|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Kirsten Caroline Dunst (born April 30, 1982) is an American actress, known for her roles in Interview with the Vampire (for which she received a Golden Globe nomination), The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette, and Bring It On, as well as for her portrayal of Mary Jane Watson in the Spider-Man film series. Actress Kirsten Dunst had over 50 television and film appearances under her belt by the time she was 25 years old. The girl-next-door with the proudly crooked smile was unique among her generation of young actresses, due to her ability to carry a fun romp like “Spider-Man” (2002) and promptly about-face and wow critics with art house fare like “The Virgin Suicides” (1999) and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004). Audiences had seen few actresses not only survive the transition from child actor to teen to adult actor, but even less who moved so easily between genres and pleased such a wide range of theatergoers. Dunst was born in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, the daughter of Inez and Klaus Dunst, who are divorced. She was brought up in Brick, New Jersey. Her father, a German medical services executive from Hamburg, remained in New Jersey but now lives in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, a Swedish former art gallery owner, also moved to California. Dunst attended Notre Dame High School. Dunst has a younger brother, Christian. She attended the Ranney School in New Jersey before leaving to pursue acting. The daughter of a German executive and a Swedish art gallery owner, Kirsten (pronounced KEER-sten) Dunst was born on April 30, 1982, in Point Pleasant, NJ. By the time her younger brother Christian was born four years later, dimpled, fair-haired Kirsten was already on her way to becoming a movie star. She had a modeling contract with the prestigious Ford agency, and booked a growing number of modeling jobs and commercial shoots. At the age of six, she made her TV acting debut, playing granddaughter to Dana Carvey’s George H.W. Bush on “Saturday Night Live” (NBC, 1975- ). Small roles in the feature films "New York Stories" (1989), "The Bonfire of the Vanities" (1990), as well as animated voice-over work, suggested that Dunst had real potential, so the family – minus dad, as her parents had separated – moved to Los Angeles in 1992. Dunst got her start as a child fashion model at the age of three in television commercials. She was signed with Ford Models and Elite Model Management. In a 1988 episode of Saturday Night Live, she played the role of President George H. W. Bush's granddaughter. In 1989, Dunst made her film debut in Woody Allen's Oedipus Wrecks, a short film that was released as one-third of the anthology film New York Stories. Soon after, she landed a small part in The Bonfire of the Vanities as Tom Hanks' daughter. Dunst also did the voice of Kiki in the 1989 anime film Kiki's Delivery Service (in 1997, when it was released in America). In 1993, Dunst played Hedril in the seventh season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called "Dark Page". She also had a recurring role as a child prostitute, Charlie Chiemingo, on ER. She took on the recurring role of a tough-talking runaway in the hit NBC drama, "ER" in 1996-97, before doing a 180 degree turn, appearing in the political satire, "Wag the Dog" (1997). She was "Fifteen and Pregnant" (1998) in the Lifetime drama and decked out in a bouffant for the low budge period teen comedy, "Strike," the same year. Dunst portrayed young Amy March in the successful 1994 film adaptation of Little Women. She made her feature film breakthrough in Interview with the Vampire, a 1994 film based on Anne Rice's novel, in which she played the little girl who will never grow up. The movie featured a scene in which Dunst, then aged eleven, received her first kiss from Brad Pitt, who was 29. Her performance earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination, the MTV Award for Best Breakthrough Performance and the Saturn Award for Best Young Actress. In 1995 (and again in 2002), she was named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People. She also won the Worst Singer of the Year award from OK! magazine in 2007. Dunst was also offered the role of Angela in the 1999 Academy Award-winning film American Beauty, but turned it down because she did not want to appear in the film's suggestive sexual scenes or kiss co-star Kevin Spacey. The same year, she had the role of troubled adolescent Lux Lisbon in Sofia Coppola's independent film The Virgin Suicides. In 1997, she was the voice of Young Anastasia in Anastasia. She also starred alongside Robin Williams in Jumanji in 1995. Dunst avoided the years of struggle that can break the hearts of so many young Hollywood hopefuls, immediately landing work on "Sisters" (NBC 1991-96), “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (syndicated, 1987-1994), and the TV movie “Darkness Before Dawn” (1993). The following year, she was catapulted into the limelight with her stunning work in Neil Jordan's "Interview with the Vampire" (1994), a role which she reportedly won over Christina Ricci. Her Claudia, a little girl vampire unable to age through the years, looked like a child one moment and appeared and acted like a grown woman the next. Although the film received mixed notices, Dunst's remarkably mature performance opposite Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise earned nearly universal raves and a Golden Globe nomination. She followed it up portraying a younger version of spoiled, artistic Amy in "Little Women" (1994) and costarring with Robin Williams and a ton of CGI animals in the kiddie hit, "Jumanji" (1995). In 2000, she played the captain of a cheerleading squad in Bring It On. She may be best known for her portrayal of Mary Jane Watson in the Spider-Man film series based on Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's