Here’s a short Q&A done by Lynn Hirschberg that came with the beautiful photo you can find in our gallery:

Lynn Hirschberg: You started acting when you were 4. Did you go to a regular high school?
Kirsten Dunst: Yes. I even went to the prom. I actually borrowed a dress from Sofia Coppola—a beautiful John Galliano burgundy dress that she had worn to the Golden Globes. I was a very lucky girl.

That was before Spider-Man. In Spider-Man, you and Tobey Maguire had an iconic kiss.
Compared to how romantic it looked, it was very unromantic—there was rain running down Tobey’s nose, and he could barely breathe. It really wasn’t fun.

You kissed Brad Pitt in Interview With the Vampire when you were 11 years old. What was that audition like?
The director, Neil Jordan, asked my mother if I was okay. He thought that I was a disturbed child—he found it upsetting that I could cry so easily, but I needed to cry in the audition, so I just kept sobbing. I’d been auditioning for the role over and over, and it was like, God, just give me the role already—I’ll cry, I’ll scream, I’ll do anything!

You can find now screencaptures, photoshoot and scans of this issue in our gallery:

The couple was seen riding around on bikes and showering the area with flyers for Tazzy, a grey and white cat with no collar. We hope Tazzy is returned safe and sound!

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“I really want to do a film in another language,” she says, her tone ruminative but quite serious, over the phone from Los Angeles. “My dad’s from Germany, so it’d be really cool to do a film in German. I’m not quite fluent, but I can get there. And my accent’s pretty good. I wouldn’t feel too out of my element.”

It’s not just any German film she wants to work on either: Michael Haneke, that esteemed Austrian dissector of psychological trouble, currently tops her wishlist of directors to work with in the future, a group that also include Paul Thomas Anderson and Alexander Payne. The prospect of the sunny New Jersey blonde collaborating with the frosty German-born formalist isn’t quite as unimaginable as it might have been a year or two ago, before another prickly European provocateur, Lars von Trier, showed everyone what Kirsten Dunst is made of in “Melancholia.”

von Trier’s film, a nervy, finely textured relationship drama set casually over the days leading up to a quite literal apocalypse, is the kind of substantial art-blockbuster that reflects well on everyone involved — but it represents a career watershed for Dunst, an actress of long-held promise never previously gifted with a part this emotionally rich or restless. Inheriting the role of Justine, a clinically depressed copywriter whose mental unravelling begins on her botched wedding night, after Penélope Cruz bowed out, Dunst seizes the opportunity to bring a more acrid subtext to her radiant sweetheart demeanor.

The result is a startling performance that not only holds its own with von Trier’s illustrious gallery of complex female portraits (including Emily Watson, Björk, Nicole Kidman and Dunst’s own, equally impressive, co-star Charlotte Gainsbourg), but has deservedly earned her Best Actress prizes from the Cannes Film Festival and, only last weekend, the august National Society of Film Critics. She remains an exciting dark horse to consider for the Oscar ballot; whether she gets there or not, the point has been proven.

“Even before I read the script, I knew this would be something special for me,” she says. “I knew it’d be a chance for me to let loose and be vulnerable in a way that I haven’t been able to show before — because those roles just aren’t out there. Lars is one of the rare major filmmakers whose films center on female leads. We’re so used to see women on screen just as wives or girlfriends or moms, and a lot of people don’t like to see women on screen in the way that Lars presents them — they want them pretty and gilded, even when they’re sad and breaking up inside.”

Justine hardly lacks for surface prettiness, but she’s allowed to be chaotically irrational, even aggressively sexual, in her impulses in a way that certainly shatters the gilding — which is precisely what Dunst responded to in her. “Pristine vulnerability is just so boring to me,” she continues. “The performances that I love are ones like Gena Rowlands in ‘A Woman Under the Influence,’ where women are allowed to be messy and imperfect. It’s that kind of woman that has always inspired me to seek roles that are a little out of the box. I just haven’t always had the opportunity to do them.”

