Kirsten Dunst Recalls ‘Repressing All This Anger’ Before Going to Rehab for Depression

Kirsten Dunst now feels freer than ever before, but 10 years ago, the Marie Antoinette star was in a very different stage of her life. In her late 20s, she checked into a Utah rehab facility for mental health treatment. She recalled that time in a new interview with The Sunday Times, admitting she was “repressing all this anger” at the time.

“I feel like most people around 27, the s— hits the fan,” Dunst, 39, said this weekend, reports E! News. “Whatever is working in your brain, you can’t live like that any more mentally. I feel like I was angry.” Regressing her anger “wasn’t a conscious thing,” she said, before adding that medication helped her progress.

“It’s hard to talk about such a personal thing, but it is important to share too,” Dunst explained. “All I’ll say is that medication is a great thing and can really help you come out of something. I was afraid to take something and so I sat in it for too long. I would recommend getting help when you need it.”

When reports surfaced in early 2008 that Dunst checked into the Cirque Lodge Treatment Center in Utah, the same facility where Lindsay Lohan and other stars were treated, the actress had to speak out against rumors she was being helped for drug or alcohol addiction. “I was struggling, and I had the opportunity to go somewhere and take care of myself,” she told E! News at the time. “I was fortunate to have the resources to do it. My friends and family thought it was a good idea, too.”

In a 2010 interview with New York Magazine, Dunst noted the impact living alone in the Hollywood Hills had, as well as the criticism Marie Antoinette received. Sofia Coppola’s film about the life of the French queen earned a mixed response when it hit theaters, although it did pick up an Oscar for costume design. “You grow up in a business where there’s a lot of people-pleasing. It’s hard to be firm in your own ground and not be afraid to rock the boat,” Dunst said in 2010. “I was swallowing a lot of stuff…In my relationships and personal life I absorbed things from other people, and then because of what I do for a living, I had to keep giving. It can dissolve you.” This weekend, Dunst told The Sunday Times that she became a “different person” and grew up after that period of her life.

Dunst and actor Jesse Plemons, whom she met on the set of Fargo, are parents to sons Ennis, 3, and James, who was born in September. After Ennis was born, Dunst felt “really free,” she told The Sunday Times. “I think as a performer you put yourself out there more [after having a child],” Dunst said. “You put yourself on the line because you have nothing to lose. It doesn’t really matter. And to show everything of yourself is a brave thing and a beautiful thing.”

Dunst recently starred in The Power of the Dog, which also stars Plemons and Benedict Cumberbatch. The movie was directed by Jane Campion and hits Netflix on Dec. 1 following a limited theatrical release beginning on Nov. 17. Dunst also recently starred in Showtime’s On Becoming a God in Central Florida, which was renewed for a second season until the COVID-19 pandemic led to Showtime reversing its decision.