Name: Kirsten Caroline Dunst
Nickname: Kiki
Birthday: 30th April 1982
Hair/Eyes: Blonde/Blue
Family: Inez (Mother), Klaus (Father) – separated
Siblings: Christian (Brother)
Dating: Garrett Hedlund
Pets: Current Unknown. Past: 3 Cats, Tazmania, Felix and Sophie and two dog, Beauty & Atticus.
Birth Place: New Jersey
Movie Debut: (1989) New York Stories
Movie Breakthrough: (1994) Interview With The Vampire
Ambitions: To Direct, Own her own Production Company and just, be, happy.
Kirsten Caroline Dunst was born on April 30, 1982 in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, USA to Klaus Dunst, a German medical-services exec. who’s now stationed in New Jersey while the rest of his family lives on the West Coast. Klaus separated from Kirsten’s mother Inez Dunst, a former art-gallery owner. She also has a brother named Christian, who was born in 1986. Kirsten started out in showbiz at the age of three, where she began filming television commercials (a grand total of more than 70). She made her feature film debut in a segment of Woody Allen’s 1989 film New York Stories (1989) . Shortly after in the same year her family moved to Los Angeles, where her film career took off.
In 1994 she made her breakthrough performance in Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) alongside such stars as Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. Her performance earned her a Golden Globe nomination, the MTV Award for Best Breakthrough Performance and the Saturn award for Best Young Actress. In 1995, she was named one of People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People. Over the next few years she made a string of hit movies including Little Women (1994) , Jumanji (1995) and Small Soldiers (1998) .
2000 was Kirsten’s biggest year – she received rave reviews for her role as Lux Lisbon in Sofia Coppola’s Independent film The Virgin Suicides (1999) . She proved her status as a leading actress in the comedy hit Bring It On (2000) , and she graduated from Notre Dame High School in Los Angeles in June of that year. 2002 is the year that made Kirsten one of Hollywood’s leading actresses. Spider-Man (2002) was released on May 4th and was a smashing box office hit. This movie has brought Kirsten to the next level in Hollywood.
Kirsten is also working on her own production company with her mother called “Wooden Spoon Productions.” Kirsten then filmed Mona Lisa Smile (2003), where she starred alongside Julia Roberts. When filming began Kirsten met co-star Maggie gyllenhaal’s brother Jake Gyllenhaal and the two began dating publically up until mid 2004. That year the sequel Spider-Man II (2004) was release and again did phenomenally well at the box office. The British Tennis Movie, Wimbledon (2004) also did well, Kirsten was adorable and her acting in a comedy role was superb.
Elizabethtown (2005) which was directed by Cameron Crowe and co-stars Orlando Bloom and Susan Sarrandon only reached #3 at the box-office which was a slight disappointment as I really enjoyed the movie and I thought Kirsten was truly genuine in her role as Claire. This was followed by Marie Antoinette with director Sofia Coppola. The film screened at Cannes in 2006. Spider Man 3 was released worldwide on May 4th 2007 and earned over $150 million on the opening weekend in the US, and about $900 million in total.
Kirsten had a new love interest, (lead singer in UK band Razorlight) Johnny Borrell in 2007, during her time in London filming How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008) with Simon Pegg. This film is about Sidney Young a disillusioned intellectual who both adores and despises the world of celebrity, fame and glamour. His alternative magazine, Post Modern Review, pokes fun at the media obsessed stars and bucks trends, and so when Young is offered a job at the diametrically opposed conservative New York based Sharps magazine its something of a shock! It seems Sharps editor Clayton Harding is amused by Young’s disruption of a post-BAFTA party with a pig posing as Babe. Thus begins Sidney’s descent into success – his gradual move from derided outsider to confidante of starlet Sophie Maes – and a love affair with colleague Alison Olsen, that will either make him or break him.
