Actress Kirsten Dunst headlines Alex Garland’s political thriller Civil War. The film sees Dunst play the role of a photojournalist during a second Civil War in America which prompts Texas and California to secede from the USA and try to overthrow the government. The film also stars Nick Offerman, Wagner Moura, and Stephen McKinley Henderson.
Apart from the main cast, the film also features Jesse Plemons as a white nationalist militiaman. Plemons reportedly appears in one scene in the film, which was reportedly extremely uncomfortable for the cast and crew. It was reportedly more so for Dunst as she is married to Plemons.
Kirsten Dunst Was Disturbed By Jesse Plemons’ Scene In Civil War
With the election on the horizon, the timing of Alex Garland’s film seems to be perfect. The film was one of the most anticipated especially because of the surprising coalition of Texas and California that the movie depicts in its new USA map, which sparked many conversations.
Kirsten Dunst plays a photojournalist named Lee, who is tasked with documenting the ‘Truth’ during the period of civil unrest. The film sees her get mixed with a group of survivors as she travels to Washington DC to interview the dictatorial President of the USA, played by Nick Offerman. Along the way, the group reportedly encounters a militiaman who confronts them about their identity.
The militiaman is played by Jesse Plemons, who is Dunst’s husband in real life. Plemons and Dunst have worked together before in Fargo and The Power of the Dog. However, Dunst mentioned to ET that the scene they worked on in Civil War was disturbing and made the whole crew uncomfortable. She said,
“He did a favor for us because that is a really disturbing role to play, so it’s not like he was jumping at the chance to play the role. Even reading the script, it’s one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen. When we rolled up to set, it was just very, very tense and emotional for everybody filming that scene.”
The scene, part of which is shown in the trailer, reportedly shows the group of survivors bumping into the militiaman who questions their identity as an American. Wagner Moura mentioned that the scene affected him on a personal level.
Alex Garland Created An Immersive Environment For The Actors
Director Alex Garland began his career as a novelist and then became a screenwriter. He is known for his sci-fi films such as Sunshine, 28 Days Later, and Dredd. He made his directorial debut with the sci-fi film Ex Machina, for which he was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar. He then went on to helm Annihilation and Men.
Kirsten Dunst and her co-stars such as Wagner Moura and Cailee Spaeny mentioned how immersive Alex Garland’s sets were and how they helped in bringing in more realistic performances. Dunst mentioned how Garland made sure that her scene with Jesse Plemons was as real as possible and that he placed cameras in non-traditional places. She said to ET,
“The way that Alex directed it was so intelligent because the cameras were never in our faces; he sort of did it in a nontraditional way to make sure that he wasn’t breaking up the momentum, and he didn’t do traditional close-ups where you had crews stepping in. So it almost felt really immersive. The whole movie [does] but [especially] that scene in particular.”
Cailee Spaeny, who plays a young photographer, rescued by Dunst’s character during a bombing in New York mentioned that the final act of the film felt like a play on the road and that their survival instincts kicked in due to the excessive noise of gunfire and other sounds.
Alex Garland’s Civil War is currently playing in theaters.
