Kirsten Dunst has revealed the “joke” nickname that she was given by the crew on set on the original Spider-Man films in the ’00s.
The actor played Spider-Man’s love interest Mary Jane Watson opposite Tobey Maguire’s Peter Parker in three Spidey movies: Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007).
In a new interview with Variety, Dunst has now revealed that 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 continued 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 has gone on to star in titles such as Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia, FX’s television adaptation of Fargo and Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, for which she was nominated for an Oscar.
She is now set to star in Civil War, a dystopian action film from Alex Garland (Annihilation, Ex Machina), which will be released on April 12.