‘Spider-man 3’ like coming home for Dunst

By Damara Popoola

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 5/4/07 — It’s not all web-slinging action in the new “Spider-man 3.” Sure Peter Parker has to battle two new villains, his childhood best friend and his own inner turmoil, but the movie spends a healthy amount of time focused on the relationship between Parker and Mary Jane Watson, played by Kirsten Dunst.

“The relationship has always been the main priority for Sam and for Tobey and I,” Dunst told Hollywood Today. “That’s what makes you care about Peter, when he is flying through the air, fighting people and saving Mary Jane. We leave off in the second Spider-man, with Mary Jane making the decision that ‘yeah, we are going to be together and we got to make this work,’ and we start off in the third at very high points. Mary Jane’s doing what she wants to do, and Peter is being heralded by the city, and then we just slowly unravel her and their relationship. They just keep going farther and farther apart, because they are not taking responsibility for each other.”

In addition to delving deeper into the dynamics of the Peter/Mary Jane love story, Dunst’s character also asserts herself a little more in this film.

“Obviously, I have the damsel in distress part, which just comes with the job,“ Dunst said. “But then, we also wanted to make her have a career, be doing things, and be a little [more] active. In this one, I got her to throw a cinder block [at a villain], which was exciting.”

Besides the maturation of character, Dunst also enjoys just being back with the familiar cast and director. She said, “This is like coming back to family, who just gets to know you better. So for me, I have always looked forward to making these films, when I know they are coming around, it’s like a nice safety net in a way.”

Like her co-stars, she only has complimentary things to say about director Sam Raimi, who has helmed all three movies of the “Spider-man” franchise.

“I appreciate Sam so much as a person and a filmmaker,” Dunst said. “He is the most collaborative director I have ever worked with. I have never heard his voice raise, except to say action, and we . . . definitely want to do other things together as well, whether it is produce, whatever it is, I am so happy to have him as a friend and mentor.”

That being said, there are rumblings that this third installment will be the last film for lead actor Tobey Maguire, which has many wondering if Spidey will be calling it quits as a trilogy. For Dunst, the question of a fourth film depends solely on the rest of the cast. She said, “I think the only way we would come back together if it was me, Tobey, and Sam, our team.”

For some it might seem too early in the game to be debating the likelihood of another installment, particularly for something as ‘lighthearted’ as a comic book sequel. But as the real fans know, “Spider-man” has some serious undertones that lend it a moral weight.

“Comic books have always been very religious to me,” Dunst said, “in the way they are portrayed, and the visuals, especially in our films, like James [Franco] laying down like a sacrificed lamb with the sun coming up . . . Even Tobey, in the second film being passed over the people in the subway, like he was Jesus or something like that, it has always had those references to me because it is very based on good and evil. And the world is not good and evil; it is good, and evil, and bad, it is all mixed up. So, in that way it can be a little misleading, because it is not black and white.”

With her third “Spider-man” film wrapped and ready for release, the “Marie Antoinette” star has plenty of other films in the pipeline. Currently she’s in talks to play rocker Debbie Harry in a Blondie biopic and it’s a role she plans to take very seriously.

“I have talked to Debbie, we are both Jersey girls, and I think she is the coolest woman in the world,” Dunst said. She added, “I have a lot of responsibility, I know that, but I would never attempt to even take this on if I didn’t think that I could do it.”

Before the Blondie film, though, Dunst will team up with Simon Pegg (“Shaun of the Dead”, “Hot Fuzz”) in a comedy based on Toby Young’s book “How to Lose Friends & Alienate People”. Filming starts this summer in London.