Being romantically involved became a creative asset for this acting duo in Jane Campion's Oscar contender.
In season two of "Fargo," Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons performed 10 episodes of the 2015 FX series as a couple to completely save themselves from trouble. By 2017, they were engaged. "We first fell in love as creative friends," Dunst told me at Telluride. “We had a creative relationship that tied us together. Whenever we used to do scenes together, there was a lot of freedom. It's like a magic, magical feeling."
Their first son, Ennis, was born in 2018; Howard arrives nine months after the wrap of Jane Campion's western noir “The Power of the Dog” (Netflix), which is ahead of Oscars in multiple categories, including Best Picture and Director. Dunst has already withheld Critics' Choice, Golden Globe and SAG nominations ahead of a potential Oscar award, which would be her first.
In "Power of the Dog", Dunst plays Rose, a widow who runs a Montana boarding house that cooks for guests, such as the Burbank brothers with rich ranches. Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch) is belligerent and cruel to his teenage son (Cody Smit-McPhee), who makes delicate paper flowers for the table. When George Burbank (Plemons) goes back to the kitchen to pay the bill, he and Rose have a conversation and he begins to court her. "What we recognize in each other is that we both have so much loneliness," Dunst said. "The need for each other on this deep level of soul connects us immediately."
Rose's arrival at the massive Burbank ranch house changes the brothers' dynamic. Phil, astonished by his silent brother's defection, weakens him at every turn. After George invites the governor and his wife to dinner, Phil miserably imitates Rose when she plays the piano. To allay her anxiety about Phil, Rose turns to alcohol.
"[Phil] had a real love affair with Bronco Henry at an inappropriate age," Dunst said. "But that was a great love that he had. And when someone dies, and then you're alone with your brother, you can get stuck in the past. It's an awkward thing to let George down. They're the same thing." The child has been in motion - until George makes that change and decides: 'I'm done.'"
The 1967 Thomas Savage novel informed Plemons about the inner workings of George's mind. "Something has gone sour for a long time," Plemons said. "Coming from this family, having grown up in a strange dichotomy of extreme wealth and isolated in the middle, there's no way a whole world of thoughts and feelings and emotions isn't being expressed in George. He was big to me. I had no interest in playing George's version of Phil."
Campion gave her a wonderful three weeks to rehearse before beginning principal photography in January 2020. The couple brought their child Ennis with them to the location, who were living in a house about an hour from the remote Otago set. The four leads try different ways to play out the characters' shifting dynamics. Plemons practiced horse riding, while Dunst improvised the kitchen – as well as practicing his piano. "When you learn an instrument as a grown-up, it's a lot harder than as a kid," she said. "When my hands started playing together, I almost cried."
Pelemon was nervous on the first day of rehearsals with Dunst. "All of a sudden it dawned on me that we had only worked together on these two specific parts of the Coen brothers' world," he said, referring to their collaboration on "Fargo."
She didn't have to worry: "We took one, and immediately, boy, everything felt like home. 'Ah, that's right, that's what I fell in love with in the first place: her creativity.' It reminded me how easy it is to work with him, day in and day out. It was a constant pitching thought and seeing how the other reacted. We can throw any idea without any ego. To the other person or So like it or not, she was. I think I'm better when I'm done with her: I've got to try and see where she's going."
Actors are often alone away from their partners on location, but "it was something we were doing together," Plemons said, "with the added benefit of being able to spend our downtime together."
For the scene when George and Rose have a romantic outdoor picnic lunch with a spectacular mountain view, Campion took Dunst and Plemons and a skeleton crew to Queenstown. "I was, in between, able to take a step back and realize how lucky I was to have such a beautiful scene to play with Kirsten in, probably the most beautiful location I've ever shot," Plemons said.
Cumberbatch remained in character on set as Phil: only when he occasionally left the place for dinner did he relinquish the role a bit. "It shakes the pot," Plemons said. "It elevates that dynamic to the in-between moments. It's helpful to everyone. It immediately created a mood. You always knew when Phil was on set."
Dunst had never met Cumberbatch before. "There's an intensity to his eyes," she said. “We didn’t have many scenes together, so I had to make up my whole inner life and demons. It’s all psychologically stirring in my own head as I hear things, like his shoes being banged on.”
Campion cuts a scene where Rose tells George, "I don't think Phil likes me very much." "It was very unnecessary," said Dunst. “If I had explained more it would have reduced the tension, creep, and isolation. What developed in the film begins to become its own vitality.”
Due to the pandemic, production stopped in March 2020. Plemons and Dunst stayed in New Zealand for a month and returned to Los Angeles for eight weeks before the New Zealand government allowed the film to film.
"Since we had to go back and finish, I was very appreciative of being able to work there after sitting there for three months," Dunst said. "It made us so grateful, it made us all work hard and give it our all, because we were like, 'When are we ever going to work again? Are we allowed?'"