The Untold Truth Of Kirsten Dunst

In her lifetime, Kirsten Dunst has been a child vampire, a cheerleader, a queen, a Minnesota hairdresser, and more — and she continues to transform both personally and professionally. The actress successfully made the transition from child actor to a bonafide movie star, and she even added Emmy-nominated television star to her long list of accolades in 2016.

Audiences have watched Dunst have her first on-screen kiss with Brad Pitt at age 11 in Interview with the Vampire (it was "gross"), lead the Toro cheerleading squad to victory in Bring It On, play a damsel in Spider-Man, and essentially grow up in front of their screens. As the actress continues her life in the spotlight, she has gotten engaged, become a new mom, and been made the star of Showtime series On Becoming a God in Central Florida.

The actress can seemingly do it all, and she makes her own choices. Dunst told Entertainment Weekly in August 2019, "When I make something, I feel like no one's ever going to see it," noting, "I feel like I do it for myself." Doing projects for herself seems to be working. This is the untold truth of Kirsten Dunst.

Kirsten Dunst made her big-screen debut in Woody Allen's "Oedipus Wrecks," a segment of the 1989 anthology film New York Stories, as noted by the Chicago Tribune. Just a few years later, she starred alongside Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise as the scene-stealing Claudia in Interview with the Vampire. The actress has gone on to have a prosperous acting career, and none of it would have been possible if it weren't for her mother.

In an interview with The Guardian, Dunst explained that her mother, Inez, decided she was "destined to be an actress" because she was always a happy child. Her parents eventually started bringing her to auditions for television ads. It worked out because Dunst landed her first commercial at age 3 (via Chicago Tribune)! 

While the actress began her career early, she credits her mom for keeping her grounded. She told Marie Claire UK in August 2015, "Being a child actress can really be unhealthy for your psyche. But my mom always sent me to normal school, so I never missed out on the prom or field trips or any of that stuff."

Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise were arguably the hottest movie stars of the '90s, and still are to this day. Kirsten Dunst was the envy of girls everywhere when she got to star alongside the Hollywood heavyweights as a pre-teen in the 1994 hit film Interview with the Vampire, and, in August 2019, the actress opened up to Stephen Colbert about what it was like to film with the A-listers.

During an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Dunst said, "They treated me like a little sister. I was very sweet. I was a very innocent 12-year-old. I was just doing my job, and they were very sweet to me." Dunst went on to explain that, at the time, she saw Pitt in the film A River Runs Through It, and she decided she was going to name her son after his character in the film: "His name was Tristan and I was like, 'I'm going to name my first son Tristan.' You know, little girl stuff," she told Colbert.

After her Golden Globe-nominated performance in Interview with the Vampire, Kirsten Dunst's career was on the Hollywood fast track. She continued to land roles perfectly suited for a kid, including Little Women and Jumanji, but, as she grew up, her roles grew up with her. When the actress was 16, she landed the role of Lux Lisbon in Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides. The film, based on the novel of the same name, focused on the brief and mysterious lives of the Lisbon sisters — and included an appearance by '90s heartthrob Josh Hartnett.

In August 2019, Dunst reflected on the film, telling Yahoo! Entertainment, "I feel like Virgin Suicides was a huge deal for me because it was that first, you know, I got to be beautiful, but 'of substance' in a movie." She went on, "I was taken care of 'cause it was Sofia [Coppola], a female filmmaker," noting, "That was a transition that I think was a very important one for me and my career."

The Virgin Suicides was the first collaboration between Kirsten Dunst and director Sofia Coppola, but it wasn't their last. The duo have worked together on several films, including Marie Antoinette and The Beguiled, and they have developed a close bond over the course of their working relationship. Not only is Coppola fiercely protective of her muse, but Dunst also credits the director for boosting her confidence as a teen.

In an interview with Variety in May 2017, Dunst detailed an invaluable compliment Coppola gave her when they initially met, saying, "She said to me, 'I love your teeth; don't ever fix your teeth.' I remember doing a Spider-Man movie later, and one of the producers was like, 'I need to take you to the dentist!' They even fixed my teeth on the poster. But I just knew I was never doing that." Dunst went on to describe how "cool" Coppola is and said, "She gave me confidence in little things that I wouldn't necessarily have had."

