WEIRDLAND: How to lose favour with Kirsten Dunst

Saturday, August 23, 2008

How to lose favour with Kirsten Dunst

"The shoot was a blast from start to finish. It was hard work and extremely intensive but this was made all the easier by the people involved. Bob and I hit it off back when the we were discussing my involvement in the project, so I had a friend going in, which always helps. I'd been informed of Kirsten Dunst's involvement at the beginning of the year whilst on the Hot Fuzz press tour of the US. We crossed paths in LA a week or so later whilst she was on Webslinger press duties at the Four Seasons Hotel. I liked her immediately. She was friendly and unassuming and got on well with Nick Frost, which is usually my benchmark for judging people.

We became good friends during the shoot. She is the product of that odd collision between wisdom and youth. An actress since she was three years old, she demonstrates experience and professionalism, coupled with a healthy understanding of the nature of the business. She is also one of the most instinctively gifted actresses I have ever had the pleasure of working with. I'm a fan. Does it show?

The cast was filled out with similarly exciting prospects. Jeff Bridges, a legend and an incredibly generous actor had me quivering with excitement every time he walked onto set (look out for a tense game of Pass The Pigs between Jeff, Bob and me in a future installment). Gillian Anderson, so long the object of a huge fanboy crush of mine, is brilliantly icy as New York queen of PR, Eleanor Johnson in the movie but warm and funny and fun off set (I played it cool).

Danny Huston, a man who I don't recall ever seeing not smiling is like me, a giggler, a condition which always causes exquisite anxiety when the cameras are rolling. And of course, Megan Fox, an actress all too easy to underestimate, due to her striking beauty but one who definitely proves her worth as the "so hot right now" ingenue Sophie Maes. This was a group of people who made getting out of bed at 5.45am as easy as falling asleep 16 hours later.
Early in the shoot, Toby approached Kirsten on set and asked if she had fallen in love with him yet, after which he proceeded to give her a performance note. This might have been charming if they had been formally introduced but they hadn't. As it was, I believe her response was an understandable, "Who the fuck's this guy?" Bob told me that he had received an email from Toby that night saying, "It's going to be really difficult for me to come on set and not get involved." Bob sent him a reply saying that there was an easy solution to that problem. We didn't really see Toby on set again after that".
Source: www.guardian.co.uk

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