Stars’ connection emotional core of ‘Civil War’
Dunst, Spaeny form deep bond during production of film
“Civil War” is a purpose-built powder keg of controversial talking points and hot-button ideas.
In the near-future world depicted in the film, California and Texas align to take up arms against a fascist, corrupt third-term president who has disbanded the FBI and turned the military against U.S. civilians.
The movie joins other evocative dystopian portraits by Alex Garland, whose previous work as a writer-director includes “Ex Machina” and “Annihilation,” as well as the screenplays to “28 Days Later,” “Never Let Me Go” and “Dredd.”
Garland’s latest is also a tender, emotionally complex look at legacy and what we leave behind, driven by the performances of Kirsten Dunst and Cailee Spaeny as two photojournalists, a veteran and a novice, trying to process all they see in a climate that has become deeply skeptical of the press.
“Civil War” had its premiere at the SXSW Film and TV festival in March in Austin, Texas, just a few blocks from the state Capitol. It speaks to the knife-edge the movie exists on that, when the SXSW premiere played in two separate theaters, a specific moment in the film elicited triumphant cheers in one crowd and stunned silence in the other.
In the film, a group of journalists make their way from New York to Washington, D.C., hoping to get what will likely be the last interview with a besieged president on the brink of being violently deposed. Photographer Lee (Dunst) and her reporting partner Joel (Wagner Moura) have reluctantly agreed to give a ride to an aging New York Times correspondent, Sammy (Stephen Mckinley Henderson), when they also take on Jessie (Spaeny), an aspiring, camera-clad shooter.
During a recent joint interview with Dunst, Spaeny recalled what it was like seeing the film for the first time at the Austin festival.
“I felt really shaken,” she said. “It’s very immersive. It’s a film that sort of grabs you and never lets you go until the very end. There’s no real room to breathe.”
Recognizing the potentially divisive nature of “Civil War,” Spaeny added: “There are a lot of purposes for film, but I think one of the great things about film is that we can sort of process our deep fears and emotions through cinema. And I think that’s what this film did. And I hope people can work through their thoughts and feelings through this movie.”
If the on-screen dynamic between Lee and Jessie forms the emotional core of the movie, a comparable bond seems to have grown between Dunst and Spaeny.
Dunst, 41, has been working since age 3, making her film debut at 6 years old. Spaeny, 25, worked with Garland on the 2020 television series “Devs” and won the Volpi Cup for best actress at last year’s Venice film festival for her depiction of Priscilla Presley in Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla.”
Spaeny got that role after
Dunst recommended her to Coppola, having met on “Civil War.” Dunst has a relationship with Coppola that goes back about 25 years, the two having worked together on “The Virgin Suicides,” “Marie Antoinette” and “The Beguiled.”
“There are certain actors you work with and you just feel free and present and on the same page of how you approach things, and I immediately felt that with Cailee,” Dunst said.
“The camera, the crew goes away and you’re really in something with somebody. And that’s the most magical feeling on set. Cailee was such a present actress, and there was so much going on with her. We really looked at each other and responded to each other. And that doesn’t always happen.”
For Spaeny, the strength of the connection that formed with Dunst was unexpected.
“A lot of the times I meet other actors, especially actors who have been working in the industry for a while, they have a sort of wall up,” Spaeny said. “Kirsten doesn’t have that. She wears her heart on her sleeve, and it makes you feel like you can be your 100% self around her. It’s like, how am I going to do this scene with this person? And I knew that we would always figure it out.”
“It kind of happened naturally, don’t you think?” Dunst responded. “We didn’t really need to force anything in that way. And it’s written in the script, that’s the journey of these two, me recognizing myself within (Jessie), but also: ‘Don’t do this because you’re going to become something that is not easy to handle in life.’
“Those parallels are not how I feel about acting. Those parallels aren’t at all how I feel I would talk to Cailee about being an actress or something. But it wasn’t something I was thinking about while we were making it because it’s kind of corny to think about in that way. Like, ‘I’m the mentor and you are the mentee.’ It’s so much deeper than that.”
Dunst mentioned that she did make one addition to an early scene with Spaeny — “This is some of my woo-woo stuff that I do,” she said — suggesting that as an undercurrent to the scene, they imagine that Lee was Jessie’s long-lost mother.
“I like to think of things a little bit more unconscious,” Dunst said. “I never while making the film was like, ‘You’re little me.’ Because Cailee’s her own woman.”
“I felt protected by you outside of the movie, outside of our characters,” Spaeny said. “That felt genuine. But it didn’t feel like an actory thing. It just felt like, ‘Hey, we get each other. I see you, you see me’, and we didn’t need to talk about it. The best stuff comes through the stuff you don’t talk about.”
The relationship between the characters played by Dunst and Spaeny feels like the essence of what Garland was trying to explore against the larger canvas of the movie’s politically charged events. At a time of deep division, connecting has become more vital than ever.
“This is a movie about anti-polarization and that’s not just happening in our country, but all over the world,” Spaeny said. “If we can start having conversations, if we start listening, there is a version of this where we don’t end up in a position where this is possible.”
With a sense of curiosity and deference, as if she doesn’t want to be the one giving the last word, Spaeny asked: “Kirsten, what do you think?”
“It’s a warning of what happens when you don’t treat people with humanity, stop listening to each other,” Dunst replied.
“At the end of the day we’re all people with families and different religions and a democracy, and that is something that we should be very respectful of.”