9 Milestones in the Evolution of Kirsten Dunst

Bring It On (2000)

On the flip side of the restrained Lux Lisbon is Torrance Shipman, Dunst's vivacious Bring It On cheerleader captain who leads her squad in provocative numbers that rhyme, "I jump! You can look but don't you hump. I'm major. I roar. I swear I'm not a whore." In addition to this being a complete 180 from her last project, this '90s pop classic cemented Dunst as a teen queen (after her roles in the previous year's Drop Dead Gorgeous and Dick paved the way) and features the actress's first proper leading role.

Spider-Man (2002)

After trying her hand at singing via her roles in the teen comedy Get Over It and Peter Bogdanovich's drama The Cat's Meow, Dunst returned to the mainstream for the most lucrative project of her career: Sam Raimi's Spider-Man. As Mary Jane Watson, Dunst brought weight and complexity to what could have been a character as two dimensional as the actual Marvel comic. Dunst would go on to reprise the role of Mary Jane for the next two sequels before passing the Spider-Man crush object baton to Emma Stone for Marc Webb's upcoming Amazing Spider-Man.

Wimbledon (2004)

Following solid supporting parts in Mona Lisa Smile and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Dunst attempted her first adult romantic comedy, the tennis title Wimbledon. Although a conventional rom-com, the actress pleased critics as an upbeat tennis star on the rise opposite Paul Bettany's tennis pro on the decline. The next year, Dunst would try her hand at rom-coms one more time with the all-around disaster Elizabethtown. In spite of the harsh reviews of the Cameron Crowe film though, Dunst managed to come out unscathed.

Marie Antoinette (2006)

Two years later, Dunst explored the dramatic end of the historical spectrum for the first time with the title role in Marie Antoinette. Dunst reteamed with Coppola again for the loosely adapted, stylized interpretation of the life of the fill-fated Queen of France. Roger Ebert called the actress "pitch-perfect" for the role of the self-possessed and spirited -- if lonely -- archduchess. The film, which was shot inside the Palace of Versaille, was a modest box office success.

Melancholia (2011)

From the very beginning of her career, Dunst has excelled at playing conflicted characters, torn by knots of emotion that cannot be worked out through dialogue. The actress returns to that same depthy wheelhouse in this weekend's Melancholia, as a newlywed who welcomes her own (and the planet's) doom with open arms. Her performance earned her this year's Best Actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival and has Dunst in this fall's awards-season conversation as well.

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