Kirsten Dunst studied “famous kisses” before her upside-down smooch with Spider-Man.
Kirsten Dunst researched for her upside-down Spider-Man kiss
‘The Power of the Dog’ star - who starred as Mary-Jane Watson opposite Tobey Maguire, 46, as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in three movies - has revealed director Sam Raimi required the scene to be “romantic and special” and sent her off with plenty of material to study before filming the iconic scene in 2002's 'Spider-Man'.
The 39-year-old actress told W magazine: “I did not feel like it was a famous kiss because Tobey was ... Water was getting up his nose because of the rain, and then he couldn't breathe in the Spider-Man suit, and then... And it just felt very late at night. I didn't think about it that way. But the way it was presented to me, Sam gave me this book of famous kisses, so that made me realize how romantic and special Sam wanted this to be. Even though it wasn't necessarily feeling that way with Tobey hanging upside down.”
The ‘Melancholia’ star was “proud to be a part” of such an iconic moment in movie history.
In 2002, Tobey admitted he “couldn’t breathe” and was “gasping for breath out of the corner of Kirsten’s mouth” when they filmed the rain-soaked kiss.
The movie star - who dated his co-star for a year after meeting on-set - said at the time: "Poor girl. I was giving her mouth to mouth rather than kissing her.”
Kirsten also hailed Raimi for his casting choices for the blockbuster trilogy.
She said: “I just knew that Sam was going to do something special. It felt like an indie. Just these choices Sam was making, like casting Tobey — he had only been in ‘Wonder Boys’ and ‘The Cider House Rules’ at the time - and Willem Dafoe. He set the tone for hiring really interesting actors for these Marvel movies.”
Tagged in Willem Dafoe Kirsten Dunst Tobey Maguire