Before Spider-Man's Mary Jane, Kirsten Dunst Stunned Audiences As A Vampire

In Anne Rice's "Interview with the Vampire," the vampire Lestat transforms a five-year-old child into a vampire after his lover, Louis, feeds on her. This child, Claudia, transitions into an adult over the years, but remains stuck in a child's body due to her vampirism. As Lestat and Louis' relationship becomes more strained, Claudia grows more resentful of her condition, desperately wanting to look her age and experience life as an adult. Acutely aware that Lestat is the one who robbed her of her personhood, she hatches a plan to get rid of him and decides to travel the world with Louis before arriving in France. But tragedy strikes soon after, marking a devastating turning point in Rice's "The Vampire Chronicles." 

Not everything in Rice's novel has aged well, including the deeply unsavory undertones of the Claudia-Louis dynamic, as the latter is framed as both father figure and lover. This disturbing element undoubtedly adds to Claudia's complex characterization and the paradoxical nature of her existence, but it's extremely tricky to translate into a live-action adaptation. So when Neil Jordan's "Interview with the Vampire" cast an 11-year-old Kirsten Dunst as the vampire Claudia, the decision was somewhat controversial, given the ethics of a child actor sharing an onscreen kiss with an adult co-star (Brad Pitt, who played Louis). Dunst has looked back at this particular scene and (rightfully) expressed discomfort, while maintaining that her memories of filming "Interview with the Vampire" are fond. 

Despite its stunning merits, Jordan's film often suffers from melodramatic excess. But Dunst's embodiment of Claudia invests the narrative with incredible depth and complexity, so much so that this adaptation simply doesn't work without her, as Claudia's presence counterbalances everything Lestat and Louis stand for. 

When Lestat (a delightfully camp Tom Cruise) turns Claudia, she is integrated into a dysfunctional family without ever being given a choice. While Claudia embraces her vampiric instinct to hunt/kill without remorse (in stark contrast to Louis' constant moral turmoil), she has never known what it's like to be human or aware of what it entails. There's a delicate vulnerability to the character, but she hides it behind visceral rage that consumes her as she keeps aging. There are limitations to her existence that neither Lestat nor Louis has to endure, which causes adoration and jealousy concerning their innate freedom.

Dunst perfectly balances these complicated facets, effortlessly transitioning between the many, many moods of Claudia. In one scene, she appeals to our empathy with ease, and in another, her vicious nature adds an unsettling layer to her. Dunst excels in the more emotionally flagrant scenes, but it is the quieter moments that define Claudia, such as when she tricks Lestat into drinking laudanum-laced blood and (seemingly) kills him in cold blood. It is astounding that an 11-year-old Dunst had an intricate understanding of these nuances and was able to hold her own against both Cruise and Pitt (I would even argue that she completely outshines them in certain scenes).

In case you're looking for a fresh, different perspective on the character, AMC's "Interview with the Vampire" reinvents Claudia for the better. The show fleshes out her motivations with great care and retains her complexity without giving in to Rice's dated, problematic tropes. That said, Dunst's Claudia remains the blueprint, and her performance makes the 1994 film feel more impactful (and engaging) than we give it credit for.