Kirsten Dunst: Why the ‘Power of the Dog’ came at the Right Time

This is a story about “The Power of the Dog”First appeared in theIt’s all down to the wireof ’s awards magazine.

She’s not even 40 yet, so why does it seem as if Kirsten Dunst has been overlooked by the Oscars for years, maybe even decades? It feels that way, of course, because we’ve been watching her since she was a child, from her startling preteen performances in “Interview With the Vampire” “Little Women”Through coming-of age stories such as “The Virgin Suicides” “Bring It On,”Hits like “Spider-Man”These are some of my favorite and most important favorites “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” “Melancholia.”

After 33 years of acting, there are now almost 60 movies and 19 TV shows, including the most recent. “On Becoming a God in Central Florida”) and two children with her partner, Jesse Plemons, she has her first Oscar nomination for Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog.”

“Kirsten is a real woman,”Campion said. “She has wild transgressive opinions at times, she says whatever is on her mind. I love her because of the kind of woman she is: beautiful and womanly and vulnerable, and also tough.”

In the slow-burn drama, which led all films with 12 Oscar nominations, she plays Rose Gordon, a widow and young mother who marries Plemons’ George Burbank. He takes her to a remote ranch where she and her son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), are relentlessly bullied by George’s brother, Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch). It’s a desolate, sorrowful portrayal of a woman who drowns her fears with alcohol and sinks into a heartbreaking haze. And it’s another mature performance from an actress who rebooted her career and life in the late 2000s after undergoing treatment for depression and beginning work with acting coach Greta Seacat.

“More than anything, she’s just there,”Campion stated. “She and Jesse have the capacity to just be totally present in the character.”

Jane Campion had approached you years ago for another project, hadn’t she?
Yeah. In my early 20s, she approached us about making a film that was based upon this short Alice Munro story. “The Runaway.”Then nothing. I don’t know what it was, maybe a rights thing, but at least I was in her sights, I guess.

The good news was that she also wanted you for this — but by the way, this is her first movie where the lead characters are male.
It’s okay! It’s OK.

And also your character is pretty passive, which is not the kind of role you’ve been playing lately.
Yes, I do. But I’ll play anything for Jane. I’m always director-driven, so it’s less about the role I’m playing. It was thrilling for me to be part of one her films. Although roles can come at different times in your lives, they are there for specific reasons.

It is possible that you are more equipped to perform this type of performance now than you were in your 20s.
Yes. 100%. I don’t mean that I didn’t work very differently back then. I hadn’t found the way to approach a script yet that I do now. It’s no secret that I grew up in the film industry and learned my tastes in films while making them. It was necessary to learn acting and make that transition for myself. I was fortunate to figure it out. I don’t think I could have delivered this type of performance in my 20s. It’s impossible. Actresses are made better by being mothers. I feel so much more fearless as an actress now that I’ve had kids.

You had a kind of mid-career adjustment in how you approached your work, didn’t you?
It was. This is the script I took. “All Good Things,”I had the opportunity to work with some of the most talented acting coaches, and I was fortunate enough to find Greta Seacat. I felt that she understood me and that she was open to sharing my emotions. It was a change. It made it possible for me to do it, rather than for others. It’s now less about performing than it is about doing this for yourself or figuring out your own stuff while you’re doing it.

Did you know that certain keys were available to you as you prepared for Rose?
It was really about creating this monster for myself, because Benedict and I don’t really have many scenes together, and we didn’t speak on set, ever. It was about creating a personal life that reflected the meaning of each scene, as well as how to portray the descent. There are many methods I use to accomplish this. Sometimes it’s just about living in, breathing in the scene and letting things come to you. I work with my dreams, which makes me feel more grounded as the person I’m playing. It gives you the confidence to be yourself and not be restricted in any way.

It is a very vulnerable, fragile performance.
Well, I knew that my performance would be handled in the right way in Jane’s hands. She is a very open person and wants to see the light in all things. I knew I could be vulnerable and let my hair down in order to be taken care of by her.

When you’re making a movie like this or “Melancholia,”Is it difficult to play a character who is depressed?
I love what my job entails. I like digging deep in the soul — that’s my job, you know? This is why I feel comfortable expressing my feelings. But also, with Rose, it didn’t feel like depression to me. It didn’t feel similar at all to “Melancholia.”Rose felt more like Rose because of her anxiety, her hangovers, and the cycle of feeling horrible and crazy. This was more depression than self-medicating, making her sick. She was very depressed. And there were times where I didn’t speak on set to anyone just because I wanted to feel small in my voice and myself.

I drew from a lot of different things, like hearing a friend tell a story when they’ve been drinking too much. She’s like a lost little girl who’s thinking about the past, when things were great and when people thought she was beautiful and liked her, you know? It’s a very sad, sad place to be, but those things feel good to act because it feels like I’m getting something off my own chest.

It was helpful to have Jesse, your partner in the process.
Yeah. This role made me feel more insecure. Rose was so insecure, that I often second-guessed my self more than usual. To have him home was a comfort. We’d have lunch together and take naps next to each other in our little outfits.

To be able to stop being your assertive, brassy character was a kind of creative whiplash “On Becoming a God in Central Florida”To this. There’s not a lot in common between those two women.
Not at all. Absolute opposites. I was supposed back in time to complete a second season (of). “On Becoming a God”), but then COVID hit and I got pregnant and we weren’t in vaccine land yet. So that was over. But it’s so much easier making a movie than it is making a television show. I mean, television’s four scenes a day. Films take half the time to complete a scene. After working in television, this was a real luxury.

At this stage in your career, you’ve done a little bit of everything, and you’ve been doing it for almost your whole life. I was on set of “Small Soldiers” a great many years ago…
Steve! I can’t believe you were on the set of “Small Soldiers”!

Yep. And I remember that when (director) Joe Dante was showing me around the set, he took me into your character’s bedroom and told me that they’d originally put boy-band posters on the walls. He told me that you had come in and asked for Led Zeppelin posters.
That’s really funny. What age was I when I made that? “Small Soldiers”? I can’t even remember.

Mid-teens? Mid-teens?
It was my teens. This was my first experience with visual effects, so it was hard to make. It was after. “Jumanji,”It’s a thought. It’s not fun to work with small fake things. It’s just acting with little X’s on the ground.

Did you ever find something you did earlier in the career? “What was I doing?”Oder, on the other side, “Hey, I kind of knew what I was doing”?
I don’t really judge my past self. It was my past, what I was doing in my life, what the director needed of me and how those relationships were. Listen, it’s always easier when you’re in the hands of a really good director. Sofia (Coppola) was so young that it really influenced a lot my decisions and how I approached this industry, I think.

I saw an interview you did with Alexander Skarsgård where you said something along the lines of, “When we get older, hopefully we’ll just get more eccentric and awesome.”Are you on the right track?
It is clear that I feel less concerned about others’ opinions as I age. I feel safe in my work and in my relationships. I found someone I like, we have a beautiful family, and I know I’m very lucky. However, I also worked hard to get here. That’s the thing: It’s not just luck. Things don’t always come easy. This industry can be very challenging, and I’m proud of it.

Are you ready for more eccentricity?
(Laughs) We’ll see. I mean, I’ve got two kids to raise now. I can’t get TooIt’s still quite eccentric. When they’re in college, maybe then I’ll get my 10 cats and stuff.

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