Kirsten Dunst

Kirsten Dunst: Actress

UPDATED 05/13/2002 at 01:00 AM EDT • Originally published 05/13/2002 at 01:00 AM EDT

Last year Kirsten Dunst moved out of her mother's San Fernando Valley home. "I just wanted my own place and my own space," she says. A starring role in the new, big-budget Spider-Man, opposite Tobey Maguire, indicates that she won't be moving back home any time soon. Besides, Dunst, 20, can take care of herself. "No matter how tired I am, I always wash my face at the end of the day," she says. The 5'5" actress insists she eats properly and doesn't need "to run on a treadmill or do any of that creepy stuff." Evidently her natural exuberance is a great conditioner—for herself and others. "She gives you a positive charge," says Spider-Man director Sam Raimi. "It's the Dunst charge." Adds her costar Willem Dafoe: "She's a little ball of fire who can hold her own against actors much more her senior." Turns out that energy can be amped up. To play Spider-Man's love interest, Mary Jane Watson, Dunst wore a red wig. "I definitely felt ballsier," she says. "For Spider-Man 2 I'll dye my hair."