Kirsten Dunst looked back fondly on her memories of working with the late actor/comedian Robin Williams.
Dunst was 13 when she co-starred with Williams on the 1995 family adventure film Jumanji, based on the children's picture book of the same name, centered on a supernatural board game that resulted in dangerous encounters with jungle animals brought to life.
The original film, which started a franchise, also starred David Alan Grier, Bonnie Hunt, Jonathan Hyde, and Bebe Neuwirth.
Now 41, Dunst, who has been promoting her dystopian thriller film Civil War, spoke to Variety and waxed nostalgia over her illustrious career since her breakthrough role in 1994 playing Claudia in Interview with the Vampire opposite A-listers Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.
Upon reflecting on her time working on Jumanji just a year after Interview with the Vampire, Dunst had nothing but praise for Williams.
Kirsten Dunst Says Robin Williams Got Her a Computer as Jumanji Wrap Gift: 'Most Generous, Kind, Funny Person' https://t.co/Hh6YezSCOa
— People (@people) April 3, 2024
Williams was known for his work on iconic films like Dead Poets Society and Mrs. Doubtfire. The legendary actor died on August 11, 2014 at the age of 63.
Dunst said that when production wrapped on Jumanji, Williams gave the young teen her very first computer as a present.
“It was an Apple," she said, adding:
"The ones that came in all those different colors."
She also said of her avuncular co-star:
"He was like the most generous, kind, funny person.”
Dunst also expressed admiration for Williams in a 2021 Vanity Fair video in which she recalled:
"Being on the set of Jumanji watching Robin Williams was so exciting for me."
"When you're a kid you don't appreciate things as much as when you look back as an adult."
"It was really special to be on that set with him."
You can watch a flashback interview clip from the ET vault featuring a young Dunst in 1995.
Kirsten Dunst Does Robin Williams IMPRESSION on Jumanji Set (Flashback)youtu.be
"He's one of the funniest guys," the then 13-year-old said of Williams.
"And he's such a nice and genuine man."
"He would improvise sometimes, but you know you just have to keep going with him."
"He's really funny. It's hard to keep a straight face," she said of the filming process, which required her to "zone" out during scenes with Williams and his fellow comedian and co-star Bonnie Hunt to prevent from laughing during takes.
Here's a trailer for the first Jumanji movie.
Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt, Bradley Pierce, and Kirsten Dunst star in 1995's Jumanji — a perfect film. Now on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/9h4a3g1MwC
— Netflix (@netflix) July 7, 2023
Also in her recent Vanity Fair interview, Dunst said her Interview with the Vampire co-star Tom Cruise was just as impressionable.
“He treated me like a princess,” she said, adding:
“There’d be a gorgeous Christmas tree fully decorated in my dressing room from Tom.”
Dunst's career peaked in the late '90s and early 2000s when she played teen leads in films like Drop Dead Gorgeous, The Virgin Suicides, and as Mary Jane Watson in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy from 2002 to 2007.
She recently experienced somewhat of a resurgence following her critically lauded performance in 2021's The Power of the Dog, for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination.
During the two years before Power of the Dog, she was largely absent from Hollywood, chalking it up to ageism in the industry and refusing to be typecast as "sad mom" characters amidst a dearth of meaty roles for "women my age."
In her new movie Civil War, Dunst plays a journalist who travels across the country against the backdrop of the Second American Civil War between the U.S. government and the separatist "Western Forces" alliance of Texas and California.
“I was fully immersed. I just remember feeling like I had never read anything like this before,” she said when lobbying for the part, adding:
“I haven’t done anything like this.”
She said of the anti-war film written and directed by Alex Garland:
“This movie, after you see it, you want to talk about it for a while with people."
"And I think any movie that does that is incredible.”
You can watch the trailer here.
Civil War | Official Trailer 2 HD | A24youtu.be
Civil War also stars Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, and Nick Offerman.
It will be released in U.S. theaters on April 12.
