Mark Harris, NYT
In the first of two acclaimed performances by Kirsten Dunst at the Cannes Film Festival in May, a rapt audience watched the actress try to maintain her composure as the depressive, eccentric Danish director Lars von Trier did his best to torpedo the premiere of his new film, "Melancholia."
It's a tribute to Ms. Dunst, who stars in the film, that the explosive episode did not overshadow her work in the movie, which won her the festival's best actress prize. (The film, in wide release, opens this autumn in the United States and Europe, and January 5 in Hong Kong.) It was a sweet victory for a performer still best known as Spider-Man's girlfriend.
Ms. Dunst said recently of the news conference, in which Mr. von Tr ier veered into anti-Semitic comments that got him ejected from the festival: "My reaction was like a reaction to a friend who's basically killing himself. I was so upset that he just kept going, trying to get to a place where there'd be a laugh. And I was also very aware that I was in a roomful of journalists, and that I couldn't say anything, although I think at one point I did whisper to him, ‘Lars, shut up, this is terrible.' "She is still an enthusiastic supporter of Mr. von Trier.
Earlier inappropriate remarks by the director did not dissuade her from taking the role, nor did the challenge of playing Justine, the deeply depressed protagonist of "Melancholia" who, for long stretches, says almost nothing. Ms. Dunst, 29, said she has had some experience with depression herself.
"Obviously when you're depressed, you're not always clear about why you're reacting in a certain way," she said. "But for the character I had to at least be clear about what I was unclear about. And I knew Lars really wanted to home in on what depression looks like in the eyes - that you can smile at the same time as your eyes are dead."
That was particularly true during the movie's second half, in which a planet called Melancholia literally hangs over the characters' heads as it approaches impact with Earth. She insisted the shoot was "the most fun I've ever had on a set."
"Melancholia" has won Ms. Dunst some of her best reviews, but there is one problem it won't solve: "Yeah," she said cheerfully, "I am a little embarrassed when the valet guy says to me: ‘Hey, are you ever going to do another movie? I haven't seen you since ‘Spider-Man.' "
Though she has worked steadily since her arrival in 1994 as the 12-year-old who stole "Interview With the Vampire" from Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, it has now been more than four years since she starred in "Spider-Man 3," the last time she was seen in a major studio release.
After "Spider-Man 3" Ms. Dunst took roles, like that of a sociopath's lover in last year's "All Good Things" (opening
November 25 in Brazil), that played effectively against her sunny charms. "She has something deep about herwhich is unexpected with her cuteblonde looks," said Sofia Coppola, whodirected her in "The Virgin Suicides" and "Marie Antoinette." "It's that mysterious quality that makes you want towatch someone; you think more is going on than just on the surface."
Ms. Dunst may be the only actress who expresses in one breath a desire to work with Michael Haneke, the Austrian director of acridly misanthropic movies, and in the next talks about how muchshe would love to be a voice in a Pixar cartoon.
"I don't want to be ‘box-office girl,' "she said, "but I don't want to be ‘that indie girl' either."
The next year or two will be an experiment in whether she can be both. In up-coming films she has a small part in Walter Salles's adaptation of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" and a big one in the large-scale science-fiction romance "Upside Down." She recently started work as "kind of a bitch, which is fun because I never get to do that ," on a film adaptation of Leslye Headland's comic play "Bach-elorette."
And in January she will jump into an indie film about which she will say little except that "I cannot have my dad see this movie."
Which raises the question: Will he see "Melancholia," in which she has a nude scene?
"My father is European," Ms. Dunst said. "So he's very much like, ‘You have a beautiful body, I helped make you, it 's for the art, it's not weird at all.' " But, she said, laughing, "it's weird for me."