I suggest that von Trier’s preoccupation with alternately challenging and challenged female characters doesn’t really square with the accusations of misogyny frequently levelled at him by detractors. Dunst enthusiastically agrees: “What’s interesting is that many of the people who surround him in the highest positions on set are women. Not only does he create a lot of opportunities for women in his films, but I think he in turn likes to be nurtured by them — he’s more comfortable with women on set.”

Some actors have described working with von Trier as a trying experience — Paul Bettany and, most famously and acrimoniously, Björk fall into the “never again” camp — but Dunst has nothing but fond memories of their collaboration. Indeed, she’s keen to reteam with him down the line. “We had a wonderful relationship,” she says. “People call him demanding, but then, I’ve always been very demanding of myself as an actress. I found him more vulnerable than demanding, actually: I feel like his presence almost permeates the scene when he’s on set, as if he’s one of the actors. So when he gives you ideas to try, it feels like it’s coming from a very real, empathetic place. I felt very safe with him.”

“I guess it’s a different situation with someone like Björk. Like him, she’s such a singular genius, and when you put two of those together, there’s going to be friction. But it turned out be worth it — what they got out of each other was amazing. And even if I hadn’t got along with Lars, it would still have been worth it: it’d still have stretched me, I’d still be proud of this work.” She feels the film reveals certain shifts in the director’s own sensibility, too. “I know he’d hate me for saying this, but I do think it’s the work of a kinder Lars. It just is. Even if it’s about the world ending.”

Dunst’s loyalty to von Trier has weathered the storm of controversy that followed the film’s disastrous Cannes press conference, where the director’s poorly misjudged joke about Nazi sympathizing elicited fury from festival brass and visible mortification from the actress herself. (“Oh, Lars,” she murmured to him at the time. “That was intense.”) von Trier may still be dealing with the fallout to some extent — he took a vow of public silence in the autumn — but Dunst is mostly happy the film has come out the other side.

“I care for him, so obviously I was frustrated by his behavior,” she remembers. “Lars has always said provocative things, and I knew he was going down a really inappropriate track there, but it was so very Lars at the same time. I know, we know, he didn’t mean any of that; he was trying to make a joke, really badly. Who knew they would kick him out of Cannes? Maybe I’m defending him too much: at the time, I was shocked and humiliated and didn’t know what to do, but I was soon ready to move past it.” Winning Best Actress only a few days later suggested others were, too. “Yeah, it was just a shame that we couldn’t celebrate together. But he apologized to me. We’re good friends.”

I observe that it wasn’t her first experience of Cannes controversy — Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette,” in which she played the titular French monarch as a spoiled, wayward teen, endured a rocky reception there six years ago, and came out stronger for it. Does she welcome the chance to ruffle a few feathers? “As long as it’s not in a bad movie!” she laughs. “At least both ‘Marie Antoinette’ and ‘Melancholia’ I can take great pride in, whether people like them or not. A lot of people have come up to me and said ‘Marie Antoinette’ is one of their favorite films, which means more to me than any media attention.”

Coppola’s film was one of several earlier signals of Dunst’s intended artistic reach, though the actress has no desire to be cornered exclusively into arthouse fare. She enjoys adjusting to the differing scales of disparate projects: her 2012 slate includes sci-fi romance “Upside Down” (“It looks like nothing I’ve seen before,” she says), all-girl comedy “Bachelorette” and a supporting role in Walter Salles’s Jack Kerouac adaptation “On the Road.”

“I feel like everyone directs their own career according to their taste, what they migrate to emotionally and what kind of artists they want to work with,” she says. “And I’m lucky enough to be in a position where I can wait six months for a project that really interests me. The filmmaker is really important to me: it could be their first film, it’s not just about their reputation, but I have to really believe in them. In a way, to me, even ‘Spider-Man’ was almost like an independent film on a very large scale, because Sam Raimi has such an independent spirit.”

