Kirsten Dunst has spoken out about her time in rehab, describing it as an “awful” time for those close to her.
The 28-year-old Spider-Man star was treated for depression at the Cirque Lodge treatment centre in Utah in 2008, while people she knew were left to defend her against rumours of drink and drug addiction.
Kirsten told BlackBook magazine: “My friends and family were put in a position where they had to defend me, and it was an awful time.”
She went on: “And on a personal level, I would talk to anybody about it, but not on a public level. If I do that, then the next person feels like they can ask me about it, and the person after that, until everyone then feels entitled to ask me about it, and that’s not coming from a good place.”
Kirsten stars with Ryan Gosling in new dark drama All Good Things and said her experience in rehab helped her with the role.
She said: “I know what it’s like to lose yourself, to no longer know the difference between right or wrong.
“I was ready to play something like that. I had been living on the surface, emotionally, and I was feeling really vulnerable, so I was prepared to do anything at that point.
“I used to assume that I’d do this forever, and then there came a point in my life when I was like, ‘Why am I doing this at all?’
“With All Good Things, I realised that acting is what I’m meant to be doing, and not for the money or to make a hit, but because I love it. For the first time, acting became more about me than everybody else, and that was amazingly cathartic.”
