Kirsten Dunst Was Born to Star in ‘On Becoming a God in Central Florida’

Ever since she first appeared as the mysterious and conniving Claudia in Interview with a Vampire, Kirsten Dunst has transfixed audiences. But it wasn’t until Showtime’s On Becoming a God in Central Florida that she finally found a role that truly did her talents justice. Krystal Stubbs, the no-nonsense scrappy alligator widow with a million and one plans up her sleeve is the role Dunst was born to play.

For years, Dunst has proven that no one can capture mournful outsiders quite like her. In Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides Dunst was able to transform every one of Lux’s longing looks into a plea for childhood innocence and belonging. Likewise, Coppola’s Marie Antoinette was little more than one long scream for acceptance. The second Dunst’s Antoinette is shipped away to marry Louis XVI of France (Jason Schwartzman), she’s forced into a world far outside of her element.

Whenever Dunst portrays vulnerability, it’s always in this distinctly feminine way. These movies involve women who are deeply unhappy with their lives, but more than that these women silently resent the patriarchal standards forcing them into these constraints. They may be helpless to fix their situations, but they’re smart and self-aware enough to understand what caused them.

That brooding understanding is often at odds with the other type of women Dunst excels at playing: scrappy and determined antiheroes. Fargo Season 2 demonstrated this side of Dunst the best, through the character of Peggy Blumquist. Peggy is best described by one of her final appearances, in the second to last episode of the season. While a UFO is hovering in the sky, Peggy pulls her husband Ed (Jesse Plemons) away in the hopes that she can still escape from the man pursuing her. That’s Peggy. She’s a determined dreamer who would literally stop at nothing to achieve her goals and make her life better; hitmen or UFOs be damned. And Dunst plays that pinpointed selfishness with a gusto that makes her immediately lovable.

On Becoming a God in Central Florida is the first project that has truly combined Dunst’s unrelenting strengths, that of the too aware outsider and the unapologetic hero of her own story. Krystal Stubbs knows she doesn’t belong in the world of FAM, a multilevel marketing company adorned with smiling, perfect wives and winner husbands. Nothing Krystal does, from the color of eyeshadow she wears to her love of jean jackets to her reliance on public transportation, will ever impress these women or their husbands. And she knows it. You can see it in the way Krystal eyes the more manicured women around her with a mixture of envy, disgust, and understanding that this is a world she will never be part of. Krystal was always an outsider, and that was before her husband was eaten by a gator.

And yet that knowledge of her differences only makes her stronger. She repeatedly calls out FAM for costing more money than it makes, a level of honesty her colleagues never come close to touching for fear of rocking the boat. By not obsessing over keeping up appearances Krystal can see directly into the scam at the center of this warped drama. Because she cares what she thinks over what everyone else thinks she’s willing to take weird, bold chances like filling her workplace with FAM products behind her boss’ back. Dunst sells this self-aware divide splendidly. Everything that makes Krystal a messy train wreck also makes her the most compelling person in this show as well as an idol for Floridian women everywhere.

That doesn’t even touch on how gratifying it is to see Dunst get gross and be weird. Typically, prestige dramas only allow their men to lead shoot-outs or make boozed up mistakes. Not in On Becoming a God. Within the show’s first two episodes Dunst’s character has already shot the alligator that ate her husband, gutted and cleaned said gator, sped off on an ATV twice, and performed a sultry dance attached to two mannequins. All of it was very weird. All of it was shocking. And Dunst turned every single stab into that gator into a rallying cry for Krystal Stubbs. Kirsten Dunst has always captivated us, but On Becoming a God in Central Florida proves that we’re not even close to touching the limit of what she can do.

New episodes of On Becoming a God in Central Florida premiere on Showtime, Sundays at 10/9c. 

Watch On Becoming a God in Central Florida on Showtime