Kirsten Dunst stars as Marie Antoinette in writer/director Sofia Coppola's lavish look at the Queen of France, beginning with her marriage to Louis XVI and ending when she is forced out of Versailles by an angry mob.

Playing Dress-Up - The Costumes of Marie Antoinette: "Milena [Canonero] built my character through my clothing and I felt differently in every dress that I wore. She evoked things in me and I paid attention to everything. She collaborated with me on colors. Sofia [Coppola] definitely knew that she wanted us to look like a macaroon box in the beginning, very brightly colored. I went through kind of a gauzier, lighter feeling and than black obviously when she’s mourning her children. The cuts are more adult as I got older. The clothing in the film is so beautiful.”

Walking the Same Halls as the Real Marie Antoinette: “I couldn’t imagine having to shoot this in Burbank or something like that. I always sense the essence and the atmosphere of a movie. I think that’s what Sofia evokes so powerfully in her films, is atmosphere. I don’t think she could have made this movie anywhere else. For me, to have that - it’s a character in itself. I could walk around at night before I shot the balcony scene and look in mirrors and touch the wall and look at a clock. To be in a place where you think, ‘Well, maybe she looked at this clock,’ and, ‘I wonder if she looked at herself in the mirror when she was feeling…’ Your imagination, there’s so much to feed when you’re actually in the places.”

Asked if she felt Marie Antoinette’s presence, Dunst responded, “I just tried to get a sense of her perfume and her essence. But I just don’t know if I could say that I actually felt her, you know what I mean? There’s a fine line you walk there, you know? I’m not going to sound like a crazy woman. I have no idea. There are moments when you’re like, ‘I hope she’s okay with me playing her.’ You get those thoughts in your head and when you go into those really private areas, like her theater, those are times when I don’t know, you feel like you’re in a dream a little bit.”

The Childlike Quality of Marie Antoinette: “All of my friends and my family, everyone in my life, I see the childlike quality in all of them. I think part of her struggle was not being able to feel like a woman. She had no sensuality in her life other than what she was eating or wearing. She didn’t feel like a woman, and I think that her position in the court was just a pawn. I don’t think she was treated like a human being. I think towards the end of her life, her prison years were probably when she most felt like she had a purpose - even though it was doomed.

I think at that moment on the balcony is when she’s really faced with reality for the first time in her life. I think you can’t feel in yourself and feel like a real person or alive if you’re living in this place where everybody is expecting so much of you and you don’t even know yourself. I think it all became about like a little kid would. ‘I want to play with this; I want to watch this movie. Now I want to eat sugar.’ That was kind of my way of navigating and making her a sympathetic person.”

Growing Up in the Spotlight: Marie Antoinette was thrust into the public spotlight at a young age, with her every move scrutinized. In a weird way, Antoinette’s life is similar to young actors growing up in front of camera. Comparing the two very different worlds Dunst said, “There is definitely a lot of frivolity and you know I don’t really want to judge people. Girls are trying to grow up in a business that is very difficult and you lose yourself. I think that you compare Marie Antoinette to high school and they are just teenagers. I think that you can relate it to a lot of different circumstances and not just young Hollywood. But I guess growing up and having that attention and having people gossip about you and all of that, yes, but they’re not running a country. They’re acting. You can move to Austin, Texas and be okay if you don’t want to be followed and you don’t want that life. She really had no choice, Marie Antoinette. I mean you make a decision when you go out the door whether you want to go grocery shopping in the valley or have lunch at The Ivy, you know what I mean?”

Analyzing Marie Antoinette: “I had to love her. I was playing her and we wanted to make her understandable. I had to not judge her for those things, but try to understand her psychology behind it all. I couldn’t hate her or think she was stupid or frivolous for the things that she did. I mean, you know when she wants to plants trees? I think she probably wants to feel rooted in her life. I was trying to figure out my own descriptions for things, because you don’t have video. You don’t know what she sounds like. We did speak to different historians and everyone has a different opinion. It’s about Sofia’s take on this film and then how I can facilitate that, and how I can feel as best as I can as what she might have been feeling.”

