HOLLYWOOD -- Kirsten Dunst once suggested Spider-Man 4 should be a schlocky horror film with her having eight babies. You know, like a spider.
This is why she's paid to act, not write.
Almost as ludicrous? The notion she had for Spider-Man 3.
"I suggested (Mary Jane) shouldn't be in peril," the 25-year-old actress tells reporters during interviews in L.A.
So consider the movie's finale -- in which the wall-crawler's true love is snared in a giant malevolent web spun above a Manhattan construction site -- good news. If they didn't listen to her then, they'll never go ahead with eight arachnid offspring now.
Of course, it remains to be seen if Dunst will be back at all for a fourth instalment in the wildly-profitable franchise.
Like star Tobey Maguire, she originally signed on for only for three movies. Another one would require fresh contracts -- i.e. more dough and maybe even enough clout to push that spider-babies subplot through. Say, what's Mena Suvari up to these days, anyway?
"This is definitely the end to this trilogy," Dunst says of Spider-Man 3. "We've closed this chapter."
However, she adds -- as have director Sam Raimi and Maguire -- that she will sign for a fourth episode if they do as well.
And if they don't? Fear not, true believer -- Sony is hell-bent on making Spider-Man 4, 5 and 6 regardless. (If you happen to know Joseph Gordon Levitt's agent, for the love of God, tell him to stay by the phone.)
Beyond the Spider-Man franchise, though, Dunst expresses little enthusiasm for the genre that has made her a superstar.
"Honestly, I have absolutely no interest in being a superhero. I got to throw a cinderblock in this one, which was fine. That's enough action for me."
The same might be said of Dunst and the Spider-Man film series. Ending now would see the actress and Spidey part ways at a natural crossroads. She was still a teenager, after all, when she won the coveted role of Peter Parker's fiery, red-headed girlfriend.
"I think on the first movie I was so much younger, impressionable and insecure so I didn't have the confidence that I have as an actress today ... I was performing more forother people instead of myself ...
"With each film, we've become more and more collaborative. And this last one has been three individuals coming together as equal adults collaborating."
Dunst was only 12-years-old when she made a memorably skin-crawling debut as an underage blood-sucker opposite Brad Pitt in Interview with the Vampire. Then in 1999, she successfully bridged her childhood fame to adult success with the surreal, disturbing The Virgin Suicides.
"Virgin Suicides was big for me because it showed me in a light where I was a young girl having these other emotions --not just being the cute kid."
In Spider-Man 3, she's confronted not only with Venom and Sandman, but her own insecurities after her Broadway career falters. At the same time, Parker -- or, rather, his costumed alter-ego -- is basking in overdue fame and adoration.
Dunst -- who says she no longer cares what critics think -- says she knows the drain stardom can put on a relationship. She even says she has trouble getting dates. "Who wants to be part of that? I live a normal life, but occasionally there's stuff that's not so fun to deal with ... I need somebody who can deal with all the aspectsof who I am."
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