While she gained global recognition for her role as Mary Jane in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, Kirsten Dunst has been in the industry since she was seven. She gained notoriety with her role in the Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise starring gothic horror film Interview with the Vampire.
An interview during the film’s promotions has recently resurfaced, where an eleven-year-old Kirsten Dunst claims that she was uncomfortable with a kiss that she shares with Pitt, who at the time was over twenty years older than her.
The Brad Pitt And Tom Cruise Starrer Which Marred Controversy
Neil Jordan’s Interview With The Vampire was based on the first book of Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles. The film followed the story of two vampires in the 1800s in San Fransisco, who raise a child that they turn into a vampire. Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise played the two main vampires Louis de Point du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt respectively, while Kirsten Dunst played the 10-year-old Claudia.
The film received mixed reviews upon release with many praising the gothic atmosphere of Jordan’s direction while criticizing the casting. Oprah Winfrey apparently walks out of a screening ten minutes into the film as she felt uncomfortable with the gore. Despite mixed reviews, the film was a box office success, earning close to $225 million against a $60 million budget.
Also read: How Much Did Kirsten Dunst Make from Spider-Man?
Kirsten Dunst’s Discomfort During The Infamous Kiss
The film, which was released in 1994, recently came into scrutiny as an interview during the promotion of the film resurfaced. Eleven years old at the time, Kirsten Dunst expresses that she was grossed out by one particular scene in the film. The scene in question was her kiss with Brad Pitt, who was over two decades older. It was Dunst’s first kiss.
Voicing out her discomfort with the scene, in an interview with Entertainment, she said,
“I hated [the kiss] so much because Brad was like my older brother on set and it’s kind of like kissing your brother. It’s weird because he’s an older guy and I had to kiss him on the lips, so it was gross.”
She repeated her sentiments four years later while talking with Interview magazine,
“Kissing Brad was so uncomfortable for me. I remember saying in interviews that I thought it was gross, that Brad had cooties. I mean, I was 10.”
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair where she gave a breakdown of her career, she mentioned the incident again,
“That was the worst thing I did and also having obviously to kiss Brad Pitt at that point. I was a little girl and he was like a brother to me and it was very weird even though it was a peck. I was very not into it.”
Another interview of Dunst when she was twelve and was promoting Little Women also resurfaced. When asked if she was uncomfortable with kissing Brad Pitt, she stood her ground and agrees, saying that she was only twelve while he was a 31-year-old man. “Why would I enjoy kissing him?” she asks.
Hollywood has been guilty of casting leading actors with inappropriate age gaps between them, with the woman usually being younger. While the practice has still not ended, the Internet lauded Dunst for sensibly speaking out about her discomfort at a very young age.
Source: The Things
