By Lady Bunny
In her first-ever gay press interview, Marie Antoinette star Kirsten Dunst gabs with drag's glamour gal Lady Bunny about men, myth and misogyny in 18th century France–and modern-day America.
Mile-high coiffes, couture and bitchy camp–who knew French aristocracy and drag queens had so much in common? Hollywood A-Lister Kirsten Dunst sits down with drag-dom's bon vivant diva supreme Lady Bunny for a Next Magazine exclusive that has the pair dishing about pomp, circumstance, politics and the extensive wig-work required to realize one of history's most notorious queens in director Sofia Coppola's latest film "Marie Antoinette."
Lady Bunny: Hi Kirsten! I may be the only person interviewing you who actually wears girdles and enormous wigs on a regular basis! [Laughs.]
Kirsten Dunst: That's refreshing! You don't have to ask me all those annoying questions about it.
LB: Oh, but I want to hear about a real girl being forced into the pain I endure on a regular basis! [Laughs.] I wish I was acting in a period piece–I'm just a little plump! I heard you had to take several breaks.
KD: I could take off the corset at lunch–putting it on after lunch was not fun! Eating in the corsets isn't fun–plus the French have bread everywhere!
LB: High carbs!
KD: Yeah–you gain weight as the movie goes on!
LB: Take a cue from the drag community: heavy drinking reduces the pain of girdles and high heels.
KD: Oh, I had champagne–believe me! [Laughs.] Almost every night I had a glass of champagne before bed.
LB: Are you turning into a decadent party girl?
KD: Well that is a decadent beverage to go to bed on, I must say! [Laughs.] We'd go out on weekends. I needed a release–I worked every day and it was hard work.
LB: Those wigs are huge! Did they hurt?
KD: At first it was annoying and sometimes it hurt, but you get over it.
LB: Back in the day they actually had rats that would live inside people's wigs–everyone had syphilis and they'd cover the sores with beauty marks!
KD: They were filthy! They used to go to the bathroom wherever they were standing most of the time! Marie Antoinette actually brought the toilet into Versailles.
LB: She did?
KD: Yes! There were two little toilets–one in Louis' quarters and one in her quarters. I think she was trying to be hygienic.
LB: Now what did you draw on for your portrayal of a decadent party girl? Run-ins with Paris and Lindsay? They seem like the type!
KD: There are a lot of "Marie Antoinettes" running around! [Laughs.] I went to a place of a very childlike queen–I found her to be a little ADD, actually, and very into the arts and fashion. I think she had taste and was the "it" girl getting the latest of everything. She was the kind of girl who'd be on the cover of Vogue, not the cover of US Weekly.
LB: Well, you're on the cover of Vogue and I just saw a Juicy Couture poster with a huge Marie Antoinette hairdo. Are you ushering in a new New Romantic/New Wave/Versailles trend?
KD: When we were making the movie the woman who designed our hair would get calls for Marie Antoinette-esque photo shoots all the time. I think it's weird when people do that–it's unoriginal, like you're copying something that hasn't even come out. I say come up with your own thing! But it's flattering that they're excited.
LB: Getting back to Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan–not that they have much to do with this movie, but in a way they do–the "peasants" today can't afford health care or gas and yet there are these rich socialite party-girls held up in front of us with accessories that cost more than one month's rent!
KD: And a president who has no clue how he's destroying the world.
LB: Thank you! I didn't want to force my political views on you, but I think it's time for a revolution!
KD: I think that's more a propos. [Marie Antoinette] wasn't a political figure; she was a woman who was basically there to produce "dauphins" [male heirs]. I think it's more to do with not really knowing what they did to people around them.
LB: It was interesting to see how much pressure there was back then to produce an heir. Basically, your character was sold into slavery at 14 and you tried to attract the attention of a husband for seven years–which I think gay men can identify with! People might think that pressure doesn't happen today, but it just happened in Japan!
KD: Yeah, I was going to mention the Japanese princess! Any woman in a position of higher power is going to be hyper-criticized for changing old habits.
LB: So "Let them eat cake" is a myth?
KD: It's a twisted quote. I think she said something along the lines of, "Let them eat brioche or the crust of the bread." She didn't say, "Let them eat cake." They made up rumors all the time about how she would sleep around–
LB: Well, she did sleep around in the movie [with Axel von Fersen]! Wouldn't you?
KD: Who's the actor that plays him? He's gorgeous! Jamie Dornan–yeah, he's a handsome man.
LB: You know the gays are already jealous of you because of your former relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal–but we won't get into that!
KD: I know how to pick 'em, right? [Laughs.]
LB: You certainly do! So this movie debunks the myth of Marie Antoinette and shows her as a nervous young girl oblivious to the brewing revolution?
KD: I think Sofia [Coppola] wanted a history of emotions rather than facts. It was like they gave a bunch of teenagers in Versailles a video camera. When I saw it in the end it felt like a home movie.
LB: Nothing personal, but I kind of wanted to see Marie Antoinette's head get chopped off. Did you miss doing the famous beheading scene?
KD: That's in the straight-to-video sequel! [Laughs.] I think Sofia wanted to make it as abstract as possible. I figured you'd want to see my head chopped off, but that's years later! She was in prison for a while–that's a whole other film!
This article originally appeared in Next Magazine (nextmagazine.com). "Marie Antoinette" (Columbia Pictures) opens in theaters Oct. 20. Visit http://sonypictures.com for more information.
