"I need to feed myself": Kirsten Dunst explains why she disappeared from industry for 2 years

Academy Award-nominated actress Kirsten Dunst sat down with Marie Claire on March 5, 2024, to discuss the reason for her disappearance from the big screen. Last seen in The Power of the Dog two years ago, Dunst said about her struggle:

"That's been hard for me... because I need to feed myself."

She also lamented Hollywood's ageism against female actors:

"I haven't worked in two years... Every role I was being offered was the sad mom."

The 41-year-old star last played the role of a delicate wife and mother in Jane Campion's 2021 film The Power of the Dog. The movie went on to become critically acclaimed, earning Campion an Oscar for Best Director while Dunst received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

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Why Kirsten Dunst took a 2-year break

Kirsten Dunst began her career in Hollywood as a child actor, starring in highly acclaimed films such as Interview with the Vampire (1994), Little Women (1994) and Jumanji (1995). In 2002, she gained global stardom after appearing as Mary Jane Watson in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man and its subsequent sequels.

Now in her 40s, Dunst stated in her interview that there are not a lot of good roles for women her age. She revealed to the publication,

"To be honest, that's been hard for me...because I need to feed myself. The hardest thing is being a mom and...not feeling like, I have nothing for myself. That's every mother—not just me."

Kirsten Dunst is married to her The Power of the Dog co-star Jesse Plemons whom she met on the set of Fargo, according to Elle magazine. After welcoming two children in 2018 and 2021, respectively, the couple got married in 2022 in Jamaica.

In the same Marie Claire interview, Dunst revealed that she was open to working in another superhero movie. She shared,

"Yes, because you get paid a lot of money, and I have two children, and I support my mother."

Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons (via Getty/Kevin Winter)

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After playing the role of a "sad mom" two years ago and struggling to get good roles, Kirsten Dunst is back from her hiatus with a new film Civil War. Directed by Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation), the dystopian action film revolves around a group of journalists during a fictional Second American Civil War. IMDb describes the film as

"A journey across a dystopian future America, following a team of military-embedded journalists as they race against time to reach DC before rebel factions descend upon the White House."

Civil War is set to be released theatrically on April 12, 2024.