So, dreams of a German-language debut aside, she’s open to all offers? “Well, I don’t limit myself, and I don’t do things just to do things,” she says firmly. “I’ve been lucky to find people who want to work with me, whom I respect and like, but the truth is there aren’t that many good projects out there. And we make way, way too many movies. So it’s not always going to happen with every project. But I try and wait it out.”

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The National Society of Film Critics honored the two stars Saturday at its 46th annual awards as Best Actress and Best Actor, as well as naming Dunst’s Melancholia, directed by iconoclast Lars von Trier, as Best Picture.

Dunst’s role in the end-of-the-world drama continues to look like an Oscar contender—the actress took Best Actress for the role at Cannes before getting the Critics nod Saturday, beating out Yun Jung-hee for her role in Poetry and Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady.

As for the allegorical film itself, Melancholia topped Pitt’s and Sean Penn‘s Tree of Life to be honored as Best Picture by the group.

But Tree of Life was strong, winning Terrence Malick the Best Director honor, and also figuring into Jessica Chastain‘s nod for Best Supporting Actress (in addition to her roles in The Help and Take Shelter).

So there were plenty of awards to go around, as long as you were Tree of Life or Melancholia, that is.

Complete List of Winners:

• Best Picture: Melancholia
• Best Director: Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life
• Best Actor:  Brad Pitt, Moneyball, The Tree of Life
• Best Actress: Kirsten Dunst, Melancholia
• Best Supporting Actor: Albert Brooks, Drive
• Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain, The Tree of Life, Take Shelter, The Help
• Best Screenplay: A Separation, Asghar Farhadi
• Best Cinematography: The Tree of Life, Emmanuel Lubezki
• Best Nonfiction Film: Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Werner Herzog
• Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation, Asghar Farhadi
• Best Experimental Film: Seeking the Monkey King, Ken Jacobs

Sometimes a little too much, especially in Kirsten Dunst‘s case. A judge has granted the Melancholia actress a temporary restraining order against a man from Dijon, France, who has written over 50 letters and even traveled to the U.S. to try to meet her.

But that’s not all…

Jean Christophe Prudhon wrote in letters accompanying Dunst’s petition that he sold his home in France so that he could continue to travel where the actress goes so that he might meet her.

And there’s more.

Prudhon also contacted Dunst’s mother, who wrote in a sworn declaration that she was alarmed when he came to her door last week trying to meet her daughter.

For now, the French fan is to remain 100 yards away from Dunst, and on Dec. 21, the judge will decide whether to grant a three-year restraining order.

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But he also had to repair the damage he had done to his relationship with Dunst.  “It was probably harder on her than anyone else,” Von Trier told me the night he was going to meet her for a makeup dinner.

Putting balm on the wound was the closing night ceremony, when Dunst gratefully accepted the best actress Palme, thanking the festival for allowing “Melancholia” to stay in competition. Afterwards she said that she should not have been punished for von Trier’s “inappropriate” comments. Nor should she. “Melancholia” starts off with Dunst’s lavish castle wedding, destroyed by the beautiful bride’s plunge into depression, followed by how she and her family deal with a planet hurtling toward a possible collision with Earth. “Melancholia” might have had a shot at the Palme d’Or won by “The Tree of Life” had it not been overshadowed by von Trier’s misbehavior. (More details on the film and a sampling of reviews are here.)

By the time of our video interview below, Dunst, who had already weathered a Cannes controversy with Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette,” had clearly forgiven her director. She was sorry to have missed a celebratory party, and clearly has learned to measure her words carefully with the media. After all, she’s been working in high-profile films since 1994′s “Interview with the Vampire” at age 12. And she’s happy to carry the promo load on “Melancholia”–as Von Trier has refused to give any more interviews. “Maybe that’s not a bad thing,” she says, laughing.

