Kirsten Dunst has revealed that throughout her career, “everyone” has been mispronouncing her name.
The 43-year-old actress, known for her roles in films like Bring It On and Spider-Man, took to TikTok to lament the years of name mispronunciations.
Dunst admitted that throughout her career, she’s heard everything from "criss-ten" to "ker-stin" and "keer-sten," but despite her apparent frustration, she said she doesn’t really care if it’s pronounced correctly or not.
"I mean, everyone messes up my name, so I give up," she shared in a TikTok video for Town and Country magazine. "I don’t care... I don’t blame people. Like in England, they don’t really say my name right.
“The last set, everyone was saying my name wrong. There were like Swedish people and people from Hungary. You just give up," she added.
Finally, the actress confirmed the correct pronunciation: "Keer-sten." But true to her laid-back nature, she added: “But again, who cares? It’s fine.”
Fans flocked to the comments to share their reactions, with many admitting they had mispronounced her name over the years.
One user wrote: "Once Kirsten explained how her name was pronounced decades ago, I never forgot. She said it’s K-ir 'ear' and gestured to her ear."
Another shared: "I am 29 years old, i have ALWAYS known about her ALL my life… and NOW i realize her name is spelled KIRSTEN and not KRISTEN?!!!!!" while a third quipped: "Pronounced 'keer sten' I’ll never mispronounce again queen!!!!"
Others chimed in with their own name mispronunciation struggles, with a user saying: "As a Kirsten, it’s soooo annoyingggg but I get it. Everyone calls me Kristen or Kiersten and it’s like ahhhh." A second added: "Hey the Kristen’s of the world pronounce it correctly. We are tired of being called Kirsten also."
This isn't the first time the Civil War star has reflected on her name, as she once revealed that during her time on the set of Spider-Man, where she played Mary Jane Watson alongside Tobey Maguire, she was given a nickname that she wasn’t too fond of.
“It was a joke, but on Spider-Man, they would call me ‘girly-girl’ sometimes on the walkie-talkie. ‘We need girly-girl.’ But I never said anything,” she said, per Variety.
Dunst added that had the #MeToo movement been in effect at the time, she might have spoken up.
The actress, who is married to Jesse Plemons, has been very open about her decision to take a break from acting after feeling frustrated by the types of roles she was being offered.
After her 2021 performance in The Power of the Dog as a widow, she found herself being offered a slew of “sad mom” roles, which she found limiting.
"Every role I was being offered was the sad mom. To be honest, that’s been hard for me… because I need to feed myself,” she said, cited by PEOPLE. “The hardest thing is being a mom and...not feeling like, I have nothing for myself. That’s every mother - not just me."
Looking ahead, Dunst is set to star in Roofman, alongside Channing Tatum and Peter Dinklage.
The film follows Tatum’s character, a former Army Ranger and struggling father who resorts to robbing McDonald’s restaurants by cutting holes in their roofs. Dunst plays a single mother who becomes romantically involved with Tatum’s character, though his criminal past threatens their relationship.
Roofman is scheduled for release on October 10 in theaters.