movie, it’s hard to make it not too cutesy. AGW: What is your favorite romantic movie? Kirsten: I really loved Edward Scissorhands. It’s so beautiful. I don’t like those fake romance movies. I actually saw The Notebook recently and even though I didn’t love the whole movie, I thought that Rachel and Ryan Gosling were so good together and I totally believed their romance. I was crying and I got into their story a lot. AGW: Was filming in London fun? Do you like London? What did you do there? Kirsten: I love London, I love it there. It’s hard when you’re working. Everybody’s fun there and you’re alone there so it does get a little lonely. But, I would ride on my Brompton bike, through Hyde Park which is so nice. And the food is great. It’s heavier than LA but LA food is like salads basically. Much different way of eating but I loved the food in London. So, I’d go eat at restaurants, I went a lot to the electric cinema, I really liked it there. That’s where you can go and have a glass of wine, watch the movie, and eat a little something. It was so nice. It was one of my favorite places. AGW: So no touristy things? Kirsten: I’ve been to London a lot so I’ve done the touristy things but I guess I would go to museums and stuff. I remember the time I went to Wimbledon before we were shooting, my girlfriend and I, we did some cheesy tourist things like go to the London Dungeons and things like that. AGW: Are you surprised at your success. Was Spider-Man a big part of it? Kirsten: I work hard but I’ve had plenty of failures too so I feel like I’ve learned a lot so I’m not surprised, I guess but I feel that if you make choices that really mean something to you, it’s hard not to feel successful. Even if they (films) don’t make money, you’re still doing something for yourself, then it’s easier to feel successful. Spider-Man has given me the opportunity to have more choices and more opportunities. People might go see another movie I’m in that they wouldn’t go to see normally, like “Eternal Sunshine” or something like that. The fact that I have that power now is really great and that I can be the lead in the movie and that they would finance it with me because I’m known in places that I’ve never been to. AGW: You’ve got some interesting projects coming up. Talk about playing Marie-Antoinette with Sophia Coppola directing. Kirsten: I think I was 16 or 17 on The Virgin Suicides (which Coppola directed). We’re shooting “Marie” in Paris and yeah, it sounds like a big movie but the script takes it in a very personal way too. You know her (Sophia’s) movies. It’s so much about the atmosphere, the place and I’m sure she’s going to make it very related. AGW: Who is playing King Louis? Kirsten: Jason Schwartzman. So a New York Jew and a German from Austria. My Dad’s German, and she’s from Austria. AGW: Have you finished Elizabeth Town? We haven’t heard much about it. Kirsten: I’m in the middle of it and I’m having one of the best times I’ve ever had in a movie. I think Sophia and Cameron (Crowe) are two really amazing directors and respectfully they want to keep things private because why give away the movie when you can see it in a year and it’s more exciting to wait and wonder what it’s about, and we’ll talk about it plenty in a year. AGW: Well, we know Marie Antoinette dies. Kirsten: (sly look) Obviously, she’s beheaded but you don’t know how we’re going to do it. AGW: When are you going to take a break and what will you do? Kirsten: Well, I finish Cameron’s movie at the end of September, then I don’t work again until March, so that’s a big break and then after that, Spider-Man will start in the Fall (of 2005) probably. I want to travel, I’d love to learn French because I’m going to be spending a lot of time there and I don’t know what I’ll do. Just get into the zone of Marie Antoinette, read a lot and take classes on dialect and all those kinds of things. AGW: Are you sick of all the tabloid press and intrusion into your personal life? Kirsten: Sometimes it bothers me when it’s untruths and the tabloid things, but you can’t let it bother you so much. It’s out for a week, but I just hate when lies are made up about relationships and nobody really knows what goes on between two people so that can be frustrating or they make a big deal out of something I’ve said that I didn’t even mean and then people get hurt. So it, I’ve just got to be a little more careful. Right now I understand why I’m being talked about and everything but I guess it’s just up to the person to figure out what’s right for them. I hate people following me home. AGW: So you have to change your life. Kirsten: I have to put up more boundaries than in the past and that I can’t talk