Actress Kirsten Dunst has opened up about her iconic upside-down kiss scene in Spider-Man, saying it was a “miserable” experience.
Dunst played the role of Mary Jane Watson in Sam Raimi’s trilogy of Spider-Man films that starred Tobey Maguire: Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007).
In the scene from the 2002 film Dunst is referring to, Mary Jane removes Spider-Man’s mask halfway to give him a “thank you” kiss in the pouring rain as he hangs upside down.
Speaking on ITV’s Jonathan Ross Show, Dunst said: “I remember Sam Raimi giving me a book of famous kisses to be inspired, but also he really wanted to make it special, even though it was kind of miserable actually doing it. It was pouring with rain, freezing, Tobey couldn’t breathe so it was almost like I was resuscitating him.”
Maguire has also spoken about the difficulty of filming the scene two years ago for the film’s 20th anniversary and said he was “practically suffocating” performing the scene.
“It was really tough, actually. It was really challenging. They’d yell cut, and I would be (gasping for air), totally out of breath. It was torture. It makes you realise how important oxygen is,” he said at the time.
You can watch Dunst’s interview here:
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In an interview with Variety, Dunst revealed she was routinely referred to as a “girly-girl” during the making of the films. She was 19 years old when the first film was released.
“It was a joke, but on Spider-Man, they would call me ‘girly-girl’ sometimes on the walkie-talkie,” she said. “‘We need girly-girl.’ But I never said anything like, ‘don’t call me that!’.”
She added that at a relatively early stage in her career, and before the #MeToo movement, “you didn’t say anything”, adding, “you just took it”.
Dunst has also spoken in the past about the “very extreme” pay disparity between herself and Maguire on the films (via Independent).
Since that trilogy, there have been several new iterations of the core characters, including in the two Andrew Garfield/Emma Stone Amazing Spider-Man films, multiple entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starring Tom Holland and Zendaya, and Sony’s two Spider-Verse animated films.
Dunst has spoken multiple times in recent years about the possibility of returning to the Spider-Man franchise. After Maguire returned in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, she posited the idea that the door may well still be open for her.
“There’s still time,” she said in early 2022. “I mean, listen, no one’s asked me about anything but I do think that … I mean, this multi-universe just keeps going on and on. I wouldn’t … I feel like that could happen.”
That followed a previous interview in which she said: “I would do it. Why not? That would be fun.” She added that she would be “an old MJ at this point”, with “little Spidey babies”.
Dunst will next appear in Civil War, a dystopian action film from Alex Garland (Annihilation, Ex Machina), which will be released on April 12.