Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst are Hollywood’s Brightest Power Couple - Netflix Tudum

  • News

    Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst are Hollywood’s Brightest Power Couple

    On screen and in life.

    By John DiLillo
    Nov. 11, 2021

Real-life couple Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons have both made careers out of creating understated, internal characters who still manage to wear their hearts on their sleeves. That tradition continues in Jane Campion’s new Netflix movie The Power of the Dog, the first time the pair have appeared in a film together.

Dunst and Plemons met on the set of Fargo Season 2 in 2015 and quickly became friends. “I knew that she would be in my life for a long time,” Plemons told The New York Times in 2020. Less than two years later, the pair was engaged. By the time they were filming The Power of the Dog, Dunst was pregnant with their second child. All this, while practicing their lines late at night and bonding over their shared history as former child actors: “We laugh about the fact that we were two child actors, and we both made it out OK,” Dunst told the Times

While the Spider-Man and Breaking Bad stars have been together since 2016, they haven’t shared the screen since Season 2 of Fargo in 2015 (unless you include Dunst’s brief Black Mirror cameo). And the duo’s participation in The Power of the Dog almost didn’t happen; Paul Dano and Elisabeth Moss were initially set to play George and Rose. But when scheduling conflicts got in the way, Plemons and Dunst were cast instead. 

In The Power of the Dog, Dunst and Plemons’ real-life relationship lends the film’s love story an air of predestination; if these two crazy kids can’t make it, no one can. Still, the couple’s bond didn’t always make performing as an awkward newlywed couple easy. “I grabbed his arm in one scene and was told that was too familiar,” Dunst told Deadline. “I had to remind myself this is not my husband.” 

Rose Teaches George to Dance | The Power of the Dog

Related Tags

More on The Power of the Dog

  • Let’s Have a Kirsten Dunst Film Festival
    From ‘Interview with the Vampire’ to ‘The Power of the Dog,’ here are all her movies streaming right now.
  • Rehearsals for Power of the Dog weren't all about horseback riding.
  • The Oscar nominee on one of the film’s most memorable moments.
  • Here’s how the film’s sound designers built the “piano-banjo duel.”
  • ‘The Power of the Dog’ cinematographer is the second woman ever nominated in her category.
  • Passing, The Power of the Dog and The Lost Daughter channeled loneliness and upended thriller conventions.

Shop The Power of the Dog

Go to Netflix Shop

Based on What You Watched

  • Plus: The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare tops the English TV list.
  • Take a walk(er) down memory lane and relive these unforgettable moments.
  • A doctor has an affair with his son’s girlfriend in this sexy British series.
  • Tobias Santelmann and Joel Kinnaman star in the Nordic noir series.
  • Plus: Ransom Canyon makes a strong debut, and I Will Find You hits a milestone.
  • Skyscraper Live thrills, and Kidnapped: Elizabeth Smart is a riveting survival tale.
  • A doctor has an affair with his son’s girlfriend in this hot and heavy British series.

News

  • Feel the buzz with the casts of Outer Banks to Better Than the Movies.
  • Head across the country — from the Upper East Side to Valley Hills, California
  • Creator Jon Kasdan combines horror and heart in this genre-bending story.
  • RSVP to livestream the results, and watch Season 5, Episode 1 early.
  • The Tyler Perry three-quel gets the iconic cast back together.
  • Learn more about our scene-stealing cover stars.
  • Grab your backpack and rowing uni — we’re going to Easton Prep. 
  • The series will chronicle a disturbing event at a fertility center.

Related Videos

  • From Marriage Story to NYAD, this films are worthy of a watch.
  • Benedict Cumberbatch reaches new heights as the intense Phil Burbank.
  • Hear how Supervising Sound Editor Robert Mackenzie tells a story through sound.
  • Makeup and Hair Designer, Noriko Watanabe, describes her process for making the characters look authentic.
  • Supervising Sound Editor Robert Mackenzie shares his process for building a world out of sound.
  • Listen to Director Jane Campion and the cast discuss the richness and complexity of the screenplay.
  • Composer Jonny Greenwood dissects the music of the film with Director Jane Campion.
  • Costume Designer Kirsty Cameron discusses her process to construct the entire cast’s wardrobe from scratch.

Latest News

  • Who Is Charles Manson? What to Know About the Latest Conversations with a Killer
    A man with curly hair and a beard stares intensely at the camera, set against a dark, gritty background. He has a red X marked on his forehead and visible chest hair, wearing an open shirt. The overall mood is eerie and dramatic.

Popular Now

  • Go under the surface to answer your deepest questions about the sci-fi thriller.
  • A breakdown of the love triangle and the "I do" that closed out the season.
  • Find out everything you need to know about how and when to watch.