Kirsten Dunst had the best response after she was asked to lose weight for her latest role

We know that actors are often asked to either bulk up or trim down for roles that they’re playing, and while these practises are somewhat divisive, it’s important for stars to know when to say no. That’s why we love what Kirsten Dunst said when she was asked to lose weight for her most recent role.

It was announced last year that acclaimed director Sofia Coppola was remaking the Civil War romance The Beguiled. The movie stars Elle Fanning, Kirsten Dunst, and Nicole Kidman, who, in the trailer, looks particularly creepy.

The movie, which is released on June 23rd, is about a sheltered women’s boarding school in 1800s Virginia during The Civil War. The women of the school come across an injured soldier, played by Colin Farrell. After they take Farrell’s character in to heal, and as he gets better, it becomes apparent that he has embarked on love affairs with some of the female boarders. Things then get pretty dark…

Speaking to Variety about the movie, longtime collaborators Sofia Coppola and Kirsten Dunst shared some titbits about the movie, including the fact that Coppola had asked Dunst to lose some weight for her role.

The pair discussed their relationship with each other, including their time working together on Marie Antoinette and The Virgin Suicides, with 46-year-old Coppola stating that she felt “big sisterly” about 35-year-old Dunst.

However, it seems that the pair clashed a little bit over Dunst’s role in The Beguiled, particularly when Coppola said that the actor should lose weight for the southern gothic movie.

“It’s so much harder when you’re 35 and hate working out,” Dunst said.

In fact, she said that because they were shooting in the south, any weight lose would be impossible.

Given their relationship, Variety describe the director’s response to this as “understanding.” While we’re not sure whether it’s okay that Coppola asked Dunst to lose weight to play this role, it’s good to see that after the actor said that she wouldn’t the conversation was dropped.

It’s a surprising move, however, as earlier in the profile, Kirsten Dunst describes a time when the pair were working on The Virgin Suicides together where Sofia Coppola told her not to change her teeth.

“She was always a good influence on me as a young woman,” Dunst recalled. “She said to me, ‘I love your teeth; don’t ever fix your teeth.’ I remember doing a ‘Spider-Man’ movie later, and one of the producers was like, ‘I need to take you to the dentist!’ They even fixed my teeth on the poster. But I just knew I was never doing that. Sofia is the chicest, coolest girl, and she thinks my teeth are great.”

Adding to that she said, “She gave me confidence in little things that I wouldn’t necessarily have had.”

We’re certainly iffy about Sofia Coppola’s request to ask Kirsten Dunst to lose weight for a role, especially when it doesn’t seem that it was necessary for the role. Yet, what we’re glad about is that the pair were able to have a conversation about it, and that Kirsten was able to say, “No!” when the time came.