comic serial, opposite Tobey Maguire. She portrayed the neighbor and romantic interest of the mild-mannered superhero in the original Spider-Man in 2002. the 19-year-old actress when she was cast as Mary Jane Watson, love interest of nerdy Peter Parker, in the big screen adaptation of the comic book superhero "Spider-Man" (2002). Dunst's utter likeability and strong chemistry with leading man Tobey Maguire turned "Spider-Man" into an action blockbuster with a romantic soul, and the see-sawing nature of the characters' relationship made it the first super-hero date movie. Unfortunately, there were significantly fewer males in the audience of her next film, the period piece “Mona Lisa Smile” (2003), and not much of an audience at all for the limited release but heavy-hitting redemption film "Levity" (2003). Dunst was generally well-received in the role, and had a now-famous and often-parodied scene in which she kisses the hero while he hangs upside-down from his web. Following a well-acted supporting turn in the critical hit, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (2004), Dunst reprised her role as Mary Jane Watson – now a successful, engaged actress still pining for Peter Parker – in the highly anticipated sequel "Spider-Man 2" (2004). A starring role in the lukewarm romantic tennis comedy "Wimbledon" (2004) went virtually under the radar, and 2005’s Cameron Crowe rom-com “Elizabethtown” was a critical flop, but her second outing as Sophia Coppola’s leading lady in “Marie Antoinette” (2006) was daring, controversial, and talked-about, even if not always in a positive light. Again, the evolving actress proved that she was willing to take creative chances as much as she loved having fun in crowd-pleasing romps, giving her a significant advantage over her peers. Leading up to the release of the third installment of “Spider-Man” (2007), Dunst announced that she was taking a break from her steady film schedule to pursue her interest in art. The success of the first film led her to reprise the role in two sequels, Spider-Man 2 in 2004 and Spider-Man 3 in 2007. Dunst initially signed on to appear in three Spider-Man films, and has said that she would not appear in a fourth film unless director Sam Raimi returned to direct. At the 2002 Mar de Plata Film Festival, Dunst won the Best Actress Silver Ombú for her performance as silent film actress Marion Davies in Peter Bogdanovich's The Cat's Meow. At the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, Marie Antoinette premiered. It was released in North America on October 20, 2006. In the film, her second with director Sofia Coppola, Dunst plays the title character and uses an American accent in the role. She ranked at #59 on VH1's 100 Greatest Kid Stars. Dunst will next be seen in the upcoming film, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, with Simon Pegg. The film is expected to release in early of October 2008. Dunst is also expected to portray peace activist Marla Ruzicka in Sweet Relief scripted by Lorene Scafaria for Warner Independent Pictures in 2009. She is rumored to have the role of Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry in director Michel Gondry's upcoming biopic about the band. Dunst also expressed interest in playing Jean Seberg in an upcoming biopic. This would not be Dunst's first foray into music; she made her singing debut in the 2001 film Get Over It, performing two songs written by Marc Shaiman. She also lent her voice to the end credits of The Cat's Meow, singing Henry Creamer and Turner Layton's jazz standard "After You've Gone." In Spider-Man 3, she sings two songs as part of her role as Mary-Jane Watson, one during a Broadway performance, and one as a singing waitress in a jazz club. She also appeared in the music video for Savage Garden's "I Knew I Loved You". Dunst also sang on two tracks on Jason Schwartzman's solo album, Coconut Records ("This Old Machine" & "Summer Day"). In an article for Premiere Magazine, Sam Raimi confirmed the long-standing rumor that Dunst and her Spider-Man co-star Tobey Maguire had "a thing" going on during the 2001 shooting of the first film. As Raimi explained for the article, "I'm so dumb, because I met with them for dinner one night during the shooting to talk about the next day's scenes. And I go, 'Okay, well, that's it for the meeting.' And then I ask Kirsten, 'Can I drive you home?' And they look at each other and she goes, 'No, no, I'm going to play a game of Touch 10 with Tobey.' I don't know, it was some game. I thought, 'That's weird. She's got to work tomorrow.'" After briefly dating her longtime friend, playwright Jeff Smeenge, she started dating actor Jake Gyllenhaal in September 2002, after meeting him through his sister, Maggie (her Mona Lisa Smile co-star). They broke up in July 2004 but then dated intermittently until December 2005. She was recently seen with musician Johnny Borrell at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas. Borrell, the frontman of Razorlight, commented on their relationship, saying, "I'm not hiding anything. We met in Los Angeles. We were hanging out at South by Southwest and we've been hanging out ever since." Dunst was featured on Richard Blackwell's famous Best Dressed List for 2005. It is claimed that on Thursday, February 7, 2008, she checked herself into rehab."She's not doing well," one source says. "People were pushing her to go in there but there was no intervention… She has been partying hard for a while and I'm sure the Heath Ledger thing put people over the edge." However, the reports have not been confirmed by a representative of Dunst, and the director of operations of the clinic where she was reported to have checked into firmly denied Dunst was there. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Celebrities Guide 
| WhoABC
Home : Disclaimer
: Terms
: Privacy
Policy : Contact
Us : Links All original content Copyright Celebrities Guide, WhoABC.com © 2004 - 2008. All Rights Reserved |