Kirsten Dunst’s acting career covers a variety of genres, but she’s best remembered for playing Mary Jane Watson in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy – and here’s what she has done since Spider-Man 3. Kirsten Dunst’s acting career began at a very young age, appearing in commercials and short films, among those Woody Allen’s Oedipus Wrecks, which is part of the anthology movie New York Stories. Her next role was in Brian de Palma’s The Bonfire of the Vanities, where she played Campbell McCoy, though it was also a small role.
After more small roles in the movies High Strung and Greedy, Dunst’s big break arrived in Neil Jordan’s adaptation of Anne Rice’s novel Interview with the Vampire, where she played Claudia, the girl Lestat (Tom Cruise) turns into a vampire and who becomes Louis’ (Brad Pitt) companion. Dunst’s career took off after that, starring as a young Amy March in Little Women, Judy Shepherd in Jumanji, Christy Fimple in Small Soldiers, and voicing young Anastasia in the animated movie Anastasia. Dunst moved on to teen movies with lead roles in Drop Dead Gorgeous, The Virgin Suicides, and Bring it On, and her popularity grew when she was cast as Mary Jane Watson in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man.
Kirsten Dunst played MJ Watson in all movies in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, and she also appeared in other projects in between Spider-Man movies, most notably Mona Lisa Smile, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Marie Antoinette. The on-screen chemistry between Dunst and Tobey Maguire was praised by critics and viewers, and while she was already a well-established actress, her role as MJ sealed her status as a teen star. Since Spider-Man 3 came out, Dunst has continued her career in both TV and the big screen, though in mostly minor roles. Her first post-Spider-Man project was the comedy How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, followed by the crime movie All Good Things, after which she appeared in the short film The Second Bakery Attack and wrote and directed the short film Bastard.
Dunst continued working on short films, such as Touch of Evil and the Beastie Boys’ 30-minute long music video Fight for Your Right Revisited, and her next big project was Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia, for which she received the Best Actress Award at the 64th Cannes Film Festival. After that, she appeared in the comedy Bachelorette, the adventure drama On The Road, the sci-fi movie Upside Down, and had a cameo appearance as herself in The Bling Ring. Dunst had a cameo appearance in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues and later appeared in The Two Faces of January, Midnight Special, Hidden Figures, The Beguiled, Woodshock, and Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, starring alongside Benedict Cumberbatch and Jesse Plemons.
On TV, Dunst has had mostly minor roles in shows like Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (where she voiced Cecilia Payne) and Portlandia, where she played Kim. Her biggest TV role came in 2015 in the series Fargo, where she played Peggy Blumquist, and later had an uncredited, blink-and-you-miss-it cameo in Black Mirror’s “USS Callister”, played Agatha Christie in one episode of Drunk History, and most recently played Krystal Gill in the dark comedy series On Becoming a God In Central Florida. After starring in big productions and popular movies since she was young, it’s understandable that Kirsten Dunst has taken it easy since Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy came to an end, but her career is far from over.