Kirsten Dunst’s Earliest Work Put Her In Double Trouble
Kirsten Dunst starred in commercials for the board games Trouble, Double Trouble, and the amazing Back Off! Buzzard, which has to be seen to be believed.
When you think of Kirsten Dunst’s earliest works, you probably think of her appearance as the eternally-young Claudia in Interview with The Vampire. Those with more knowledge of her acting career might know that, in the previous year, she appeared in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the TV show Sisters, and the TV movie Darkness Before Dawn. However, the future Hollywood star got her start doing commercials — and one of her earliest was for the board game Trouble and its never-as-popular derivative, Double Trouble.
Of course, even as a gimmicky clone of other games that came before it, it’s hard to blame the young Kirsten Dunst for showing such enthusiasm at the game. Variations on the four-player game have existed since at least the 2nd century BC, and even the world’s oldest game for which we know the rules (the two-player Royal Game of Ur, circa 2500 BC) has similar mechanics. So, the game is fun enough to have some staying power — and has the power to launch Hollywood careers as well.
In the commercial, the young, almost unrecognizable Kirsten Dunst gets extremely excited about everyone’s third-favorite ripoff of Parcheesi, Milton Bradley’s Trouble. The commercial features quick cuts of her smiling as she pushes the game’s trademarked Pop-O-Matic dice roller, which is the one gimmick separating the game from Sorry, Aggravation, and Ludo. The commercial ends with a brief blurb about the game Double Trouble, which has two Pop-O-Matics, possibly making it twice as different from those games.
This isn’t the only board game commercial that the young Kirsten Dunst appeared in, either. She also appeared in a commercial for the long-forgotten 1990 board game Back Off! Buzzard, a game that features a large plastic buzzard that’s designed to pick up your piece if it’s in the wrong place at the wrong time. Rather than smiling and laughing, this commercial featured Kirsten Dunst screaming in abject terror at the no-doubt horrific fate her character will face at the talons of the colossal bird.
Other commercials featuring the future Spider-Man actress include one for the pants-wetting baby doll toy Baby Uh Oh!, an ad for a different, non-pants-wetting doll Baby Dolly Surprise, an ad for Pillsbury Microwave Side Dishes, and an ad for the cereal Kix. Kirsten Dunst also appeared in a “12 Days of Christmas” themed commercial for Crayola Crayons.
Of course, these commercials served as merely a stepping stone for Kirsten Dunst’s rise to Hollywood stardom. Along with playing Mary Jane Watson in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy (and possibly in the upcoming Secret Wars), she would also appear in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Melancholia, Marie Antoinette, The Virgin Suicides, and Hidden Figures. She also appeared in the 1995 film Jumanji as Judy Shepherd — a role that she is rumored to return to in the upcoming Jumanji 4.
Despite the rumors about her reprising old roles, the only future project that Kirsten Dunst is confirmed to be involved in is an action film called Civil War.