Before Marvel rebooted the Spider-Man series starring Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire played the famous superhero from 2002 to 2007, with Kirsten Dunst playing his lady love, Mary Jane Watson. The series was a huge hit, and Dunst thinks those films are better than the ones that came later.

The actress talked about the reboot in an interview with Marie Claire UK in 2017, saying, "We made the best ones, so who cares? I'm like, 'You make it all you want.' They're just milking that cow for money. It's so obvious. You know what I mean?"

Dunst wanted a fourth Spider-Man film to happen, which could explain her negativity toward the Tom Holland-starring reboot. She explained in an interview with Variety in May 2017, "I loved it, and I wish we could have made a fourth." She also admitted she hadn't seen the new Spider-Man films, saying, "Everyone likes our Spider-Man.' C'mon, am I right or what? Listen, I'd rather be in the first ones than the new ones."

Kirsten Dunst began her Hollywood career at age 3, and hasn't really stopped since. In February 2008, things came to a boiling point for the star, who entered Utah's Cirque Lodge Treatment Center. Initial sources told People that the actress, then 25, had entered rehab after "partying hard." However, Dunst spoke out against the claims, saying she sought help for depression.

In a May 2008 interview with E! News, she said, "I was struggling, and I had the opportunity to go somewhere and take care of myself. I was fortunate to have the resources to do it. My friends and family thought it was a good idea, too."

Dunst opened up about her difficult experiences in Hollywood to Town & Country in 2015, saying, "What people expect of an actor is totally ridiculous." She explained, "It's unfair that an artist is expected to speak really well in public and have skin tough enough to withstand sometimes really hurtful criticism, but also, in order to do the job, be really sensitive and in touch with their feelings. So all you can do is be yourself — just be who the hell you are."

Actress Kirsten Dunst starred in two films that would lead Noah Hawley, creator of FX's Fargo, to cast her in the second season of the hit series: All Good Things and Melancholia. In Fargo's second season, Dunst played a Minnesota beautician caught up in a murder plot. She detailed the challenging process of filming for TV in Canada in an interview with Town & Country in August 2015, saying, "I remember crying to my mom, 'I don't want to go back there! Don't make me!'" 

On making the decision to join the cast of Fargo, Dunst told Variety in October 2015, "I wasn't sure if I was ready to do television, but since it was a miniseries I was all for it. I don't think I'm ready to be committed to a series, especially if it did OK and went for four years and I couldn't do whatever I want."

Her performance in Season 2 of Fargo earned her an Emmy nomination for outstanding lead actress in a limited series or movie in 2016.

Kirsten Dunst has dated some Hollywood hunks over the course of her career. While filming On the Road in 2010, Dunst met fellow actor Garrett Hedlund, and the pair hit it off. The actors began dating in 2012, but maintained a relatively low-key relationship.

Dunst spoke to Vanity Fair about her relationship expectations in November 2015, saying, "I appreciate old-fashioned manners." She continued, "I want a guy to pay for dinner and open the door for me. I love the masculine; I've dated men who had more of a feminine side and it didn't work." Judging by the length of their relationship, it's safe to say Hedlund met Dunst's expectations.

In August 2015, she opened up to Town & Country about her relationship with Hedlund, saying, "We've been together for three and a half years, so, yes, it's going really well." She went on, "We're the same age. We have similar backgrounds [Hedlund is from Minnesota]. He feels like family to me." Sadly, the couple split by April 2016, after four years together.

While Kirsten Dunst ended her four-year relationship with actor Garrett Hedlund by April 2016, the actress didn't remain single for long. After starring alongside former Friday Night Lights actor Jesse Plemons in Season 2 of Fargo, the pair sparked romance rumors when they were spotted kissing in May 2016. 

The couple then sparked engagement rumors when Dunst was seen wearing what appeared to be an engagement ring in January 2017. By June 2017, Dunst was openly talking about her engagement to Plemons to People, saying she was "very happy" and "not in any rush" to plan their wedding.

When asked about becoming engaged to the person who played her husband on Fargo, the actress opened up to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show in June 2017, explaining, "We got together a year afterwards. We became really good friends first." She blushed when asked about how their relationship started and how Plemons proposed, but she admitted, "I was a little sick when he did it, which was funny. But that's good — in sickness and in health."

