The first significant indie hit of 2024, Alex Garland’s “Civil War,” was a disturbing film to drop during an election year. Writer-director Garland (“Ex Machina,” “Annihilation”) created a hellscape with echoes of conflicts in places like Ukraine, but also one that nodded to the ugly divisions of January 6 and escalated them into a harrowing portrait of an angry America at war with itself.
“When we started rehearsal, the war in Ukraine broke out,” said Kirsten Dunst, who stars in the film as conflict photographer Lee Smith. “We were watching journalists under fire, we were watching maternity wards being bombed. It was always around us.” She paused. “I think that for Lee in this film, having it be on her home turf is very disturbing. But also, it’s like, ‘We tried to warn you guys.’ And I think that’s what makes this movie so powerful, that Alex did set it in America.”
In a career that began when she was seven and has included “Interview With the Vampire,” “The Virgin Suicides,” “Bring It On,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “Marie Antoinette,” “Melancholia,” the second season of “Fargo” and three “Spider-Man” movies, Dunst appears to have settled into a discerning phase of her career: She doesn’t work as often as she used to, but her last movies have been with Garland and Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog,” for which she received her first Oscar nomination), and her next two will be with Derek Cianfrance (“Blue Valentine”) and Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”).
Not bad for a 42-year-old actress in a business geared for the young, right? “I think I’ve gotten better roles, actually,” she said. “Derek and Ruben are dream directors for me. I have nothing to complain about.”
She also has reason not to overwork herself, with 6- and 3-year-old sons from her relationship with actor Jesse Plemons. (She was wearing a witch’s cloak and peaked hat when she signed on to Zoom for this Oct. 31 interview, explaining that she was heading to a Halloween parade right after the conversation.) The kids can complicate work for Dunst and Plemons, but traveling together as a family can also have its perks: When an actor originally cast for a small part in “Civil War” had to drop out after booking a Marvel film, Plemons stepped in and delivered a terrifying two-day, single-scene performance as a militia member who casually murders anyone he doesn’t consider truly American.
“We didn’t talk to each other until we were done those days,” Dunst said. “I gave him his space, he gave me mine, and I think it was so disturbing for him to play that role. But it was for all the actors — I remember Wagner (Moura) just crying on the grass after we were done.”
But she did her best to leave those feelings behind after work. “I’d go home and my son would come into bed to be next to me while I’d read my lines and go over my scenes for the next day,” she said. “He liked eating barbecue potato chips and watching his show while I did that. So I tried not to stay in that headspace at home, even though it naturally becomes part of you. You don’t want it to come home with you, but it kind of does anyway.”
She loved the idea that her character was a photojournalist “and no one mentioned the fact that she’s a female journalist or anything like that.” She also took photos constantly until Garland and the film’s unit photographer were satisfied that she moved like a real journalist — “I didn’t want to look like amateur hour, you know what I mean?” — but she never became accustomed to the violence in “Civil War,” which felt far more immediate and lethal than anything you’d encounter in, say, a “Spider-Man” movie.
“It felt very, very realistic,” she said. “Alex wanted it to feel as real as possible, so he didn’t use half rounds. He used full rounds for the blanks, and really powerful explosions. And the way the camera followed us, too, it didn’t make anything look cool. It just felt very immersive. The last two weeks of filming were just tanks, explosions, constant gunfire and stunts. It’s a lot on your body, and to hear that for two weeks straight is very intense. And then you read about a school shooting.”
She stopped, shook her head and struggled to describe it. “It’s just…” She trailed off, then sighed and offered a resigned shrug. “Yeah,” she said softly. “Yeah.”
This story first appeared in the Race Begins issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.
