“It was pouring with rain, freezing.”

By Molly Moss

Published: Sunday, 31 March 2024 at 11:06 AM


Kirsten Dunst has opened up about her “miserable” experience filming the upside-down snog in Spider-Man.

The 2002 superhero film saw Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) lock lips with Mary Jane Watson (Dunst) in the rain while dressed in his costume and hanging from a web. 

But the smooch, which has gone down in history as one of cinema’s most romantic moments, wasn’t a particularly positive experience for Dunst.

During an appearance on Saturday’s episode of The Jonathan Ross Show (30th March), on which she was promoting her upcoming project Civil War, Dunst recalled filming the scene. 

“I remember [the film’s director] Sam Raimi giving me a book of famous kisses to be inspired, but also he really wanted to make it special, even though it was kind of miserable actually doing it,” she revealed.

“It was pouring with rain, freezing, Tobey couldn’t breathe, so it was almost like I was resuscitating him.”

Kirsten Dunst
Kirsten Dunst.
Karwai Tang / Getty Images.

Dunst previously expressed her desire to reprise the role of Mary Jane if given the same opportunity as her co-star Maguire, who popped up in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

“You know I’d join that multiverse!” she told Backstage. “I feel like I’m the only one that hasn’t joined it. I’m like, ‘Please, put me in. Put me in the lineup.’ I need to pay for my house and kids.”

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And that wasn’t the first time she had spoken about wanting to return to the role – previously revealing her regret that a once planned fourth entry in Raimi’s series did not go ahead.

“I wanted to be in that movie so badly,” she told Variety in 2017. “I loved it, and I wish we could have made a fourth.”

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