Working with Von Trier, contrary to previous reports, was “not difficult,” she says. Both had experienced depression; he opened up to her and earned her trust, she sys: “I couldn’t feel so vulnerable if I didn’t feel taken care of by Lars.”

Dunst admits that she got off easy on this one, compared to what Charlotte Gainsbourg had to do on “Anti-Christ.” She worried about her parents seeing her magnificient nude display, but her father told her it was “artistic.” “Only Lars and Pedro Almodovar write these incredible, messy roles for women,” she says. Even the department heads on the film were women: “He needs nurturing.” She would happily work with Von trier again–along with Almodovar and Michael Haneke.

While she has been heading in an indie direction since leaving the “Spider-Man” franchise, “I’m not an indie intense person at all,” she insists. In fact, she’s now shooting a dark indie comedy with Isla Fisher, “Bachelorette,” based on rookie director Leslye Hedland’s play. “We’ve lightened it,” she says. In January Dunst starts another indie adapted from the stage, Adam Rapp’s bleak drama “Red Light Winter, ” which the NYT called “a frank, graphic story of erotic fixation and the havoc it can wreak on sensitive souls.” The movie will co-star Mark Ruffalo and Billy Crudup.

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EXAMINER: When you work with a director that doesn’t do a lot of rehearsals, how does that affect your process?

KIRSTEN: Every film set is a totally different energy. You don’t know what everyone’s going to be like and you kind of have to work within what you’re given. Also, I do a lot of preparation before I start a movie. So, it gave me a lot of freedom actually. I appreciated it. Being on Lars’ set is the best film school in the world.

EXAMINER: Do you do a lot of research before you do a role?

KIRSTEN: Not research, but as I said it before, it’s almost like therapy between me and who I’m playing.

EXAMINER: With a role that’s so dark, is there a lightness when the cameras aren’t rolling?

KIRSTEN:  I was playing Angry Birds in my trailer (laughs). You’ve got to. You have to self-preserve. That’s part of it, too. You don’t have to sit there and be depressed to play depressed. Actually, you should be in a good place to play depressed, I think. We moved pretty swiftly, too, so there was definitely momentum. Lars has a great sense of humor, too. He’d yell out “Stop acting.” So, it was a very heavy thing and I’d have to prepare, but making a movie doesn’t have to be drudgery, just because of the subject matter. There was a lot of lightness, too.

EXAMINER: How was winning Best Actress at Cannes? There must be a chance for an Oscar, right?

KIRSTEN: That would be awesome (laughs). Winning Cannes was pretty spectacular. I’m very grateful. If I was nominated, I would be very grateful and honored. My family would be so happy and crying. It would be great, because my family really celebrates things.

EXAMINER: Have you picked a dress already? What would you wear?

KIRSTEN. I don’t want to jinx it (laughs).

EXAMINER: How do you recall the time here with the Golden Globes?

KIRSTEN: Well, I lost (laughs). I was a little kid crying, because I was a little girl (laughs) and people were saying “You’re going to win. You’re going to win.” I remember sitting at a table with the cast of “Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman” and my mom was like “Hide your face. Hide your face.” (laughs).

EXAMINER: Did you cry after?

KIRSTEN: Like literally, they didn’t say my name and I started sobbing (laughs).

EXAMINER: Are you going to cry now if you don’t win?

KIRSTEN: No, I’m at an age where I can hold it together now.

EXAMINER: Do you think this role will signal a new phase in your acting?

KIRSTEN: I don’t think about it that way. When you’re older, you have different opportunities, roles are different, and there’s more to do. When I found out I got this film, I was doing a film called “Upside down” and I was playing the ingenue. It was very “Love Story”, but it was such a beautiful and crazy world that this director Juan Solanas creates that I wanted to be a part of it. But I still play the girlfriend. That’s what a lot of the female roles are, but hopefully, it’ll be an interesting movie.

EXAMINER: Your 30th birthday is almost here. Do you think anything will change?

