Kirsten Dunst Says Shes Only Been Offered 'Sad Mom' Roles For The Past 2 Years Due To Ageism

Kirsten Dunst is getting candid about being typecast in Hollywood due to ageism. 

In a cover story for Marie Claire  published Tuesday, the 41-year-old Dunst revealed that she took two years off from acting after starring in 2021s The Power of the Dog, because the only offers she received after were for sad mom roles.

I havent worked in two years, Dunst said. Every role I was being offered was the sad mom. 

Dunst, who is returning to the big screen in A24s forthcoming Civil War film, opened up about struggling with the two-year hiatus. 

To be honest, thats been hard for me because I need to feed myself, she said. The hardest thing is being a mom and not feeling like I have nothing for myself. Thats every mother not just me. 

Theres definitely less good roles for women my age, she added.

Elsewhere in the interview, Dunst recalled feeling uncomfortable while filming the Sam Raimi-directed Spider-Man movies but not feeling supported enough to speak up.

Sharing that she didnt like the way everyone on set called her girly-girl, she said, You didnt say anything. You just took it. 

Dunst isnt the only one to talk about the challenges shes faced in acting as shes gotten older. In 2021, Carrie-Anne Moss spoke about the pressure she faces as an older actor  and revealed she was offered a grandmother role literally the day after my 40th birthday.

I was reading a script that had come to me and I was talking to my manager about it, Moss said in a conversation with writer and filmmaker Justine Bateman at the time. She was like, Oh, no, no, no, its not that role [youre reading for], its the grandmother. I may be exaggerating a bit, but it happened overnight. I went from being a girl to the mother to beyond the mother.