People: Kirsten has her cake and eats it, too
“I felt a little bit like a pastry puff.”
Kirsten Dunst‘s feelings were altogether appropriate for her character.
Marie Antoinette, the legendary 18th-century queen whom Dunst portrays in the new movie of the same name, is depicted in the film as a “dressed-up doll,” in the actress’ words.
Dunst, 24, is very much on display in “Marie Antoinette.” Dialogue is sparse, and Sofia Coppola‘s direction has cameras lingering on the queen like a swarm of paparazzi.
“I think it’s the most vulnerable I’ve ever been on film because there were no words, there’s nothing to hide behind,” Dunst says.
“Marie Antoinette” tells the story of an Austrian girl who at the age of 14 was literally handed over to France to marry Louis XVI, next in line to become the French monarch, and produce an heir.
When the French Revolution unfolded, the ridiculously decadent Bourbons ensconced in their palace at Versailles were among the first things to go – along with Marie’s head, famously guillotined in 1793.
As she did with her earlier films “Lost in Translation” and “The Virgin Suicides,” Coppola studiously creates a mood and then lets that dictate the momentum of the piece.
“She’s really good at creating an atmosphere,” says Dunst, who worked with Coppola on “Virgin Suicides” when she was 16.
Back then, she says, “as preparation we’d make sandwiches together as a family and play games. She always creates an environment that is really helpful for whatever scenario you’re in.”
For “Antoinette,” Coppola tried to get away from costume-drama conventions. While the costumes are certainly there, so too is music by 1980s bands like Adam Ant and Bow Wow Wow.
And liberties are taken with some of the fashions; Dunst is even briefly seen wearing sneakers during one scene.
“I didn’t feel like we were making a modern piece or a period piece, I felt like we were making a moment in time every day,” Dunst says.
She also was elaborately made up every day, including the distinctive hairdo.
“They just piled pieces onto my own hair and curled it with tons of dry shampoo and hairspray to make it white, it was like a whole huge process,” she says. “I had like fried doll hair.”
When she was 11, Dunst visited some of the same French locations used for “Antoinette” while filming “Interview with the Vampire.”
“We danced in the same room at this opera house in Paris,” she says. “I remembered the room being so vast, and when we shot there again, it was smaller. It’s an odd thing to be doing this for so long in your life.”
And thinking back to those days, she adds: “Corsets are much more comfortable when you don’t have a body.”
The birthday bunch
Actress Joan Fontaine is 89. Actor Christopher Lloyd is 68. Actress Annette Funicello is 64. Actress Catherine Deneuve is 63. Actor Jeff Goldblum is 54. Comedian Carlos Mencia is 39. Country singer Shelby Lynne is 38. Reggae rapper Shaggy is 38. Drummer Zac Hanson (Hanson) is 21. Actor Jonathan Lipnicki (“Stuart Little”) is 16.