On October 9th 2007 Glamour magazine held its premiere for the 2007 “Reel Moments” short films in Los Angeles. Kirsten, Kate Hudson, and Rita Wilson were the first time directors involved, and all three of them attended the premiere. “Welcome” was the name of Kirsten’s film, which is a modern day ghost story and stars Winona Ryder.
Kirsten spent about 6 weeks in a rehab center in early 2008 suffering with depression. Shortly after she left rehab Kirsten filmed All Good Things with Hollywood cutie Ryan Gosling. Unfortunately the Weinstein Company, who produced the film, ran into financial difficulties & the film wasn’t released until November 2010 after the U.S rights to the film had been acquired by Andrew Jarecki, the director of the film. Kirsten got great reviews for her performance in the film & was definitely unlucky not to earn a nomination for the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award. The film is also notable for featuring Kirstens first ‘proper’ nude scene.
In 2010 Kirsten directed her second short film “Bastard“, a modern take on a very well known story. The film starred Brian Geraghty, Lukas Haas & Juno Temple. She appeared in front of the camera in the short film “The Second Bakery Attack”, about a newly wed couple who attempt to save their marriage by recreating a petty crime. Brian Geraghty also starred in this film.
Melancholia, directed by the infamous Lars von Trier premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and released in the U.S and UK during the autumn. Kirsten played Justine, a woman suffering from severe depression. The film consists of two segments entitled Justine and Claire. The first segment is of Justine’s disasterous wedding day, and the second segment shows how Justine and her sister Claire deal with the possibilty that a giant planet called Melancholia may collide with and destroy planet earth. The film co-stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland and Alexander Skarsgard. Kirsten has earned rave reviews for her performance in the film and was a surprise but deserving winner of the Cannes Best Actress Award. It’s expected that she will be a strong contender for Best Actress nominations for next years Academy Awards and Golden Globes.
In 2011 Kirsten starred alongside Jim Sturgess in Upside Down – a love story about two people who live on parallel worlds. They talk to each other via a video link & fall in love but the different atmospheres of each world prevents them from being together. Walter Salles’ On The Road is where Kirsten met her now boyfriend Garrett Hedlund. Kirsten had the supporting role of Camille in the long awaited film adaptation of the seminal 1957 novel by Jack Kerouac.
In 2014 we saw the release of The Two Faces of January where she starred opposite Oscar Isaac and Viggo Mortensen. The film was released in the UK on May 16th 2014 in the U.S. on VOD (Video On Demand) on July 3rd.
In January 2014, Kirsten started shooting for Jeff Nichols’ science fiction-drama film Midnight Special, with Michael Shannon and Joel Edgerton.
Kirsten had been linked to several other projects that weren’t ever given the green light. The first being Sweet Relief. Kirsten was set to play Marla Ruzicka, a relief worker who advocated for Iraqi and Afghani victims of the American-led invasions of their respective countries. Also the biopic film about Blondie. Kirsten would have played Debbie Harry, lead singer with the band Blondie. Also A Jealous Ghost – a modern day ghost story with Kirsten as Sallie, an American student who takes on the job as a nanny to two children in a remote English country house. As far as we are aware either Kirsten has dropped out or the films have been shelved for now.
Kirsten has also appeared in various music videos, including Savage Garden‘s “I Knew I Loved You,”, Beastie Boys‘s “Make Some Noise” and R.E.M.’s “We All Go Back to Where We Belong“. In an interview with The Advertiser, Dunst explained that she has no plans to follow the steps of other actors who release albums, saying: “Definitely not. No way. It worked when Barbra Streisand was doing it, but now it’s a little cheesy, I think. It works better when singers are in movies.”
In other works Kirsten is highly active in charity organizations such as the Pediatric AIDS Foundation, The Art Of Elysium, & Invisible Children, and frequently attends philanthropic functions that benefit women and children. The Art Of Elysium is a charity to help seriously ill children, and it’s one that Kirsten is very passionate about. The charity awarded Kirsten it’s Angel Award in recognition of the work she does for them, and there are further details at www.theartofelysium.org.