about certain things because they just get manipulated. They are going to write stuff anyway. It makes it less interesting as an actress when you know too much about somebody. It loses the intrigue. It’s hard to be believable sometimes if people think they know too much about you. A lot of people have been good at it. Tom Hanks, whatever journey he takes us on, I’m right there with him. I feel like I know some things about his life, he still keeps private. I think people are obsessed with youth and what is going on in their lives. It’s mostly younger people in the tabloids but lately it’s all about who is having babies too. Some people ask for it a little bit. If you are buying Bentley’s for each other, you have to expect it. I know where I can go and where I can’t, and that when I go there I’m going to have my picture taken. It’s hard living in LA because it’s like a hive. AGW: Have you thought about moving out of LA, like Josh Hartnett? Kirsten: It’s nice to isolate yourself, but this is where my friends and families live. Josh’s friends and family live there, so it would be hard for me to move because this is where everybody lives. Maybe I’ll take a vacation somewhere. I’ll have to ask Tom Cruise how he stays out of the tabloids. I’m working for his production company so maybe I’ll ask if I can stay at one of his private islands. AGW: It has to be hard to break up a romance in public. Kirsten: Nobody really understands what goes on between two people. Everybody makes up quotes that I’ve never said, or quotes from my friends, who would never talk about that stuff in public. Luckily when I read stuff I know that it’s not true and so do the people around me. I don’t feel like rectifying it either because that will just make it last longer. AGW: Okay, on to something else. If you were a talk show host, who would you invite on your show? Kirsten: I’d invite Rufus Wainwright and Patty Griffin, musicians, and I’d invite Diane Keaton and I’d invite Cameron Crowe, I’d invite Mark Ruffalo, I’m good at inviting people I like. I’m just thinking about people I’d like to hang out with. AGW: Who else in Hollywood are you dying to work with? Kirsten: I’d like to work with Johnny Depp, I’d like to work with Sean Penn, I’d like to work with Pedro Almodovar, I’d like to work with Baz Luhrmann. AGW: What about theatre or anything outside of movies. Do you have any desire? Kirsten: I’d like to do theatre one day. I mean right now, I feel my future’s a little booked but it’s something I’d love to do. AGW: What would you write a book about? Kirsten: You know what I think would be really interesting to write about, are performances that I have loved, what music were they listening to at the time, or maybe like a little log of people’s music that they recommend or whatever, their CD list, their mixed tapes, a little book like that. AGW: You’ve been politically outspoken lately. Kirsten: I just encourage people to vote because it’s really important. Our situation right now is pretty brutal and I hope that people think it will start to make a difference. I don’t need to put my opinion on anybody else, but it’s more important to find out who is who. AGW: Do you regret not going to college? Kirsten: I feel that’s a time in your life that I’ve missed the age for. I’m out of my element a bit. I’m knowledgeable about a lot of things, I’ve traveled the world, I’ve done things that a lot of people haven’t been able to do so I feel like as long as you want to know things you will be okay. I feel like college is a lot about buying time where your parents support you and you don’t have to worry about anything, unless you want to be a scientist or a lawyer or a doctor. I wish that I had gone, but going back now wouldn’t be the same experience. AGW: What about high school. Were you more or less popular because you were an actress? Kirsten: I made sure I wasn’t controversial in school. I watched what I said because being an actress made me an easy target in school. I always got good grades and was nice to my teachers. I didn’t act up. |
 
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Kirsten
and Jake are on the outs, Kirsten is dating a French guy, etc. etc. We’ve
talked with this ultra-popular 22-year-old blonde actress numerous times
and still find that she insists on keeping her private life private. She’s
even planning on asking Tom Hanks how he does it. Whether you first caught
her as a child/woman vampire in a remarkable performance in Interview
with the Vampire or as Mary-Jane in distress in this summer’s
Spider-Man 2, you’ve gotta admit that Ms. Dunst can light
up the big screen. 
AGW:
Do you use things from your own life to get into character?