Kirsten Dunst (New Jersey, 1982) has been in the film industry since she was a child. His name began to be heard when, at the age of 11, he worked with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in Interview with the Vampire. She has been from Sofia Coppola’s muse in The Suicide Virgins and Marie Antoinette to Mary Jane in the Spider-Man universe directed by Sam Raimi. Under the orders of the controversial Lars von Trier in Melancolia, she won the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011 and three years ago she was nominated for an Oscar as a supporting actress for the western El poder del perro, from Jane Campion. Now he will speak in the shoes of Lee Miller, a photojournalist who, together with three professional colleagues, embarks on a hellish journey to portray a United States plunged into a bloody civil war in Civil war, the new dystopian thriller by the British Alex Garland, which invites reflection on politics, society and the role of the press today. The film arrives at the Spanish box office next Friday, April 19, after making an impact at the South by Southwest festival.
Why did you want to participate in this project?
I’ve been a total fan of Alex Garland ever since I saw Ex Machina, I love his scripts. At no point did I think I could work with him, but he chose me for the role of Lee. When I got the script I was shocked because she’s done something I’ve never read before, and as an actress I want to be a part of breaking and risky stories like this that make the audience ask questions and have a dialogue about what they have seen
How did she prepare herself to become this woman who has seen too much horror in her craft?
As soon as I accepted the proposal I grabbed a camera and never put it down except to sleep. The question of knowing how to manipulate it and take photos like a pro was a big responsibility and I wanted to do it the best I could. We did a lot of rehearsals, watched several documentaries, and the war correspondent Marie Colvin’s Under the wire was the one that struck me the most. That’s why Lee looks a lot like her.
What was your impression when you saw the film for the first time?
The truth is that I was very impressed by Alex’s choice of music and editing, because it was very different from what was in the script. Visually, the film is very striking because it portrays an internal war in the United States, which already went through a war of secession more than 150 years ago as a result of a controversy over slavery. But in the film it is not known the reason that generates the conflict. The polarization that exists in my country, where there is democracy, is scary. And the media feeds on the situation. For this reason, Civil war is a very necessary film, because even if it describes a divided and bloody country, as it happens in other places of the world, it is anti-war.
Why does he say that?
It does not glamorize war. And it’s very intense to watch because it seems like you’re really integrated into what’s happening to those journalists and those soldiers. For me, it is filmed in a very realistic way. And the sound of explosions is really shocking.
In the film, the leading role falls on a press of which we see both the supportive and the selfish side. What is your opinion on the role of journalism in our society?
Journalism is very important. It teaches us the truth of what is happening today. But then it is up to the media to show one photo or another and the truth is altered in response to a purpose. I think we live in a time where we don’t know where the truth is in the news and that’s disheartening. I don’t usually read the news much. Everything has become more and more sensationalized and only clickbait seems to matter, which polarizes things even more.
This year there is a presidential election in the USA. Do you think the film can be seen as a warning or does it show something outlandish?
In the United States we have a democracy. let’s vote I wish we had different candidates! It is true that we live in frightening times. But the movie is fiction. There is a president with a third term, which is not realistic…. I think a lot of things would have to change for something like this to happen in reality. I think that Civil war is a story with a lesson that teaches us what happens when people no longer communicate and stop seeing their neighbor as a human being.
Watching the film one feels that a point has come where as human beings we seem to enjoy our own destruction.
The problem is that the heteropatriarchy is ruining everything.
Was it easy for you to detach yourself from the intensity that a shoot like this demanded?
In the scene with Jesse (her husband in real life), with so many gunfights, gunfights and car chases, I had post-traumatic stress. Luckily, it was only two weeks.