KIRSTEN: You know, I had such a fun party last year. It was my grandma’s 90th birthday and we have the same birthday. So, I  really threw a really nice party at my mom’s house. My friends, who are musicians, came and a band played. So many different people getting on stage and singing. One of my ideas was take over that place Deetjens in Big Sur, have my friends in it and put on a fun show at the Henry Miller Library.

EXAMINER: Do you see any change when you’re no longer in your twenties?

KIRSTEN: I hope not. When you get older, you feel better about yourself. You’re not worried what other people think about you, in general. You just get more comfortable in your skin.  I welcome thirty and I look young. I have a baby face (laughs).

EXAMINER: How do you feel about Hollywood with things like the Oscars or the Hollywood Walk of Fame, growing up around it?

KIRSTEN: I think it’s nice. It’s part of the industry and how we celebrate performances and people. It would be cool to have a star on Hollywood Bl.

EXAMINER: Did it seem weird having your character walking away from such a hunky guy?

KIRSTEN: I know, huh. She was pretty stupid (laughs). I’m a big “True Blood” fan. When I met Alex, I said “You’re my favorite vampire on True Blood.” He’s a really great actor. Actually,  he’s a really goofy guy in real life. He’s very sweet.  He’s very easy to work with and a really good actor.

EXAMINER: Did you notice any kind of dynamic working with his father?

KIRSTEN: Between the two of them, they’re like brothers. They talk like they’re friends about everything, so it feels like a very “bro” relationship between them both. But Stellan is the man. He’s such an incredible actor.  I love hanging out with him. Lars has a really good group that comes back every time. They are the best. Udo [Kier] and i went to dinner last night while everyone was watching the movie at AFI. I really had good relationships working with these people. We really got to know each other well. When you’re in the middle of nowhere, you really bond with everyone you’re working with.

EXAMINER: As a fan of True Blood, would you be interested in being on the show?

KIRSTEN: I’ve done the vampire thing. I don’t need to be on shows I like to watch (laughs).

EXAMINER: What do you think about Twilight?

KIRSTEN: I think those movies are funny. I love them. They’re awesome. They’re hilarious, too. There were lines like “You’re like my own personal brand of heroin.” That’s a line. I’m like, this is the best movie ever (laughs).

EXAMINER: What do you think about the new Spider-Man?

KIRSTEN: I love Andrew Garfield and I think  Emma Stone is cute, too. i think they’re going to be really cute in the movie. I think they’ll have good chemistry.

EXAMINER: Would you coming back in a cameo?

KIRSTEN: I’d love to. I had the idea that if Toby and I were extras and would just walked by in the background.

EXAMINER: How did you get in the REM video?

KIRSTEN: Michael, my bro, is my neighbor in New York. I’ve been an REM fan since I was a little girl. I would jump around to “Stand” in the mirror. I’ve known him throughout the years and he just casually asked me. I didn’t even known it was supposed to be their last video. He wanted to do it in the vein of an Andy Warhol screen test and I sat there. We did three different takes. One take he used, he sang a capella to me, so if I look embarrassed or I’m giggling, it’s because I’m so overwhelmed when he’s singing to me. It was really special.

EXAMINER: How did you pick the dress for the film?

KIRSTEN: We wanted a very traditional Barbie, very American wedding dress. But he’s never been to America. He’ll never fly here. He won’t get on a plane. Even at Cannes, he took his Winnebago, but he’ll go on a helicopter that his friend can fly. I said what if we took a boat with a helicopter on it? He doesn’t want to come over here. I know it. Udo [Kier] and I were joking last night that we are going to drug him and put him on a plane just to mess with him and put him in Time Square just to mess with him.

EXAMINER: How would you spend your last moments if the end was near?

KIRSTEN: I’ve been asked that question a lot, obviously. Me and my family would probably just eat a bunch of great food, cook a bunch, and drink delicious champagne. What are you going to do if it’s the end of the world? You better go out having fun instead of stressing about it.

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