In December 2014, “Interview with the Vampire” actress Kirsten Dunst joined her boyfriend, Garrett Hedlund, for the premiere of his latest film, Unbroken, held at TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
“I auditioned many, many times for this role. This was also a huge deal for me. This was my, you know, breakout role,” Dunst revealed in a Netflix video about her audition for the part in Interview with the Vampire.
“And then I had another screen test after that with Tom Cruise, and I remember I was the tallest of all the young girls. He had to pick each one of us up and, like, carry us around just to see how we looked Tom and who looked the most childlike, I guess.”
Kirsten Dunst shows off her sparkling diamond earrings (Credit: FayesVision / WENN)
“I remember Tom whispering to me, like, ‘Tuck your legs under’ so I’d look as tiny as possible ’cause I was the tallest girl,” the actress added about her short co-star Tom Cruise.
“So I knew he was kind of like rooting for me. We were both from New Jersey, and I think, you know, he was like, ‘Let this Jersey girl have it.'”
Despite an 18-year age difference between them, Kirsten Dunst shared her first on-screen kiss in Interview with the Vampire with Brad Pitt (Credit: Warner Bros.)
Dunst gained worldwide recognition for her portrayal of the child vampire Claudia in the 1994 American gothic horror film Interview with the Vampire. Natalie Portman and Evan Rachel Wood auditioned for the same role.
Starring opposite Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in the film based on Anne Rice’s novel of the same name, she played a surrogate daughter to Cruise’s and Pitt’s characters.
In a controversial scene, she shares her first on-screen kiss with Pitt’s character Louis de Pointe du Lac, who is almost two decades her senior.
“Yeah, it was gross! I stand by that. It would have been so much creepier if an 11-year-old was like, ‘It was great.’ You’d be like, ‘There’s something wrong with this child,” Dunst said in August 2019 at the Los Angeles premiere of “Becoming A God In Central Florida.”
Kirsten Dunst was 11 when filming Interview with the Vampire with Brad Pitt (Credit: Warner Bros.)
“They were so sweet to me,” she complimented her co-stars Pitt and Cruise. “I mean, listen, that production, that film, was like nothing else I’ve ever experienced — maybe Marie Antoinette, because of where we shot. Other than that, they just don’t make movies like that anymore.”
Born on April 30, 1982, in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, the Jumanji child actress was 11 years old when filming the movie and turned 12 on April 30, 1994.
Interview with the Vampire was released in November 1994 and Dunst was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film.
“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,” she said in a 1998 interview for Interview magazine.
Brad Pitt as Louis de Pointe du Lac in Interview with the Vampire (Credit: Warner Bros.)
“I was with my coach,” Dunst said about her audition for the movie in 2016 in a Variety chat with Rami Malek.
“He was outside of the room. He listened on the door to hear, like, what I was doing. And he knows I didn’t nail it. And I walked out, and he was like, ‘No, you go back in there.’ He’s like, ‘Apologize to the casting director.’ He’s like, ‘She didn’t do what she can do.'”
“I remember Brad would watch lots of Real World episodes. He had this long hair. He was just a hippie- ish cool dude. Everyone at the time was like, ‘you’re so lucky you kissed Brad Pitt,’ but I thought it was disgusting. I didn’t kiss anyone else until I was 16, I think. I was a late bloomer,” Dunst revealed to Bullet magazine in 2013.
Garrett Hedlund and girlfriend Kirsten Dunst at the premiere of his latest film, Unbroken, held at TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on December 15, 2014 (Credit: FayesVision / WENN)
“I did, but I was also very innocent,” she said on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in December 2019 when asked if she was excited to star opposite superstars Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise.
“I feel like I watched Brad in A River Runs Through It and Tom was in Far and Away, which I loved. They treated me like a little sister. It was very sweet, I was a very innocent 12-year-old. I was just doing my job and they were very sweet to me.”
At the premiere of the 2014 American war film Unbroken, the then 32-year-old German American actress, singer, model, and director put her cleavage on display in a gingham-print dress by Vivienne Westwood featuring a draped neckline and built-in corset.
Kirsten Dunst flaunts her legs and cleavage in a gingham-print dress by Vivienne Westwood (Credit: FayesVision / WENN)
She styled it with a black clutch and matching pumps. Garrett wore a Gucci “Signoria” suit.
One fashion critic commented that Kirsten should stop dressing like a grandma. What is your fashion verdict?
While we have not been able to identify Kirsten’s pumps, you can find reasonable alternatives such as the “Inna” platform pumps at Kim Kardashian’s ShoeDazzle.
Black Inna Quilted Platform Pumps, $10 at ShoeDazzle
