Kirsten Dunst role in ‘Two Faces of January’: a ‘floozy’ in book, ‘real’ on film

TORONTO – Kirsten Dunst is the only woman in “The Two Faces of January,” and is caught between two powerful male forces — her fraudster husband Chester (Viggo Mortensen) and mysterious con artist Rydal (Oscar Isaac).

The noir thriller opening Friday is based on a 1964 novel by Patricia Highsmith, who also wrote “Strangers on a Train” and “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” Dunst says she and screenwriter-director Hossein Amini were determined to flesh out the lone female role.

“She in the book is portrayed as a bit of a floozy and a little bit promiscuous. Well, not a little bit, she is,” laughed Dunst in a recent telephone interview.

“I wanted to make her a real woman,” she said. “For me, watching that in a film, where the two guys get to have this interesting dynamic — I wanted her and Chester’s dynamic also to be loaded and just as important.”

“The Two Faces of January” begins in Athens, where Chester and Colette (Dunst) are on the run from the victims of a scam that made them rich. They meet and befriend Rydal, a well-educated tour guide with a knack for cheating unsuspecting tourists out of their money.

When Rydal stumbles across Chester trying to move the body of a private detective he has murdered, he agrees to help the couple flee Greece. But as they set out on the journey, Chester becomes increasingly jealous of Rydal’s flirtation with his wife.

“It’s really about this marriage falling apart,” said Dunst. “We had to make (Colette and Chester) as in love as possible and playful with each other so that you really see there’s somewhere to go. And you see them deteriorate.”

Dunst, 32, began her acting career at age six in Woody Allen’s “New York Stories.” She has since appeared in the blockbuster “Spider-Man” trilogy, and recently has leaned toward more character-driven fare like Lars Von Trier’s “Melancholia” and Jeff Nichols’s “Midnight Special,” opening next year.

“If you’re in bigger films it always helps in terms of financing for the smaller ones. (“Spider-Man”) was a big thing for me. It helped me have the opportunity to be in a movie like ‘Melancholia,’” she said.

Dunst was initially drawn to “The Two Faces of January” by the “beautifully written” script by Amini, an Oscar-nominated screenwriter who also penned “Drive.” This film marks his first time directing, but Dunst said it never showed.

“He’s such an intelligent man, and such a gentleman, and so in tune with knowledge of emotions. He has a very female side because of that,” she said. “I think he’s watched enough great directors on sets and he’s written enough beautiful films… (that) he didn’t seem nervous.”

Dunst said the two male leads have distinct acting styles, which worked because her character feels so differently around each. She felt more relaxed acting with her friend Isaac — who Colette also feels more at ease with as her husband descends into a jealous rage.

“I’m a fan of Oscar’s and he’s a friend of mine, so I’ll always support him. I love working with him and he’s a very special actor,” she said. “He’ll be around for a while. He just broke out in a big way.”

She added she doesn’t think the age difference between her and Mortensen, 55, appears jarring on screen (“He’s so handsome, it doesn’t seem off-putting”). He was a laugh riot on set, in contrast with his often moody, dramatic persona in films, Dunst said.

“He’s a dorkier man than you know. He’s a real dork, which I really appreciate,” Dunst chuckled. “He’s so funny. I told him on the movie, ‘You have to do a comedy, Viggo.’ He would be so funny in a comedy.”

Filming in Athens and Crete, Dunst said she felt like she was on a “little vacation” at times. The cast and crew stayed together in a small hotel in Crete and would race to the beach to go swimming after long, hot work days, she said.

On top of the stunning scenery, Dunst also got to luxuriate in glamorous 1960s fashion. She said some clothes were tailored for her, while others were vintage. One brown plaid dress she wears in several scenes was so old that the costume designers never washed it.

“They were afraid it would deteriorate,” she laughed. “It was hot in Greece and I think they just kept Febreze-ing my dress… It never bothered me. I was just surprised one day. I was like, ‘Does this smell?’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, we can’t dry-clean it.’”

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