Kirsten Dunst Says Tobey Maguire 'Couldn't Breathe' During “Spider-Man” Upside-Down Kiss in 'Freezing' Rain

Dunst said that director Sam Raimi "really wanted to make" the kiss "special, even though it was kind of miserable actually doing it"

Movie magic sometimes isn't as magical behind the scenes — just ask Kirsten Dunst!

Almost 22 years after famously locking lips in the rain with Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man, Dunst, now 41, is looking back on the "kind of miserable" experience of filming the iconic upside-down scene.

In the rainy scene, Dunst's character Mary Jane Watson pulls down the mask of an upside-down Spider-Man (Maguire, now 48) just far enough to keep his true identity under wraps, before planting a smooch on him to thank him for rescuing her from a group of thugs.

“It was pouring with rain, freezing, Tobey couldn’t breathe so it was almost like I was resuscitating him,” the Oscar nominee says on Saturday's upcoming episode of The Jonathan Ross Show, per U.K. outlet The Independent.

The 2002 superhero movie's director Sam Raimi gave her "a book of famous kisses to be inspired" by ahead of filming, because "he really wanted to make it special, even though it was kind of miserable actually doing it," Dunst adds of the scene.

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While fans are still swooning over the smooch more than two decades later, Dunst previously told W Magazine she "did not feel like it was a famous kiss" when filming it due to logistical hurdles.

"Water was getting up his nose because of the rain, and then he couldn't breathe in the Spider-Man suit ... and it just felt very late at night," the actress recalled. "I didn't think about it that way."

"But the way it was presented to me, Sam gave me this book of famous kisses, so that made me realize how romantic and special Sam wanted this to be," she explained. "Even though it wasn't necessarily feeling that way with Tobey hanging upside down."

And today, "I'm proud to be a part of that," Dunst said of the kiss being considered among all the great onscreen ones. "It looked like a great kiss."

Related: Kirsten Dunst Regrets 'Never' Saying Anything When She Was Called 'Girly-Girl' on Spider-Man Set

Dunst and Maguire appeared as MJ and Peter Parker/Spider-Man, respectively, in Spider-Man and its two sequels, Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007), while Maguire also reprised his version of the character in 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home.

As for Dunst, she previously said she's not opposed to reprising her role as MJ in any potential additional Spider-Man movies, during a November 2021 interview with Variety.

"I would do it. Why not? That would be fun," she said. "I would never say no to something like that."

The Civil War actress went on to joke, "I'd be old MJ at this point with little Spidey babies."

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