As time went on, Kirsten Dunst became more comfortable talking about her engagement to Jesse Plemons. When the actress appeared on Live with Kelly and Ryan in September 2017, she told the hosts her engagement ring was vintage and that wedding planning was going well. She said, "It's good. It's so funny, I never thought I was that person who'd have, like, a Pinterest board. I'm doing all that, like pinning things. It's really fun, and, because we create it together from the beginning, it's a really nice thing to do together."

The wedding planning continued in August 2019, as Dunst explained at the TCA Summer Press Tour in Beverly Hills while promoting her Showtime series On Becoming a God in Central Florida. Dunst discussed her upcoming wedding to fiancé Plemons, telling Us Weekly, "We're definitely going to have a wedding eventually, but probably [a] small [ceremony] at home or something, like, really intimate, not a big wedding."

The actress said the wedding is a "priority," but admits that life has gotten too busy for the star. She noted, "So it has to be a good time when we can all have fun."

In 2018, Kirsten Dunst made a stunning — and stylish — revelation in Rodarte's Fall 2018 lookbook, Women Who Inspire Us: She was pregnant with her first child with fiancé Jesse Plemons. In the beautiful portrait series, Dunst can be seen wearing a floor-length dress and is surrounded by flowers while cradling her baby bump. The actress later gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Ennis, in May 2018.

Prior to welcoming her son, Dunst told Marie Claire UK in June 2017, "It's time to have babies and chill." The new mom had also admitted, "I wasn't one of those 'I need a baby!' people until my goddaughter was born." She explained, "I love her so much. That love is just like... you can't experience that unless you have a kid. I put her to bed last night and she woke up this morning and said to her mom, 'Where's Kiki?' I just love that love. That's what I want."

Over the course of her three decades working in Hollywood, Kirsten Dunst has developed an impeccable sense of style that's both chic and effortless. The woman knows good fashion, so it's no surprise that she was one of the first stars to wear the fashion brand Rodarte. The actress is a big fan of the fashion brand's founders, sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy, and has maintained a close friendship with the pair since first meeting them when she was in her early 20s.

The actress described her relationship with the sisters in an interview with Town & Country in August 2015, saying, "We're a lot alike. They live with their parents in Pasadena, and I live nine houses away from my mother in the Valley. We're very family-oriented, and when we're not working we like to be home and chilled out."

Not only has Dunst worn Rodarte, but she has starred in Woodshock, a film directed by the fashion designers. Further proving their bond, Dunst confirmed her pregnancy in a 2018 Rodarte lookbook, and, in an interview with Live with Kelly and Ryan in September 2017, Dunst revealed that the sisters were designing her wedding dress. 

Becoming a mom didn't slow down Kirsten Dunst's career. Just five months after giving birth to her first child, a son she and Jesse Plemons named Ennis, she returned to television, starring in Showtime's On Becoming a God in Central Florida. While working on the series took her away from Ennis, Dunst actually found that work was a welcome relief from mommy duties.

She detailed the experience on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in August 2019, saying, "It actually was a little bit of a break from cleaning bottles and things like that. ... It's never ending. You clean one and there's another one to clean!" Thankfully, Dunst has a lot of support around her, including Plemons, who Dunst says is a great dad who helps clean baby bottles, too. 

In an interview with Build Series that same month, Dunst explained that having a baby helped her experience her role as Krystal in On Becoming a God in a way she hadn't before. She shared, "For me, having a kid ... you just live life differently. And you act differently. You just don't care as much. And it's really freeing." 

In her Showtime series On Becoming a God in Central Florida, Kirsten Dunst plays a recently widowed single mother named Krystal Stubbs, who is essentially forced into a multi-level marketing scheme to make ends meet. For the role, Dunst had to get a spray tan every Sunday before filming. This posed an issue at bedtime for her young son, as she explained on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in August 2019.

While promoting the series, she told Colbert, "I had a spray tan every Sunday for this role. ... I remember Monday morning my mother-in-law is texting me. She's like, 'I think Ennis has a little bit of this brown, reddish hair coming in right here!' I was like, 'Lisa, that's my spray tan!'"

The actress went on, "So, on Sundays I couldn't hold my kid." She added, "I would postpone it to the latest possible minute so that I could hold my baby before he went to bed ... I couldn't put him to bed on Sunday nights because I would just get spray tan all over him!"