Kirsten Dunst opened up about ageism in Hollywood being a primary reason why she has been absent from the acting scene.
Dunst emerged onto the scene with her star-making turn as a child vampire in 1994's Interview with a Vampire for which she nabbed a Golden Globe nomination.
She later gained further success in leading roles in teen comedies like Drop Dead Gorgeous, Bring It On, and most famously for the Spider-Man films playing Mary Jane Watson opposite Tobey Maguire in the titular role.
Her last movie was Jane Campion's 2021 film The Power of the Dog. In the film distributed by Netflix, Dunst played the maudlin character of alcoholic widow Rose Gordon, a role which earned Dunst her first Oscar nomination and a fourth Golden Globe nod for Best Supporting Actress.
The 41-year-old said she hasn't been acting lately because she tends to be typecast in "sad mom" roles.
In her first interview in two years, she told Marie Claire:
"Every role I was being offered was the sad mom."
"To be honest, that's been hard for me...because I need to feed myself."
She also admitted:
"The hardest thing is being a mom and...not feeling like, I have nothing for myself. That's every mother—not just me."
Dunst also pointed to an unfortunate casting trend for women in Hollywood.
"There's definitely less good roles for women my age," she said.
Moviegoers recognized the Hollywood setback traditionally not faced by the opposite gender.
Fans encouraged her not to be so hard on herself.
Eventually, the right project came along that she thought was refreshing.
Dunst announced her return to Hollywood with a role she referred to as "elevated action" after being asked if she felt the impact of limited roles for women her age.
"Yes," she told Marie Claire editor Michelle Ruiz. "That's why I did Civil War."
In Civil War, the new dystopian thriller by Ex Machina screenwriter Alex Garland, Dunst plays photojournalist Lee Smith, who risks her life by joining other journalists traveling across the raging landscape to cover the Second American Civil War between the American government and the separatist "Western Forces" alliance of Texas and California.
It was unlike any other project Dunst was previously involved in.
"When I read the script, I thought, 'I've never done anything like this,'" said Dunst, who happens to be a huge fan of Garland's work.
She said of the writer and director:
"I just love that he's someone who pushes boundaries."
Even though she earlier expressed refusal to "capitalize off the Spider-Man thing" to become a "movie-star-movie-star," Dunst, who dreams of landing a TV show that films in LA so she doesn't have to leave her family for work, isn't opposed to returning to doing superhero films.
"Because you get paid a lot of money, and I have two children, and I support my mother," she cited as an incentive.
Dunst is married to Friday Night Lights actor Jesse Plemmons, who she met while co-starring with him in the second season of the FX anthology series Fargo.
They share two boys, Ennis Howard, who was born in 2018, and James Robert, who was born in 2021.
Civil War will debut on March 14 at the South by Southwest film festival, followed by a wide release by A24 on April 12, 2024.
