“It’s not a role that he wanted to play”: Kirsten Dunst Had to Convince Jesse Plemons to Take Up Civil War That’s More Disturbing Than His Breaking Bad Role

This article contains major spoilers for Civil War (2024)

From the vastly untapped and underrated vision of Alex Garland comes yet another Oscar-winning project. Civil War stands out as an exceptionally well-drawn-out feature that presents itself as a thesis on the modern world, its ghastly conflicts, and the ultimate breakdown of social order. But through the mind-bending craft of actors like Jesse Plemons, the conflict finds a mouthpiece. Plemons not only acts his part but embodies the evil that permeates throughout the storyline.

As Civil War rages in theaters, Jesse Plemons becomes a talking point in conversations among critics, audiences, and niche fan circles for a performance that makes him just as much a reflection of reality as an actor of massive creative instinct.

Kirsten Dunst Shares an Insight Into Jesse Plemons’ Role

Jesse Plemons has had his fair share of terror to bestow upon the audience through films and TV shows like Breaking Bad, Black Mirror, Game Night, The Irishman, and I’m Thinking of Ending Things. And though these roles have taken him from being dubbed as Meth Damon to a knock-off version of William Shatner, Civil War could irreversibly place him on the map as a cinematic villain.

While speaking of his role in the Alex Garland film, his Fargo co-star and real-life wife, Kirsten Dunst, says it took a minute for the actor to get on board with the project. Given how shaken he left his co-stars and the audience with his role, it is understandable for the actor to sit and ponder for a moment, especially when the script requires him to deliver dialogues like, “What kind of an American are you?” with intonations of blood-curdling racism. The Spider-Man actress says in an interview with MovieWeb:

“It’s not a role that he wanted to play. I kind of asked him to play it for us because he’s such a brilliant actor. And I knew that that scene was such an important scene, because it ships the film into high gear after that scene.”

However, looking at the final product, Plemons’ co-stars truly believe only a handful of actors could have pulled off the job with the sheer terror-inducing and nightmare-triggering effect that Plemons had. In an EW interview, Dunst admits, “We’re lucky Jesse did this for us. Alex is lucky that he’s my husband and he was free.”

Jesse Plemons Horrifies the Audience With Civil War Role

Alex Garland’s Civil War may be his final directorial project, but entrenched in that is a once-in-a-lifetime role that may define Jesse Plemons for years to come. The actor has already been carving out a niche for himself in Hollywood with roles that are more disturbing than downright horrifying. However, his arc in Civil War includes a taste of both – a sadistic combination that can be difficult to pull off without accidentally drawing all of the film’s attention, like Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight.

Although Plemons’ role allowed him to enact terror on his co-stars throughout the film, the days were especially rough on Wagner Moura and Cailee Spaeny. Recalling the impact that Plemons had on her, Spaeny claims in an interview with EW:

“While they were filming the scene with the other characters farther away, we were walking down and Jesse was completely in character, improvising the whole time and just drilling me. I was just thinking, ‘Oh my God, Jesse, please stop!’ It was so haunting. He did such a brilliant job, but my God, after two days of that, it was a lot.”

The Breaking Bad actor left his cinematographer terrified too, who recalled the mass grave sequence with Plemons who gets caught by the press while covering it up as “a horrific thing, isn’t it?” His death in the hands of Stephen McKinley Henderson’s character, Sammy, feels like a vindication for the rest of the troupe with Henderson claiming, “I’m glad to be able to take him out. I pay the cost, but it’s worth it.”

Civil War is now playing in theaters worldwide.