Munching on Yummy French Pastries: Dunst snacks away throughout the film yet doesn’t gain an ounce. How’d she do it? “I don’t know,” answered Dunst. “I don’t really pay attention because I always pretty much stay the same. I don’t know. When we were eating the delicious French pastries, I’d eat them you know. I wasn’t paying attention to that because they were a little bit heavier. I tried to make her food experience be not about eating anything in front of the court when they were sitting there except for pastries. I just didn’t want to put anything in my mouth that wasn’t a pastry or a raspberry or something buttery and delicious. I thought that was Marie Antoinette’s relationship with food - just the sweets.

I didn’t really worry about that in playing her. I don’t think that was part of her mentality.”

Pairing Up with Jason Schwartzman: Although they play the royal couple (Schwartzman stars as King Louis XVI), the two actors don’t actually talk to each other much in the film. Dunst admits that was a little awkward. “It was hard because we’re such good friends. But I think that was a major part of why there was such a bonded feeling without so much talking, because they were the only two who knew what the other was going through. Even though it was hard for him to talk to her and they had an awkward relationship, I think by the end they were brother and sister and had such a love for each other. I think they became more like best friends and that’s what Jason’s and mine relationship is. I think that need to want to communicate, but not [talking] makes the scenes more interesting than just, ‘We’re not communicating because we just don’t get each other.’ It’s like we get each other, but we just don’t know what to do about it.”

Working with Writer/Director Sofia Coppola: Coppola used different techniques to explain the motivation and tone of specific scenes. “She’d give me little analogies at times, but she usually… There were so many personal moments and that would evoke certain feelings. Like at the party, she had Siouxsie And the Banshees song playing. You know, when you’re shooting at 8am in the morning and you just got done with tons of makeup and wardrobe and everyone’s a little tired, to have that kind of energy really helps so much.”

Dunst first worked with Coppola on The Virgin Suicides back in 1999. “When I was 16, I don’t think I was in a mind set of really observing her as a director, like how is she doing and things like that,” says Dunst. “I remember thinking back on that film and thinking, ‘Wow, nobody really wanted those things from me at that age.’ People wanted me to be cute and this and be more that all-American kind of cute girl. She didn’t want that from me. She wanted me to feel the actual feelings that I was feeling. I really respect her for giving me that and for seeing that in me. I noticed definitely after Lost in Translation… I mean she hasn’t changed. She’s still the Sofia that I know, but she’s a much braver film maker. To do a movie like this and totally take a period film, something on such a talked about historical figure. To take that on takes confidence and belief in your art, and to not compromise that, that shows a sign of growth to me.”

The Unavoidable Question – What’s Happening with Spider-Man 3?: Addressing the rumors of the need for additional shooting on Spider-Man 3, Dunst said she hasn’t been called back for any reshoots. “I think there are some blue screen things. Nothing major.”

As far as bringing in another lead female character in the form of Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy, Dunst seemed to be all for it. “It’s so funny. Everyone asks me that like it’s a competitive thing, but Bryce and I got along better than anybody. I was happy to have another girl to share all of that testosterone with. It was nice to come to set and have a girl to hang out with. Her character adds another type of woman that puts Peter in a position obviously with conflict with me and lying. All of those things just creates more drama in our relationships.”

Shooting Marie Antoinette and Spider-Man 3 wasn’t as big of a culture shock for Dunst as you might expect. She was lucky enough to have had a year in between the two films. “It was nice to have that year because I was really excited to go back to work again. I love working with Sam [Raimi] and coming back to a place where you know everybody, which is a good thing because you’re confident. You’re not afraid to give your opinions on anything, like lighting or whatever it is. You’re there with your team again. It’s a long movie so when you start doing the blue screen things and you’re just lying there and reacting to all of these things and these long takes, you feel like you’re losing your mind. But when it comes to the scenes and Sam, it’s all about that for him. That doesn’t feel like I’m making anything less important than this film.”