Kirsten Dunst

Janet Maslin of The New York Times hailed it as the greatest adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel of the same name and wrote of Dunst's performance:"The perfect contrast to take-charge Jo comes from Kirsten Dunst's scene-stealing Amy, whose Vanity and twinkling mischief make so much more sense coming from an 11-year-old vixen than they did from grown-up Joan Bennett in 1933. Ms. Dunst, also scarily effective as the baby bloodsucker of Interview With the Vampire, is a little vamp with a big future."

Kirsten Caroline Dunst (born April 30, 1982) is an American actress.

Dunst was born on April 30, 1982, at Point Pleasant Hospital in Point Pleasant, New Jersey.

Dunst's father worked for Siemens as a medical services executive, and her mother worked for Lufthansa as a flight attendant.

She was also an artist and one-time gallery owner.

In 1988, she appeared in Saturday Night Live as the granddaughter of George H. W. Bush.

She made her acting debut in the anthology film New York Stories (1989).

Later that year, she made her feature film debut with a minor role in Woody Allen's short film Oedipus Wrecks; it was released as one-third of the anthology film New York Stories (1989).

Soon after, Dunst performed in the comedy-drama The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), based on Tom Wolfe's novel of the same name, in which she played the daughter of Tom Hanks' character.

In 1993, she moved to Los Angeles with her mother and brother, after her parents separated.

In 1993, Dunst made a guest appearance in an episode of the science fiction drama Star Trek: The Next Generation.

She gained recognition for her role as child vampire Claudia in the horror film Interview with the Vampire (1994), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

She also had roles in her youth in Little Women (1994) and Jumanji (1995).

Dunst's breakthrough role came in 1994, in the horror drama Interview with the Vampire opposite Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, based on Anne Rice's novel of the same name.

She played Claudia, the child vampire who is a surrogate daughter to Cruise's and Pitt's characters.

The film included a scene in which Dunst shared her first onscreen kiss with Pitt, who is nearly two decades her senior.

She stated that kissing him had made her feel uncomfortable: "I thought it was gross, that Brad had cooties. I mean, I was 10," she recalled.

While the film overall received mixed reviews, many critics singled out Dunst's performance for acclaim.

Roger Ebert considered her portrayal of Claudia to be one of the "creepier" aspects of the film, and took note of how well she had conveyed the impression of great age inside apparent youth.

Todd McCarthy of Variety stated that Dunst was "just right" for the family.

For her performance, she won the MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance and the Saturn Award for Best Young Actress, in addition to receiving a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Later in 1994, Dunst co-starred in the drama film Little Women alongside Winona Ryder and Claire Danes.

The film was critically acclaimed.

In 1995, Dunst starred in the fantasy adventure film Jumanji, a loose adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg's 1981 children's book of the same name.

The story is about a supernatural and ominous board game in which animals and other jungle hazards appear with each roll of the dice.

Dunst transitioned to leading roles in teen films of 1999, the satires Dick and Drop Dead Gorgeous and the Sofia Coppola-directed drama The Virgin Suicides.

After leading the cheerleading film Bring It On (2000), Dunst gained wider attention for her role as Mary Jane Watson in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007).

She began acting while a student at Notre Dame High School, and continued doing so after graduating in 2000.

In her teens, she found it difficult to cope with her rising fame, and for a period she blamed her mother for pushing her into acting as a child.

However, she later said that her mother "always had the best intentions".

When asked if she had any regrets about her childhood, Dunst said, "Well, it's not a natural way to grow up, but it's the way I grew up and I wouldn't change it. I have my stuff to work out... I don't think anybody can sit around and say, 'My life is more screwed up than yours.' Everybody has their issues".

Dunst began her career at age three as a child fashion model in television commercials.

She was signed with Ford Models and Elite Model Management.

Dunst's father is German, originally from Hamburg, and her American mother is of German and Swedish descent; she described herself in a 2001 interview as "Aryan. Like a Swedish milkmaid".

Until age eleven, Dunst lived in Brick Township, New Jersey, and attended Ranney School in Tinton Falls.

Her career progressed with a supporting role in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), followed by a lead role in Cameron Crowe's tragicomedy Elizabethtown (2005), and as the title character in Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006).

In 2011, Dunst starred as a depressed newlywed in Lars von Trier's drama Melancholia, which earned her the Cannes Film Festival Award For Best Actress.

In 2015, she played Peggy Blumquist in the second season of the FX series Fargo, which earned Dunst a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.

She had a supporting role in the film Hidden Figures (2016), and leading roles in Coppola's The Beguiled (2017) and in the dark comedy series On Becoming a God in Central Florida (2019), for which she received a third Golden Globe nomination.

She earned her fourth nomination for a Golden Globe and first nomination for an Academy Award for her performance in the psychological drama The Power of the Dog (2021).