Kirsten Dunst has opened up about a ‘very weird’ on-screen kiss with 31-year-old Brad Pitt when she was just 11.
The world of Hollywood movies is not too kind to young actresses.
Take The Blue Lagoon, for example, which saw a 14-year-old Brooke Shields in nude scenes, with just her hair covering her chest.
More recently, the controversial intimate scenes between Jenna Oretga and Martin Freeman have gone viral.
And Kirsten Dunst has also opened up about a bizarre on-set experience that saw her kissing Brad Pitt, 31, when she 11 years of age.
People have been left horrified by the revelation, with one writing: “It’s super creepy that grown adults kept trying to pressure a 10/11/12-year-old to believe that kissing a man should have been exciting instead of awkward.”
“There is no way you can convince me there is any actual need for adults to kiss children. There are plenty of ways around it even if it people think it’s required for the movie,” a second agrees.
Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine any director making Kirsten Dunst do something she doesn’t want to do.
You probably recognize her best from huge movie roles like Little Women (1994), Jumanji (1995), and 2000’s The Virgin Suicides.
Oh, and who could forget her turn as Mary Jane in the 2002-2007 Spider-Man trilogy?
But even the most dedicated Dunst fans may have missed her first foray into the world of film, as Dunst’s first major role was as Claudia in 1994’s Interview with a Vampire.
She was just 11 during the filming of the cult-classic horror movie and has since opened up about some rather… dubious elements of the script.
If you’ve never seen the film, it’s basically all about two adult vampires ‘turning’ the 10-year-old Claudia.
The official synopsis reads: “After the death of his wife and daughter, Spanish lord Louis is turned into a vampire by Lestat de Lioncourt. To keep Louis by his side, Lestat converts a plague-ridden girl.”
So far, so bizarre – but things actually got even stranger on set.
In one scene, Claudia was required to Louis on the lips, and this meant Dunst, aged 11, had to do the same to a then-31-year-old Pitt.
In the years following the film, Dunst has reflected on this strange element of the Interview with a Vampire script.
And in a recently resurfaced Vanity Fair interview from 2021, she revealed all about the on-screen antics.
“That was the worst thing I did and also having obviously to kiss Brad Pitt at that point,” she says.
“I was a little girl and he was like a brother to me and it was very weird even though it was a peck. I was very not into it.”
Dunst has also told Entertainment Tonight (via Buzzfeed): “I hated [the kiss] so much because Brad was like my older brother on set and it’s kind of like kissing your brother. It’s weird because he’s an older guy and I had to kiss him on the lips, so it was gross.”
She continued: “Y’know what, I love Brad, he’s so nice… it was just, like, it feels awkward. I mean I’m 12,” she goes on. “And he’s, like, 31 and it’s like, he’s a man. So why would I enjoy kissing him?”
She’s also told Interview magazine: “Kissing Brad was so uncomfortable for me. I remember saying in interviews that I thought it was gross, that Brad had cooties. I mean, I was 10.”
