Keeping up with KIRSTEN
The star talks to James Mottram about her new role in Jane Campion’s ‘The Power of the Dog’, parenting and why she’s never loved acting more
Ihave goosebumps, I’m so tired,” says Kirsten Dunst, gesturing at her arm. The actress famed for roles in Marie Antoinette and Melancholia is fighting jetlag after flying into Italy from the US. But the chance to walk the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival premiere of her exhilarating new movie The Power of the Dog – the latest from The Piano director Jane Campion – is worth the lack of shut-eye. She only wishes Jesse Plemons, her co-star, partner and father of their two young sons, could be here too, but he’s currently filming. “This would have been a really nice treat for us both,” she sighs.
Sitting on the terrace of the Hotel Excelsior, wearing a patterned Salvatore Ferragamo dress, red belt and gold sandals, the sparkly Dunst looks far removed from her troubled character. Rose is a widowed mother who finds a second shot at happiness when she marries Plemons’ ranch owner George. But her husband’s spiteful, jealous brother Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) has other ideas, preying on Rose as she gradually unravels. “She’s being psychologically tortured,” says Dunst. “She’s not gonna call her therapist. It’s a different time. She’s so isolated on that ranch and she just has no-one to talk to.”
For Dunst, 39, it was the chance to work with Plemons for the first time since they met in 2015 on the set of season two of Fargo. “I think most people didn’t want to cast us together ever because they’re like, ‘Oh, they did
Fargo together.’ So I was grateful that
Jane didn’t care. And that’s also the way people used to make movies. They used to cast husbands and wives together all the time, back in the day.” Now Dunst wants to work with her man every four or five years. “I mean, that’s how we bonded first ... creatively. We became friends first through work.”
Shot in New Zealand, which doubles splendidly for 1920s Montana, The
Power of the Dog fell foul of the pandemic. With the production shut down in March 2020, Dunst and family went home, terrified, as COVID spread. “I was, like, going to the grocery store, changing outside, taking a shower and wiping down groceries,” she recalls. After three months, the shoot resumed, but Dunst was far from happy. “I was afraid to get on a plane, to be honest.” When they finally wrapped, she left the relative normality of New Zealand to find the US in lockdown. “I was waving to my mother from across the street on my birthday. Such extremes.”
Dunst, who was born and raised in New Jersey, is now discovering the trials of parenting for herself. “I’m very blessed,” she smiles. “I have two sons. I’m so excited that they’re always gonna be really nice to me. Daughters can be so mean to their mums! I’m really happy I had sons.” And with security comes confidence in her work, it seems. “I love acting more than ever now,” she adds. “I mean, listen, I wish I could work with people like Jane Campion all the time, but you can’t. It’s just fun to be part of her legacy.”
“I WISH I COULD WORK WITH PEOPLE LIKE JANE CAMPION ALL THE TIME” – Kirsten Dunst
The Power of the Dog is in cinemas November 11 and on Netflix December 1.
For many millennials, Cooke’s instructional tomes were seminal texts in figuring out how to grow up. In her latest, she takes us on a tour through history, looking at all of the God-awful “advice” women have been given – covering everything from vulva wrinkles to the Kardashians.
The year is 1836, and in her small Prussian town 15-year-old Hanne struggles to find friends as she bucks against the expectations of what a young woman should be. Then she meets Thea. Their love will travel across seas and defy the rules of God and society.
Kent’s prose is gorgeous in this love story, which will stay with you long after you close the book.