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Kirsten Dunst bonded with Lars Von Trier over depression

Written by . Published: September 29 2011

Kirsten Dunst felt a personal connection to director Lars Von Trier as they both poured their experiences of depression into new movie Melancholia.


Dunst, who checked into rehab in 2008 to battle the condition, plays a woman on the brink in a role which won her a Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival in France this year (11).

The Spider-Man actress admits the shoot was very personal for both her and director Von Trier as they have similar experiences in dealing with depression, and many of the scenes are based on the moviemaker's own life.

She tells BBC Breakfast, "He was very vulnerable with me, he opened up a lot about his struggles... I had a very intimate and great working experience with him... I was playing something that Lars has experienced very intimately and his wife was overwhelmed by (the film) because there were things that actually happened to Lars."

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