Kirsten Dunst isn’t afraid to speak her mind. In a cover story for Variety, the Oscar nominee offered a show of support for recent Oscar winner Jonathan Glazer and his acceptance speech, which has polarized Hollywood.
While accepting the Oscar for best international feature for his film The Zone of Interest, a German-language movie about the horrors of the Holocaust, Glazer acknowledged the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine. “Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation, which has led to conflict for so many innocent people,” said Glazer, who is Jewish. “Whether the victims of Oct. 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization—how do we resist?”
Glazer’s remarks were misconstrued in the immediate aftermath of the Oscars and sparked outrage in Hollywood, prompting an open letter described as a “statement from Jewish Hollywood professionals” to circulate through the industry denouncing his speech. The open letter was disseminated through Hollywood via a Google form and was signed by over 1,000 individuals, including Debra Messing, Julianna Margulies, and Jennifer Jason Leigh, before it stopped accepting responses. Per a community note on X, the linked form “[did] not confirm or ask for proof that the signers are Jewish creatives or professionals.”
Unlike some of her peers, Dunst saw no issue with Glazer’s speech. “My interpretation was he was saying that genocide is bad,” she told Variety. Dunst is not alone in her stance: four-time Oscarnominee also Tony Kushner supported Glazer while appearing on on the Haaretz Podcast, saying that he believed Glazer’s speech was a “really sort of unimpeachable, irrefutable statement” on the conflict.
Dunst shared her thoughts about Glazer’s speech while promoting her next film, Alex Garland‘s film Civil War, which hits theaters on April 12th. In the A24 film, Dunst portrays Lee, a photojournalist covering a violent conflict between two heavily armed factions in a dystopian U.S.A. ruled by a fascist president played by Nick Offerman. Although there are certain similarities between Offerman’s commander-in-chief and a recent ex-president, Dunst insists that there’s no connection to be made.
“It feels fictitious to me,” she says, regarding any perceived similarities between Offerman’s character and Donald Trump. “I don’t want to compare because that’s the antithesis of the film. It’s just a fascist president. But I didn’t think about Nick’s character being any certain political figure. I just thought this is this president, in this world, who will not abide by the Constitution and democracy.”
In reality, Dunst’s is quite forthcoming regarding her personal politics. “I’m gonna vote for Biden,” she told Variety. “That’s my only option. Right?” A onetime vocal Bernie Sanders supporter, Dunst reportedly expressed regret to Variety that Beto O’Rourke flamed out in the 2020 presidential primary. While Dunst had no problem sharing her political beliefs, she lamented the fact that it’s become increasingly difficult to do so in the current landscape.
“It feels like I have to be on guard,” Dunst said, at the end of the interview. “The fact that people are losing their agents because they have a political standpoint — it feels scary.”