Kirsten Dunst Recalls Her Innocent 16-Year-Old Self Kissing Josh Hartnett

Published: June 4, 2025

Kirsten Dunst opened up about her experience playing Lux Lisbon in Sofia Coppola's directorial debut, The Virgin Suicides", at a special screening at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 1. The 43-year-old Oscar nominee spoke about portraying her promiscuous character, who was in love with Josh Harnett's Trip Fontaine.

Dunst revealed that when she first read the script of the psychological romantic drama, her 16-year-old self was worried, "because it was a lot of things that I was feeling that I hadn't expressed. They were very private."

"I was worried about kissing Josh [Hartnett] in the car and making out with boys on the roof," she confessed. "Which Sof didn't make me do. She was like, 'Just nuzzle into their shoulder and we'll shoot it abstractly.'"

Dunst starred as the fourth Lisbon sister, Lux, who has a brief teenage romance with Hartnett's Trip Fontaine. In one pivotal scene, after a date at her house — amongst her sisters and parents — Lux sneaks out to kiss Trip. But she lunges on top of him while he's collecting his composure in his car. After their heated scene, she quickly leaves to get inside before her parents conduct "bed checks."

"That was a really memorable night," Dunst explained. "So I was waiting, [Sofia was] like, 'Okay, you can go.' And I had to jump on Josh in a car, which — I was a very innocent 16-year-old — was terrifying."

"I remember his wig fell off one time. I was so embarrassed," she recalled. She and 19-year-old Hartnett had taken a car ride back to the hotel after the shoot, where he told her, "'I think you bit me.' I was like, 'Oh God.'"

"It all was very real," Dunst continued. "The timing of it was real, which gave you that kind of anxiety watching it."

Dunst and Coppola also revealed that they played the song "Crazy on You" by Heart for Dunst and Hartnett during the shoot, which is also the song that accompanies the scene.

"The song helped," Dunst said of approaching the scene. "It helped to have a soundtrack for that shot."

Coppola quickly added, "I think a lot of scenes, it helps to play the music."p>

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Dunst continued. "It all was very real.p>

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Dunst continued. "It all was very real."

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