Kirsten Dunst (above) was no Penny Lane. But she’s a good fit for “Elizabethtown.”
In the love story about family and finding oneself, Dunst plays Claire Colburn, a perky flight attendant who meets Orlando Bloom’s character, a sneaker designer named Drew Baylor as he goes home to Elizabethtown, Ky., for his father’s funeral. She doesn’t stop yammering. And then doesn’t stop showing up in his life.
“She’s kooky,” the 23-year-old actress said. “She’s one of those people that just talk, talk, talk, and they don’t really stop to observe or listen. Even though I think that she’s a real studier of people, she’s also not really paying attention to herself.
“It was a character that I felt I could put myself into in a big way.”
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Writer-director Cameron Crowe first met Dunst in 1999, when he auditioned her for the part of Penny Lane, the groupie of “Almost Famous.” The role went to Kate Hudson, which didn’t surprise Dunst.
“I was uncomfortable with the material, I remember, because I was so innocent compared to Penny Lane,” Dunst said. “She was kind of beyond my years.”
Still, Crowe saw something, and cast her in “Elizabethtown” after rewatching her “Almost Famous” audition.
“Her emotions were so close to the surface,” Crowe said.