Brad Pitt has locked lips onscreen with many co-stars over the years, but, despite his heartthrob status, it wasn't always pleasant for his scene partner. When she was 11 years old, Kirsten Dunst had to kiss Pitt in their movieInterview with the Vampire, an experience that was strange for her. Over the years, the younger actor has opened up the movie peck, and her opinion hasn't changed much since she was still a kid. Read on to learn how the kiss came about and how Dunst looks back on it.
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Pitt played a father figure to Dunst.
Warner Bros.In 1994's Interview with the Vampire, adapted from the Anne Rice novel, Pitt and Tom Cruise star as vampires Louis and Lestat, who have a parental relationship with Dunst's character Claudia, because she was turned as a child. At one point, Claudia gives Louis a peck on the lips. It wasn't Dunst's first movie but it was her breakout role. She was even nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.
As a child, she described kissing Pitt as "gross."
Warner Bros.Though the movie only called for a peck, Dunst did not want to kiss Pitt at all. She was a child, he was 29 years old, and she viewed him as an older brother.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight in 1994, Dunst said, "I hated it so much, because, I don’t know, Brad was like my older brother on the set, and it’s kind of like kissing your brother … It was weird kissing an older guy, and I had to kiss him on the lips, so it was gross."
When Pitt was asked about Dunst's comments, he responded, "Listen, it was no easy road for me either. I mean, my dad’s going to watch this movie."
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She didn't understand why people said she was "lucky."
Dunst has been asked about the uncomfortable kiss many times over the years. In 2013, she told Bullett magazine (via CBS News), “It was just a peck," and added, "I remember Brad would watch lots of Real World episodes. He had this long hair. He was just a hippie-ish cool dude. Everyone at the time was like, 'You're so lucky you kissed Brad Pitt,' but I thought it was disgusting."
In a 2014 interview with Conan O'Brien, Dunst shared similar thoughts.
“I thought it was disgusting," she said. "I was 11, it would have been weird if I was like, 'This is amazing. I’m kissing Brad Pitt.' Then I think people would think I was a little bit off."
She otherwise had a great time making the movie.
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty ImagesAside from all of that, Dunst said she enjoyed making the movie and working with her very famous co-stars.
"They were so sweet to me," Dunst told Entertainment Tonight of Pitt and Cruise in 2019. "I mean, listen, that production, that film, was like nothing else I've ever experienced—maybe Marie Antoinette, because of where we shot. Other than that, they just don't make movies like that anymore."
She has somewhat fonder memories of her real first kiss.
Dunst considers her real first kiss to be one that happened nowhere near a movie set. During an interview with James Corden in 2019, she said that she had her actual first kiss in an elevator at the Washington Monument while on a school trip.
"I did have a first kiss as a normal young adult in 8th grade," she said. "I was upset because I liked his friend, but he kissed me in the elevator."
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