Daily Front Row

2010 April 22

Virgin Territory

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Kirsten Dunst
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Kirsten Dunst credits Sofia Coppola with turning her into a woman on the set of The Virgin Suicides. Tribeca audiences get to see whether she also—along with Michel Gondry, Sam Raimi, and Cameron Crowe—turned her into a director. Dunst talked to The Daily about her favorite shade of fake blood, L.A.’s secret basketball mafia, and directing one of the most sought-after shorts ever to hit the festival. BY VALENTINE UHOVSKI

This isn’t actually your first film-you made your directorial debut with Welcome at Sundance in 2008.
Yes, but my first time I was quite nervous. I don’t know if people sensed that because I was just trying to keep my cool. But it ended up being the perfect way for me to ease into being in charge on the set.

You were more confident this time around?
I was so much more confident. It’s been a few years since my last time directing, and I felt much more mature. Each movie you make is like a war, and I think I was just more mentally prepared this time around.

How did you come up with the idea for the film?
One of my best friends, Sasha Sagan, and I wanted to write a short, and Bastard is what we came up with. Then our friends signed on as producers, and my brother’s basketball buddies in Los Angeles joined as producers too.

His basketball buddies?
I swear, men who play basketball together in L.A. are part of this weird sort of mafia. They make more connections on that court than most people make in a lifetime!

Do you want to direct a feature?
Of course I’d like to direct one . But I’ve told myself that I’ll literally map everything out to the minutest detail. I’ll make a list of possible concerns and answers, so I can quickly and wittily respond to any problem that anyone on set might have. I’ll be very compulsive about it!

There were more than 2,000 shorts submitted to the festival. How excited were you to have made the cut?
I moved back to the city a little while ago and always dreamt of this project premiering at Tribeca. I live right around the neighborhood now, and it truly feels like a nice little homecoming. It’s very encouraging for a young filmmaker like me.

What made you move back?
I was born in New Jersey, so I’ve always had the East Coast spirit. L.A. is great, but it’s so dependent and intertwined with the industry. So I happily found a nice little niche for myself in the city.

A lot of the action in Bastard takes place in a shady motel. Have you ever stayed in one?
I’ve stayed in plenty, but none were that shady. By far the worst experience was this fancy hotel in London, which used to be a hospital. It was considered very trendy when I was there, and people seemed to be impressed when I’d mention it. It felt haunted to me. I was genuinely scared.

For a six-minute film, there’s an awful lot of blood.
The blood was actually the thing I was looking forward to the most. I had a very specific shade in mind. I’ll never forget our makeup artist and I sitting at dinner, mixing blood swatches on napkins. Then they kind of just deliver your perfect tone. I couldn’t be prouder of my jar of blood!