Just when you think Hollywood is hitting a bright spot — Jennifer Lawrence on the cover of Vogue! Robert Pattinson talking about poop! Donald Glover in socks and sandals! — Kirsten Dunst reminds us that La La Land is often a dark and dismal place.
In a profile for Nylon, Dunst admitted that finding good roles for women in Hollywood is still difficult, claiming that the best roles generally go to whomever is most trendy. In the words of interviewer Molly Lambert, those are the people who are "hot and bankable at the moment."
"You're almost better off being older," Dunst revealed. Unfortunately, roles for younger women tend to fit the ingénue archetype — they're young, wide-eyed characters that lack agency in their own lives, Dunst explained. The actress described these roles as "the young girl who's just, like, beautiful and things are happening to her."
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Roles for women, say, above the age of 30 tend to be a bit more complex, but that doesn't mean they're hefty. Dunst admitted that she'll often take a small part in a good film in the interest of playing a more complex role.
"A lot of the choices I make are director-driven,” she said. “I'd rather do a tiny little whatever in a good film.”
This isn't the first time Dunst has expressed frustration over gendered casting decisions. In an interview with Marie Claire U.K. in June, Dunst said that women in Hollywood these days have to have an Instagram following. Men, by contrast, do not.
"You can get jobs based on your Instagram following these days," Dunst said. "That's insane, but that's why I have it now. As a man, you could get away with not having it. As a woman in this industry, I think you gotta do it now. It's just part of the game."
If only "the game" weren't skewed against women.
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